“Adonai saw how greatly human wickedness flourished upon the earth and how every plan of its heart focused upon evil daily. Therefore, Adonai regretted making humanity on earth and God’s heart was saddened.”
— Genesis 6:5-6
Upon visiting an empty grocery store last week, I asked the cashier about his day. In response, he sighed and then proceeded to reveal a dispiriting tale. After leaving the register to help a customer locate a hard-to-find-item, he returned to find an impatient customer waiting to check out, because he had forgotten to turn off his register light. As he apologized for the delay, the customer began to berate him mercilessly and even asked for the manager so she could complain about the time she had wasted waiting for him to return.
Nearly sixty minutes later, the episode still clearly troubled him when I strolled up to his register, illustrating the power we have over one another, to help or to hurt.
The prelude to the story of Noah references the unspeakable evil of humanity. The Bible gives no indication of humanity’s crimes, stating only that their hearts bent toward evil at every moment of every day. However, a clue can be found in the succeeding verse, which states, “God’s heart was saddened.”
As we learned from last week’s parashah, each of us is created in the Divine image. What saddens our hearts also saddens God’s heart. When we mistreat ourselves or others… when we fail to apprehend the Divinity that resides within every human… misery ensues, filling us and God with sorrow.
It can be all too easy to forget just how unique and special humans are when we see so many daily, especially when we need something from the people we encounter. But our tradition cautions us that disregarding anyone, including ourselves, represents the path toward ruin. Rather, we must find a way to honor the godliness in everyone, from our loved ones to the cashier at the grocery store.
— Rabbi Josh Knobel