Ten Generations, Ten Chances: The Maharal on the Flood

The Mishnah lists “ten generations from Adam to Noach” and explains that this count demonstrates Hashem’s patience: generation after generation continued to provoke Him, yet only after ten generations did the Flood come.

Immediately afterward, the Mishnah lists another ten generations, from Noach to Avraham. This time, however, there is no second Flood. Instead, Avraham appears and “received the reward of them all.” The two sequences of generations are structurally similar, yet they end very differently. According to the Maharal, in his commentary on Pirkei Avot, Derech Chaim, this contrast is the key to understanding the difference between Noach and Avraham.

Ten Generations, Two Different Outcomes

The ten generations were ten missed opportunities for repair: perhaps this generation would finally become righteous. As long as the full count had not yet been completed, there was still room to wait and see whether the next generation would repent. But after Hashem had given ten opportunities, all of which were squandered, the opposite of Avraham’s ten tests, which he passed, there was no choice but to bring the Flood and begin again.

With the ten generations from Noach to Avraham, however, Hashem was waiting for something different. After the Flood, He was no longer waiting for all of humanity to repent. He was waiting for one individual with the ability to repair humanity. The waiting was for someone worthy of that role, and that person was, of course, Avraham Avinu.

Noach was worthy of being saved, but Avraham built the foundation for repair. He established the Jewish people, who from then until today have continued to follow the path of Hashem.

The situation in Noach’s generation was so severe that there were not even ten righteous people. Noach was a righteous and wholehearted man, but to save an entire community from destruction, at least ten righteous people are needed, as Avraham later demonstrates in his prayer for Sodom. At the time of the Flood, even that minimum did not exist, and humanity was therefore deserving of destruction.

For this reason Avraham is described as receiving the reward of all ten generations. He created a path of repair. He gathered together all the good that had existed throughout those generations and transformed it into a way of life that could preserve that good and transmit it to future generations.

Noach, by contrast, although righteous, did not bring lasting benefit to the people of his generation or to those who came after him. He carried his righteousness with him, but did not turn it into a legacy.

Avraham Built the Roots for Future Generations

Why, though, did the generations closest to the beginning of creation deteriorate so badly?

The Maharal offers the analogy of a tree whose branches are larger than its roots. Such a tree cannot sustain itself. The earliest generations possessed great qualities, but the foundation supporting those qualities was not sufficiently complete.

To create lasting good in the world, one must establish a foundation, a path, and a method. One must know how to instruct one’s children and transmit that way of life to the next generation. This is what Avraham Avinu accomplished. He became a root for his descendants, and therefore the tree that is the Jewish people has endured for so many generations because it has deep roots.

Adam, Noach, and Avraham: Three Stages of Human Development

The Maharal compares Adam, Noach, and Avraham to three levels: tzelem, form, and body.

The body is the physical foundation of the human being. Form is the defining principle through which the body becomes a living, rational human being. Above these is the level of tzelem Elokim, the Divine image, which expresses an additional and higher dimension of humanity.

The Maharal writes: “Below this level is the level of form. This is not the tzelem, but rather the true form through which man is a living, speaking being. Below this level is the body of man. These are the three levels.”

Adam HaRishon was created in the Divine image. He possessed an extraordinarily high level, but the levels of form and body were not yet complete, and therefore his exalted state did not endure.

Noach added the level of form. As the Maharal explains: “Afterward, Noach attained the level of form. This is evident from the fact that Noach is called ‘a man of the earth,’ because ‘man’ represents form, and Noach is called ‘a man of the earth,’ while the earth represents matter.”

Yet Noach still did not represent the complete human being, because the level of the body was still lacking. “Afterward came Avraham, and he possessed the level of the body in perfection.”

When a person possesses both the level of the body and the level of form, the Divine image can then be expressed fully: “When man is complete in terms of his physical body, which is considered the foundation and the essential base, he then receives the level of form in its fullness... and receives the splendor of the Divine image.”

The Maharal adds that the numerical value of the name Avraham is 248, corresponding to the 248 limbs of the human body. Avraham sanctified his body and exercised mastery over all 248 of his limbs. This is also why he was commanded to perform circumcision, creating a body fully dedicated to the service of Hashem.

With Avraham, the physical foundation itself reached completion, allowing the levels of form and Divine image to be built upon it. This is why he is compared to a tree whose roots are more numerous and stronger than its branches.

The Flood, according to this framework, was one stage in the development of humanity’s form, preparing the way for the next stage, the development of the body through Avraham. From that point onward, the Divine image could continue to be transmitted from generation to generation, finding expression in the life of the Torah-observant Jew.