Divrei Breishis
Accomplishment
The world before the Mabul holds a fascination for us today. From the few posukim in the Chumash and their corresponding midrashim (See for example Breishis Rabbah 36:1), we can perceive a faint outline of those days when the earth was in its pristine glory. Certainly, Chazal’s descriptions of the people themselves stir our imaginations.
Think of their world. The weather itself is a delight, with every morning the beginning of a glorious spring day. Contrast it to today, where we must plow enormous resources into making the seasons livable. Between galoshes, frost bite, suntan lotion, snow tires, and the electric bill (not to mention hurricanes, earthquakes, and monsoons), we are forced to invest large chunks of our precious olam hazeh into literally battling the elements.
Think also of a world in which people thrive for centuries in perfect health. In fact, instead of weakening with age, they only become bigger and stronger. Ordinary people can uproot full-grown cedar trees. The brawniest animals are like fleas to them. "Physical suffering" is not in their dictionary. They are able to work at full mental and physical strength for hundreds of years. What’s more, since women could conceive and give birth on the same day, each person could have had thousands of children and even millions of great-grandchildren, as the Torah mentions over and over in Chapter 5: "and he gave birth to sons and daughters." Today, can we think of one family without r"l at least one nebbuch situation? Between baby vaccinations, sick days, health clubs, fad diets, HMOs, and everywhere in between, we are virtual slaves to our fragile rinky-dink bodies. And even if a person manages to reach his second half-century with his body somewhat intact, he must sadly witness its self-destruction, with the onset of old age. Finally, he has mentally matured, but his weakening body, then his decaying mind, imprison him.
Think of a world in which people must work one year in forty. Thirty-nine years of vacation in a row! Compare that to "The business of America is business." Between career-oriented education programs, resumes, overtime and weekend hours, and all the other various agonies of the rat race, we live what we sadly admit in the Yomim Noraim tefillos: "With a man’s life, he earns his bread."
In sum, think of a world filled with people freed from nearly all the drudgeries that drag us into mediocrity. With their minds and bodies ready and able to build and form for pleasant centuries on end, what an amazing civilization they must have erected! Ours is puny next to theirs.
So why do we possess practically no memoirs of this fantastic world? What’s more, when we read about their destruction in next week’s parsha, we feel no sympathy for them. Not a bit. We, who live in a world where vehement protestors surround the prison during every criminal’s execution, cannot emote at all for the mass death of what must have been billions of people, each one so great that if he or she were alive today, he or she would easily sweep the Olympics and the Nobel prizes.
The answer is simple. Those incredible people chose to ignore that all their tremendous gifts were given to them for a greater purpose – to come closer to Hashem. Instead, they chose to corrupt their minds into an evil state of "rok rah kol hayom" (6:5) – they did not strive for spiritual greatness, but served only their selfish physical pleasures.
By ignoring the Dor HaMabul, and by implanting in us an utter lack of sympathy for them, Hashem is telling us a powerful lesson: Any accomplishment – no matter how magnificent -- that does not have as its driving force a desire for a closer relationship with the A-mighty, will lead to nothing.
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From the few clues that Chazal do leave us, other lessons can be deduced. For example, we are briefly introduced to a number of Kayin’s descendants in posukim 4:17-22. Two consistent patterns emerge. First, Kayin builds the city of Chanoch. Urban living means a division of labor, a major improvement over pioneer-style self-sufficiency; specializations in labor create greater efficiency. Yaval founded commerce (according to Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch’s translation); Yuval, the arts; and Tuval Kayin, the sciences. Nothing comparable is mentioned about Sheis and his descendants. Second, with the possible exception of Na’ama, these people were reshaim. Rav Hirsch sees this meaning from the names of Irad ("wildness") and Mechuyael/Mechiyael ("G-dliness is extinguished"/"he extinguished G-dliness"). What is the message from these two patterns?
HaRav Avigdor Miller zt"l says that the Torah is telling us a fundamental axiom of this world: the wicked will prosper materially, more than the righteous. In those days, the tzadikkim were Sheis and his family. They were forced to watch Kayin and his family excel in all areas of human endeavor.
This phenomenon continues throughout history. Except for a brief few years at the end of Dovid Hamelech’s reign and the beginning of Shlomo’s, the most righteous people have always been at the bottom of the physical world.
Why? This world is full of tests, says the Mesillas Yesharim. This test here is quite straightforward: when the tzaddik sees the rasha succeeding, will he become jealous and lose some of his tzidkus?
Perhaps this concept will be comforting the next time you are passed over for promotion in favor of some high-school dropout named Frank. As Frank then turns around and demotes you, you can console yourself with: This is how this world is supposed to be!