Noach 6:13 · unit 2

TT #8 · Parashas Noach · First Aliyah · Passuk 6:13

The Complete Passuk

וַיֹּ֨אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֜ים לְנֹ֗חַ קֵ֤ץ כׇּל־בָּשָׂר֙ בָּ֣א לְפָנַ֔י כִּֽי־מָלְאָ֥ה הָאָ֛רֶץ חָמָ֖ס מִפְּנֵיהֶ֑ם וְהִנְנִ֥י מַשְׁחִיתָ֖ם אֶת־הָאָֽרֶץ׃

God said to Noach: “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.”

Chabad.org — 6:13

Source Citation

Torah Temimah points to the baraita describing the method of their robbery (Sanhedrin 108a / Yerushalmi parallels).

Sefaria — Sanhedrin 108a

E-Daf image — Sanhedrin 108a (size=3)

Core Text of Chazal

Core Text
מַה הָיוּ חוֹמְסִין? בַּר נַשׁ הֲוָה נָפֵיק וְטָעֵין קוּפָּה מְלֵאָה תּוּרְמְסִין, וְהָיוּ מִתְכַּוְּנִין וְגוֹמְלִין פָּחוֹת פָּחוֹת מִשְּׁוֵה פְּרוּטָה — דָּבָר שֶׁאֵינוֹ יוֹצֵא בַּדַּיָּנִים.

English: What did they rob? A man would go out carrying a basket full of lupines, and they would deliberately take less than the value of a perutah each time — an amount that does not come before the judges.

On the daf / in context: The generation practiced a form of “legal” theft: each individual theft was below the monetary threshold that a court would adjudicate, yet the cumulative effect emptied the victim’s property. This illustrates the insidious nature of their chamas.

Type of Learning

Custom (narrative illustration of the practical form of the sin of chamas).

What Is Learned

The robbery of the generation of the Flood was calculated to stay below the legal threshold of a perutah so that no court could intervene, yet it still constituted the decisive chamas that sealed their decree.