Avos 5:2

בס׳ד

אבות ה:ב

Ten are the generations stretching from Adam till Noakh. This shows how patient He is, for each generation increased His anger until He brought the Flood upon them! Ten are the generations from Noakh till Avraham. This shows how patient He is, for each generation increased His anger until Avraham came and received the reward of all of them.

עֲשָׂרָה דוֹרוֹת מֵאָדָם וְעַד נֹחַ, לְהוֹדִיעַ כַּמָּה אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם לְפָנָיו, שֶׁכָּל הַדּוֹרוֹת הָיוּ מַכְעִיסִין וּבָאִין עַד שֶׁהֵבִיא עֲלֵיהֶם אֶת מֵי הַמַּבּוּל. עֲשָׂרָה דוֹרוֹת מִנֹּחַ וְעַד אַבְרָהָם, לְהוֹדִיעַ כַּמָּה אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם לְפָנָיו, שֶׁכָּל הַדּוֹרוֹת הָיוּ מַכְעִיסִין וּבָאִין, עַד שֶׁבָּא אַבְרָהָם וְקִבֵּל עָלָיו שְׂכַר כֻּלָּם:

        If you want to check the arithmetic, you can find the Torah’s lists of generations from Adam to Noakh in Bereshis 5:1-32, and from Noakh to Avraham Avinu at Bereshis 11:10-26.

        The mishnah has noticed an interesting and puzzling pattern in the Written Torah.  Noakh’s generation comes at the exact midpoint of history between the creation of humanity and the birth of the founder of the Jewish people.  What’s going on here?

        For 10 generations, from the exile of Adam and Havah from Gan Eden till the ultimate degeneration of humanity described in Bereshis 6:1-8, the world was fundamentally “out of whack”.  HaShem had created it, but His principal creation, humanity, seemed beyond his powers to control.  He couldn’t change His creation, so He had to destroy it, but for one family of survivors led by Noakh, who was “a perfect person in relation to the rest of his generation” (Bereshis 6:9). As Rashi points out - his perfection was relative to the general depravity of his times.

        The mishnah doesn’t explain how things got out of control or why HaShem’s only recourse was to destroy the creation.  It stresses only that God stayed His hand from destruction as long as He could. Perhaps an explanation for the timing of His action comes from the number 10 itself.  As we learned in the first mishnah in this chapter, HaShem created His world with 10 Utterances in order to explain the punishment meted out to those who destroy His ten-fold creation. From this perspective, each generation from Adam to Noakh destroyed a distinct aspect of HaShem’s ordered world.  Once the chances for restoring order in creation had been “used up”, HaShem’s only choice was to erase His work and start again.  So He selected the best of what remained - Noakh and his family - and started again from scratch.

        This began another process of 10 generations.  HaShem had promised never again to destroy creation - but how could Noakh’s descendants use their 10 chances to perfect the world created by 10 Utterances rather than destroy it? Apparently, not very well.  The humans who proceeded from Noakh’s generation descended quickly into idolatry and self-glorification.  Take the generation of the Tower of Bavel, who sought to deny the nature of their creation as earth creatures by building a tower that would enable them to dwell in the heavenly order of HaShem.  Once again, HaShem gave humanity a long rope - 10 generations to straighten itself out.

        When the time was up, He did something slightly different.  He left His world in its chaotic state, but chose a new human family, that of Avram and Sarai, to leave the “flood” of idolatry and chart out a new path of absolute obedience to HaShem.  As we learn in the Tosefta to Kiddushin (5:21) and many other places (Bavli Yoma 28b), “Avraham Avinu obeyed all the commandments even before they were given on Sinai”.  In other words, in the tenth generation after Noakh, for the sake of the man who first obeyed the 10 Commandments, HaShem initiated a new stage in the world created by 10 Utterances. This new order would in time give forth a People, Israel, who would make a covenant with HaShem grounded in the 10 Commandments, a covenant through which the world of the 10 Utterances would be brought back to its original intimacy with HaShem.

        So the mention of 10 generations is no accident.  The Torah teaches us to perceive an intimate correspondence between the creation of the world in 10 Utterances, and its ultimate redemption through another 10 Words or Commandments.  When Mashiakh comes - bimherah biyamenu - we will ultimately know how to calculate 10 equal units of time between the calling of Avraham Avinu and the redemption of all creation.  In the meantime, as the gemara says: “Blasted be the bones of those who calculate the moment of Redemption!” (Bavli Sanhedrin 97b).

&&&