Man’s Arrogance

The end of Parshat בראשית has a strange Pasuk. The Torah tells us about what Hashem was thinking. It says, ויתעצב אל ליבו, that He was said in His heart. The קול התורה of Rabbi Munk, explains that Hashem was disappointed with man’s behavior. He was given free will and Hashem assumed that man would use that free will to make the correct moral and ethical choices. Hashem now realizes that He needs to amend His approach to make it abundantly clear that man was incapable of making the right choices, unless the consequences of these bad choices was made clear. Every human being needed to be given at least a minimal set of laws to live by for his own benefit, and for the benefit of society. These laws had to be given by Hashem, Himself. If they were made up by man, they were likely to get side tracked and justify oppressive, discriminatory, or immoral laws. If such power were given to man, he might forget to place G-d as the focal point of such laws. This is what we are dealing with today. Man has become so arrogant to believe that he is capable of being more moral than G-d. The Torah foresaw all of this, and this is why, ויתעצב אל לבו, that Hashem was disappointed.