זה ספר, the word ספר here does not mean “book,” but is derived from the verb ספור, “to count.” The Torah introduces an account of events, providing numbers in order to make these events more intelligible. The objective is to provide us with the knowledge of how many years elapsed from the creation of Adam to the deluge. Kayin and Hevel are not mentioned again. Hevel is not mentioned seeing he left no offspring, whereas Kayin is not mentioned because none of his offspring survived the deluge. Mankind is therefore traced back only to Sheth. ביום ברא אלוקים אדם בדמות אלוקים עשה אותו, the Torah reminds us that on the day G’d created man He made him possessing divine qualities like the angels, i.e. He implanted in man a soul of celestial proportions. If man degraded himself by not observing his Creator’s commandments, the blame cannot be laid at the doorstep of his Creator. The emphasis on man being created male and female (verse 2) is to allude to the fact that the female had seduced Adam not to obey his Creator.

זכר ונקבה...ויברך אותם, the blessing, mentioned already in 1,28 consisted of his ability to reproduce, fill the earth and conquer it. If man was equipped to conquer others, he must certainly be able to conquer the evil urge within himself.

ויקרא את שמם ארם ביום הבראם, a reference to 1,26 when G’d had announced His intention to create Adam, saying נעשה אדם בצלמנו, G’d’s purpose in creating him was that he be an אדם, and not another species of בהמה or חיה. Woman too, is included in the description and definition of the word אדם. Proof that woman was included in that term אדם is the plural mode of G’d’s original announcement, uttered before Chavah had been separated from Adam’s body (1,26) וירדו בדגת הים וגו', “they shall rule over the fish of the sea, etc.” This name אדם distinguishes the human species from all other mammals, for, although his body too has been formed from the earth, he possesses a divine soul which originated in heaven. If he allows himself to be drawn by the spiritually negative gravitational pull exerted by the material part his body consists of, he is considered as if no better than אדמה, as if the spiritual soul inside of him had been neutralised. This is exactly what the descendants of Kayin had become guilty of, and this is why the Torah does not bother to enumerate them in this chapter.

ויחי ארם, after Adam had lived on earth for 130 years, he begat a son in his image and in his form, as we have explained already. (1,26 where this term has been explained) This was possible now, since Adam, after having completed his penitence had become a thoroughly good person. It is possible to understand the word כדמותו as referring to Adam’s body reflecting the quality of his soul, whereas the meaning of the word בצלמו refers to his intellectual qualities. After he had done תשובה, Adam’s intellectual qualities also had fully recovered from the negative fallout they had experienced as a result of his sin. It is also possible that he did not recover these faculties to the full until the last tenth of his life on earth, seeing that the prophet Isaiah 65,20 describes people in the times of the Messiah as remaining adolescent until they attain the age of 100. Adam’s offspring also might have been in an adolescent state until they came of age at about 100 years old, and that is why they did not marry until then. Once they had matured both physically and mentally, they could be expected to reproduce so that their children could be described as being בצלמיהם בדמותיהם, reflecting the good qualities of their respective parents. Our sages (Eyruvin 18) say that during all these 130 years that Adam had lived the life of a bachelor he was generating all kinds of spirits, demons, and the like, (whenever he had a nocturnal seminal emission, these emissions did not go to waste). The sages derive this from the emphasis in our verse that finally Adam “begat in his image in his form,” i.e. up until then he had involuntarily begotten inferior beings. [the Talmud implies criticism of Adam, who, though he flagellated himself in this manner, did not fulfill the commandment to be fruitful during those years. Rabbeinu Nissim, in the name of Rabbi Sherirah gaon, writes G’d had indicated to him at the time of his sin that henceforth his children, if any, would not be true reproductions, i.e. that he just like women sometimes who suffer from giving birth to malformed beings, would produce such malformed creatures. The matter is discussed in Niddah 24. Rabbi Yehudah in the name of Shemuel says that when a woman gives birth to a malformed being with wings, she is still considered as ritually as impure as if she had given birth to a normal human being. While Adam was in a state of disgrace he was unable to sire regular human beings, but grotesque looking creatures with ugly faces, resembling demons. We know that people are in the habit of referring to such malformed human specimens as demons and ghosts. When Adam regained his former good standing in the eyes of G’d, and He lifted the curse from him, he was once more able to father children that could be described as בדמותו כצלמו, in his image.

