Noach

God Learns About Law

by Alan Dershowitz, J.D.

An important part of the wonder of the Hebrew Bible, and especially of Genesis, is the imperfection of every character in the drama, including the One who plays the leading role. God appears to be an imperfect, learning God, open to mistake, argument, persuasion, and repentance.

When God makes a covenant with Noach after the flood, God promises never again to bring any floods to destroy the world - even though God knows that people will turn bad again. This suggests that God believes God made a mistake and does not want to repeat it. When God saw how evil human beings could be, God had a shock of self-realization: God had created an evil creature in the divine image, so maybe God too has the capacity to do evil - a capacity God must learn to control. Thus God promised never to flood the earth again, because even God needs rules.

After the flood, God does what God should have done before killing everybody: enacts a code of laws with explicit punishments. By doing so, God recognizes that the evil inclinations of human beings could be controlled, at least in part, by law. From now on God would deal with evil in a more calibrated and individualized manner, rather than by indiscriminate destruction. Moreover, God's laws would grow out of the experiences of both human beings and God, rather than mere fiat.

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