Just as the Days of Noah...

This week's Torah Portion, Noach (Noah) has been Genesis 6:9-11:32 and Jewish believers and Lovers of Isreal are studying this portion, trying to plumb the depths of it. Lately, I've been enjoying the free online commentaries of Aish.com. It never fails when I read these to remember something our Messiah said or something Paul said and so on. This week it was the above quote from the famous discourse Adonai Yeshua delivered when his disciples asked him about the Temple:

But of that day and hour knoweth no one,

 no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

But just as the days of Noah,

so shall be also the Presence of the Son of man .

Matthew 24:26,27

Here are portions of the article I read called "The Sin of the Flood Generation" and "The Relation to Theft": (Please be advised the subject matter includes reproductive issues, parental supervision may be warranted)

"THE SIN OF THE FLOOD GENERATION

The Midrash (ancient Jewish commentary) informs us that the sin of the flood generation was pouring out their seed in vain. The intense joy and pleasure programmed by God into the romantic/sexual relationship was a direct consequence of its association with the creation of life. A relationship that provides the emotional cement that ensures the endurance of the relationship needed to nurture human life deserves to be infused with all the joy and pleasure inherent in life itself.

To take only the pleasure and joy inherent in this relationship and cast aside the creation of life is an act of spiritual perversion. All these Torah sources that associate the Flood with sexual perversity are expressing a single common thesis; the people of the flood generation established romantic/sexual relationships solely for the intense physical/psychological gratification they offer. As far as making use of the powerful bonds created by such relationships to create and nurture new life, they felt that the less people there were in the world, the more resources and therefore the more enjoyment was available per person.

As the sexual/romantic relationship became separated from the ideas of procreation and nurturing, it ceased to matter whether such relationships were heterosexual, or whether they violated the human taboos against cohabitation with close blood relatives. Measured purely in terms of pleasure and joy there is no reason to prefer any particular romantic relationship over any other. The cultural bias towards heterosexuality and the taboos against cohabitation with close relatives are based on the association between romance and procreation. When you separate romance from procreation the Divine energy contained in the romantic bond is considered "spilled out in vain."

The pre-flood world is incredibly reminiscent of the orientation of our own society towards human sexuality. We are also focused on the reduced quality of life associated with large numbers of children; as a society we are marrying in steadily decreasing numbers increasingly later in life, and having fewer and fewer children. As our social focus on bearing and rearing children lessens, our social tolerance and even positive advocacy of relationships that are defined by the Torah as deviant abominations steadily increases. Sexual orientation becomes a matter of individual taste and is entirely separated from moral considerations.

THE RELATION TO THEFT

To appreciate the influence that the bringing of sacrifices (Noah's post-flood) can have on all this, we must next consider the issue of theft. The Talmud (Sanhedrin, 108a) states that the sin that prompted God to finalize the edict of the Flood was the crime of theft, a total lack of appreciation of the sanctity of what belongs to another. How does the sin of theft relate to the lack of sexual mores?

(Talmud Brochot, 35b): R' Chanina taught; whoever takes enjoyment from the world without reciting a blessing ... steals from God and from Israel. Every enjoyment the world offers is actually a Divine blessing. Accepting enjoyment by reciting a blessing before the taking renders the taking permissible.

To comprehend the thesis behind this passage of Talmud we have only to consult our 'cup' image once again. (See full article) The acknowledgment of the blessing is the cup, or container into which Divine blessing can be poured. Taking enjoyment without offering acknowledgment amounts to theft because it deprives God of the cup or container in which He can pour His blessings.

Harnessing the happiness afforded by romantic relationships to produce more human beings is the spiritual equivalent of reciting a blessing. In the consummation of fruitful relationships there is recognition of the source and purpose of the joy of life, the same sort of recognition that is the essence of all the blessings we recite. The consumption of romantic relationships in the way God intended has the marvelous effect of converting human pleasure into a source of Divine blessing."

I have to agree with Rabbi Noson Weisz, "The pre-flood world is incredibly reminiscent of the orientation of our own society towards human sexuality. " We are near His return, "watch and pray that you enter not into tempatation!"

You can read the full article and others at: http://www.aish.com/tp/i/m/48909627.html