ויהיו ימי אדם, it appears that all the people mentioned prior to Noach, whose lifespan is given by the Torah, were included in the ones described as being born בדמותו כצלמו, as reflecting the qualities expected of a human being in the true sense of the word, whereas their brothers and sisters did not. This is why they were wiped out during the deluge. It is possible that the long lives of the people mentioned in this list was a standard set by G’d at the time, and shared by their contemporaries, their siblings. On the other hand, it is possible that only the select list mentioned by the Torah enjoyed such an exceedingly long life on earth. Perhaps the reason G’d granted those generations such long lives may have been to enable them to study phenomena over a long period of time and to record the results of their observations for posterity. A lifespan of 70 years as we know it today is simply not long enough to accumulate this type of knowledge. Once these basic data had become known and recorded, later generations could study them out of books, making it unnecessary for them to live for so many years. The outstanding scholar Rabbi Moses Maimonides wrote in his Moreh Nevuchim 2,47 that only the men mentioned by name in our chapter lived to such an old age. He goes on to write that exceptional sizes, years, and numbers mentioned in the Bible are all just that i.e. exceptional. They do not purport to describe the norms in the time or environment during which such exceptions occurred. There were varying sets of circumstances which accounted for these exceptions.

ויהיו כל ימי אדם, the reason why the Torah summed up once more the total of the number of years Adam lived since his creation, although anyone who is not a simpleton could have figured this out from the data already provided by the Torah, is in order that the scribe should not make a mistake. Once both the individual numbers and the sum total is provided one can double check the total and no mistake will be made. When the number of the soldiers in the army of Israel is recorded, an individual number being supplied for each tribe, the Torah nonetheless troubles itself to spell out the grand total of all these numbers combined. Compare (Numbers 1,46 as well as 26,51).

ויתהלך, similar to Genesis 48,15 ויתהלכו אבותי לפניו, “before Whom my forefathers walked.” The wording means that Chanoch channeled all his love and desire into fulfilling the will of G’d, and he acquired a deep understanding of the ways of his Creator already at the age of 65. For the remaining 300 years of his life on earth he walked with G’d. In spite of this, he did not neglect his duties of producing offspring. As a result of his ever more profound study of theological matters he came to despise his body, so that when he no longer performed the commandment of being fruitful and multiplying, G’d decided that he had served his purpose on earth, and He removed him from the earth even though he had lived only less than half a normal lifespan. ואיננו כי לקח אותו אלוקים, the word ואיננו is meant to convey that he did not die from sickness, nor did he suffer pains before he died. His contemporaries had not considered his impending death as even a remote possibility, so that they were totally unprepared for it. They did not notice his absence until he had actually died. When the Torah employs the unusual phrase כי לקח אותו אלוקים, this is an allusion to the fact that G’d removed his soul to the heavenly regions. We have the same expression in Psalms 73,24 ואחר כבוד תקחני, “You took me toward honour.” Similar uses of the expression occur in Psalms 49,16 כי יקחני סלה, the thrust of the word לקח אלוקים being that instead of death leading to gehinnom, the party described as subject to G’d taking him, is transported by G’d immediately to his life in the hereafter. On the other hand, the expression cannot be explained in this fashion in Ezekiel 24,16 הנני לוקח את מחמד עיניך במגפה, “see I shall take from you the darling of your eyes, by the plague.” Even though the verse is introduced by the word הנני which always introduces something constructive, positive, and which might mislead the reader into thinking that what follows will be something good, something pleasant, the word במגפה, by the plague, makes it plain that being deprived of his wife is not presented by G’d as a positive experience for the prophet. It implies that not only will the prophet suffer mentally, but his wife will suffer physically. Also in Exodus 21,35 when the expression כי יגוף (same root) is used it is followed by the words ומת, that the party who has been gored will die as a result of such a goring. All this proves that מגפה is descriptive of a painful disease, or injury. On the other hand, it is a sudden affliction, whether in the form of a disease or assault by the horns of an ox. People who have led blameless lives do not experience death throes, but die without experiencing such painful afflictions. By contrast, the popular understanding of the departure from earth of both Chanoch and the prophet Elijah, is that G’d transferred them to their afterlife, Gan Eden, complete with their bodies. Though a widespread popular perception, it is shared by some of our sages (Derech Eretz zuttah 1,9 as well as a remark in Bereshit Rabbah 25) These people imagine both Chanoch and Elijah as leading the kind of idyllic life in Gan Eden that Adam had enjoyed briefly before he sinned. They are presumed to continue in this fashion until the arrival of the Messiah. We may be allowed to ask why in the story here in chapter 5, the Torah concludes the reference to each individual named with the concluding word: וימת, he died, whereas in chapter 10 when the generations after Noach are enumerated, the Torah does not even bother to mention that these people had died. One answer given is that seeing that the people mentioned here died during the deluge their death had to be mentioned, i.e. that they did not die of natural causes. [this cannot not be correct, as the deluge occurred in the year 1556 and several of the people mentioned in our chapter whose ages at death are given, died earlier than that, including Noach’s grandfather Metushelach, and Lemech, his father, who died during the lifetime of his father Metushelach. Ed.] I believe that the people mentioned in our chapter whose death is reported were righteous people; as a result their death left behind a spiritual void. Not a single one died a violent death during the deluge. This is why the Torah reports their death as a death from natural causes. Only their respective offspring died during the deluge. The people whose life (but not whose death) is recorded in chapter 10 were evil, so that their deaths did not leave behind a spiritual void at all, and their death did not warrant mentioning. Also, seeing that they did not live nearly as long as their antediluvian counterparts, there was nothing special about their dying when they did.

