The creation of the world brings with it such grandeur, such promise of eternal blessing. But alas, in record time, the situation deteriorates into crisis and catastrophe.



Adam and Chava sin and are banished from Gan Eden. Kayin murders Hevel and is branded for life. And then things get so bad that Hashem regrets having started the whole thing in the first place, and He decides to flush it all down the drain, except for Noach and his family.



What went wrong, folks?



A pasuk in our parsha (6:11) tries to tell us: "Vah'tishachet ha-aretz lifnei haElokim, vahit'malay ha-aretz chamas." - "And the Earth was corrupted before G-d and filled with violence."



Our Sages say that stealing, immorality and idolatry were the principal crimes that doomed the world. But the Gemara (Sanhedrin 108) concludes, "It was robbery that sealed their fate."



Now, as bad as theft is, why should that lead to world-wide destruction? Is it really worse than murder, or idol worship or adultery?



The Kli Yakar focuses on the phrase "lifnei haElokim" and says it refers not to G-d, but to judges. "People would steal less than a p'ruta (a penny) - which was legally unclaimable - and the judges could do nothing to protect the tearful downtrodden citizens."



In other words, despicable people would find loopholes in the law and steal from others within the legal framework, and nobody could - or would - stop them. Guilty parties would be freed "on a technicality," or be deemed too insignificant to bother with, and so justice was denied and degraded until there was no hope.



This world is not perfect, yet it has the potential to be perfect. All the tools and ingredients are here. We may make mistakes, but we have the ability to correct them, by creating courts and laws and judges to restore freedom and fairness when they are compromised. But when the law itself gives no redress, when the judges themselves become part of the problem, there is nowhere to turn. Man self-destructs and chaos results. Perhaps it is no coincidence that hsitory's two worst stock market crashes (1929 and 1987) occurred the week of parshat Noach and that the interval between them was 58 years, gematria for Noach.



Let's build a better, more honest society. It sure beats having to build an Ark!