The Torah says that before the Flood, “the earth was corrupt before G-d, and the earth was filled with chamas” [Genesis 6:11]. Rashi, the classic commentator, explains that the “corruption” to which it refers were idolatry and sexual immorality, two of the three sins a Jew must give his or her life for rather than commit. Chamas, he tells us, means theft.
Logically, we would assume that the biggest sins were what doomed humanity, but the Talmud says otherwise. “Come and see how great the power of theft is,” teaches Rabbi Yochanan. “The generation of the Flood violated everything, yet their fate was sealed only because they stole” (Sanhedrin 108a).
The theft in question, for that matter, was petty larceny. Not only was it not armed robbery, but they didn’t even take a significant sum! The Midrash describes a man bringing a basket of beans to market. What would happen is that each person passing by would steal only a few beans, less than a perutah, the smallest coin. Thus each person would steal an amount so small that the owner could not sue him for compensation [Bereishis Rabbah 31:5].
While it is true that stealing even the tiniest amount is a crime, Laws of Theft 1:2, there was no recourse. The seller was left penniless, yet the criminals could not be prosecuted.
Why was this worse than idolatry?
Hashem was patient when the sins were against Him. He waited ten generations from Adam to Noach, and even gave that generation 120 years to change its practices while Noah built the Ark in public view. But when we wrong each other, even Yom Kippur doesn’t atone until we make it right with the victim (Yoma 85b). The Gemara also says that repentance is especially hard for those who steal from the public, because they can’t know whom to repay (Bava Kamma 94b).
Worse, they had dismantled society itself. “The world stands on three things,” says the Mishnah: “justice, truth, and peace” (Avos 1:18). A world where theft is legal has no foundation. So the earth that filled with chamas was then filled with water.
Compare the description of those who built the Tower of Babel, found later in our parsha. They openly rebelled against Hashem, which would appear to be a far more serious transgression, yet they were merely scattered, while the generation of the Flood was destroyed. Rashi explains that whereas the generation of the Flood was filled with theft and arguments, the generation of the Dispersal treated each other with love and friendship [11:9].
Ramban adds that theft needs no Torah to recognize and prohibit — everyone knows it’s wrong.
A society can survive idolaters far longer than it can survive universal theft. Honesty in small things isn’t small: it’s what keeps civilization afloat. And so we have to be at least as careful with our obligations towards each other as we are with obligations to Hashem Himself!
Photo Credit: Assorted dried beans at a market in Blantyre, Malawi, by Michaelphoya with CC BY-SA 4.0 license, on Wikimedia Commons.