ויקרא את שמו נח, לאמור זה ינחמנו ממעשינו, our sages (Bereshit Rabbah 25,2) say that לא השם הוא המדרש, ולא המדרש הוא השם, that the name נח is not compatible with the allegorical explanation offered by the Midrash, neither is the Midrash compatible with the name נח. Lemech should not have related the name נח to נחמה, but should have related it to נח זה יניחנו, “this one will bring relief,” as opposed to: “this one will comfort us, i.e. the meaning of the word נחמה. On the other hand, if what he had in mind by naming his son נח, was נחמה, the comfort that he expected or hoped that his son would bring to the world, he should have named him נחמן זה ינחמנו. “this one will bring us comfort, consolation.” The Midrash is absolutely correct. However, if someone finds rest, relief after having experienced troubles, this is in itself his comfort, his consolation. The Hebrew language does not make such fine distinctions when it comes to the names reflecting linguistically accurately what the giver of the name had in mind. When Chanah named her first born son, the one for whom she had prayed in the Tabernacle at Shiloh, שמואל, giving as her reason for this name כי מה' שאלתיו, “for I have borrowed him from the Lord,” she should have called him שאול, if she had taken the words of our Midrash to heart. (Samuel I 1,20) The word שאול means something or someone borrowed. The name שמואל is close enough to make us realise what she had had in mind. In fact Chanah’s thoughts are reflected more accurately in the name שמואל than they would have been in the name שאול. The name שמואל actually contains not only the thought that he has been borrowed, or asked for, but that he had been borrowed, or asked for from G’d. Similar considerations apply to the name יעבץ, derived from עצב, anguish, sadness, (Chronicles I 4,9) His mother mentioned that she named him so because he had been born out of pain. There are more such examples to be found throughout the Bible. According to our sages Lemech must have been a great prophet, for how else could he predict that Noach, his son, would turn out to be a boon to mankind? What did he see or know that caused him to make such a prediction? According to Tanchuma Bereshit 11, people did not know what a plough was and they had to do all their work on the soil by hand. Noach invented the plough, thus becoming a great benefactor of mankind. He trained oxen and donkeys to pull a ploughshare, thus easing the labour the farmers had to perform. This was the relief and consolation he provided for all of the human species. When Lemech referred to ממעשי ידינו, “from what we had to do with our hands,” he meant that henceforth due to his son, animals could perform some of the labour which, up until then had been performed by each farmer literally with his own hands. [In accepting this interpretation, we must assume that the name Noach was not bestowed on Noach at birth. Ed.] The word מעשה as applying to working one’s field, appears in Judges 19,16 ממעשהו מן השדה, “from his work, from the field.” Even though the word מעשה can apply to any kind of work, it is used in the main in connection with work in the field. ומעצבון ידינו, from the frustration we have been experiencing over the work of our hands 'אשר אררה ה, which the Lord had cursed. Lemech referred to 3,17 where G’d had told Adam that as a result of his having listened to his wife, the earth would be cursed and he would have to eat his bread only after experiencing עצבון. In spite of Noach having invented the plough, people after him continued to work very hard to gain their livelihood through tilling the soil. However, he had definitely made their chores easier due to his clever invention. According to the plain meaning of the text, when Lemech had said זה ינחמנו, he had certainly not expressed a prophetic vision with these words, but he had called Noach by that name as a sort of prayer, seeing in his birth a special blessing. [perhaps the fact that he had not become a father until he was 182 years old had something to do with this. Everyone else mentioned in the chapter fathered a son at a much younger age. Ed.] When Rachel gave birth to Joseph, she called him Joseph as a good omen, saying that she named him thus so that G’d might give her another son. (Genesis 30,24). Moses recorded, at the command of G’d, all these vital statistics of the people from Adam until Noach, in order that we, who have inherited the Torah, should know that the universe has not always existed but was created by G’d, an important fact for every human being to be aware of.

