Little Things Matter

Rabbie Melanie Aron

October 16, 2004

When I think of the phrase "Super Size It" in connection with the Bible, I think of the story of Noah and the Ark. After all, we are told that Noah lived to be 950 years old and that the boat he built was 450 feet long, the length of the new very large yacht that Larry Ellison is rumored to be buying from Germany. Noah gathered in two pairs, or in some cases seven pairs, of every species of living creature, birds of the sky, animals that walked on the earth, and even the insects, reptiles and amphibians that crawled on the land, that’s not a trivial number of species. Though it rained for 40 days and 40 nights, the earth was covered with water for 601 years, a rather lengthy period.

It would seem that the message of this story is found in large things. But the rabbis of the Talmud take the opposite tack. They ask the question, how did things get so bad? How did it come about that there was total lawlessness and violence, that even the animals of the earth had become corrupted before God? After all it was only ten generations since God had created the world as a place of order and harmony, and said, it was very good. How did things come to this point?

There are two opinions among the rabbis both suggesting that small things, started off all the problems: Ibn Ezra, the famous Torah commentator says, the text tells us, vatishachket haaretz lifnei haelohim, the earth was corrupted before God. What is the import of the words lifnei haelohim, before God? What do those two seemingly extra words add? These words hint that the people began sinning by engaging in transgressions that only God would be privy to. They cursed the deaf and put stumbling blocks before the blind. They reneged on vows they made to themselves, and looked the other way when confronted with evil that required their response. They feared other people and didn’t want to get caught, but they had no yirat Adonai, fear or reverence for God and were unrestrained by conscience when no one was looking. Beginning in this way, they were emboldened, bit by bit, until no boundaries remained, no limitations on their every impulse and eventually chaos ensued.

Midrash Rabbah, one of the later midrashim, offers a different explanation. At first the people did not disobey the law, but found ways to circumvent it. For example, in order for something to legally be considered theft one must take an item valued at more than a perutah. What did they do in Noah’s generation? A storekeeper would come out with a box full of beans. Each person passing by would take only one bean, until all the beans were gone. When the storekeeper went to complain, the judge said, I am sorry but they have stolen such a small sum, it is impossible to prosecute them. In that way people lost faith in their government and began to take the law into their own hands, eventually leading to violence and anarchy.

The rabbis saw the social order as a complex and delicate creation. As our country faces the task of creating civil society in Afghanistan and Iraq and even in the maintenance of our own democracy, we see how important it is that the inhabitants of a country embrace and internalize its laws, acting beyond the letter of the law, and having confidence in the established order. It is in the context of these values, that democratic elections can be held and that they can lead to a smooth and uncontested outcome.