ויהי נח בן חמש מאות שנה, we do not know why Noach waited for such a long time to sire children, seeing that all the generations who had preceded him generally sired children at about the age of 100. It appears that the early generations did not chase after women during their youth and did not feel the need to mate and settle down until they had become close to 100 years old. When they did marry, their main concern was to leave offspring behind them, not to indulge their libido. They were aware according to what they had observed that they had a long lifespan at their disposal. This belief was reinforced by their confidence that their lifestyle was pleasing in the eyes of G’d. Noach, who had observed the corrupt ways of his contemporaries wanted to hold off siring children, because he was afraid that any children of his might also be displeasing in the eyes of G’d. He waited until he was 500 years old when he felt the urgent need to mate with a woman. It is also possible, that he had prophetic insight, i.e. that G’d told him to get married and to sire children. These children were good, but Cham was not as good as his brothers. Noach did not produce daughters. According to Bereshit Rabbah 26,2 G’d had reasoned that in the event that Noach’s children turned out to be wicked, He did not want them to die in the deluge. In the event they should turn out to be good people, G’d’ did not want Noach to have to construct separate cabins for all of them in the ark so that they could enjoy their privacy. G’d therefore made Noach sterile until he reached the age of 500. According to the view of Rabbi Eleazar, son of Rabbi Yossi Haglili, even Yaphet, Noach’s eldest, was not quite 100 years old when the deluge began and people under 100 years of age were not considered culpable for their deeds in those times.

ויולד נח את שם, את חם, ואת יפת, in the opinion of our sages (Sanhedrin 69) Yaphet was the oldest. They derived this from Genesis 11,10 where the Torah writes ויהי שם בן מאה שנה ויולד את ארפחשד שנתים אחר המבול, “Shem was 100 tears old when he begat Arpachshad 2 years after the deluge.” If Shem had been the eldest, he would have been 100 years old already at the end of or during the deluge, not 2 years later. We think that Shem was born during Noach’s 501st year, allowing for the fact that the year was a leap year, and his wife had become pregnant when Noach married her when he was 500 years old. The deluge commenced in the 600th year of Noach’s life. As a result, Shem was 99 years old when he entered the ark at the start of the deluge. After the deluge he was only 100 years old. How could the Torah describe him as 100 years old 2 years after the deluge? We must therefore conclude that Yaphet was the eldest. This is also how we must understand Genesis 10,21 אחי יפת הגדול, “the brother of Yaphet, the senior.” Even though our sages have arrived at this conclusion, we must wonder why, every time, the three brothers are mentioned together, Shem is always mentioned as the first one. Surely, this suggests that Shem was the oldest. The words “2 years after the deluge,” may be understood as “2 years after the beginning of the deluge.” At that time Shem would have been 99 years old as we have mentioned already. When the Torah speaks of his son being born 2 years after the deluge, we must understand this as at the beginning of the second year after the deluge.