There is a puzzling line in the Torah that most people skim right over. Before the flood, the psukim say that “all flesh had corrupted its ways.” Rashi explains this includes the animals. They were mating across species. That raises a difficult question. How can animals, who do not have bechirah, become corrupt in a moral sense? And what does it mean that they were punished along with mankind?

In this episode I explore how Rashi and the Midrash frame the corruption of the generation. The psukim describe a world filled with cruelty, lawlessness, and immorality. According to Chazal the animals mirrored that corruption, but not because of any moral choice on their part. The midrash hints to a deeper relationship between human behavior and the natural world. What happens to the world when society reaches a point where even animals imitate the breakdown around them?

I also look at the command that both humans and animals refrain from mating on the tevah. Why would animals be included in that restriction? What lesson is the midrash trying to reveal by saying that they earned merit for their behavior in the ark?

By reading the midrash literally rather than dismissing it as impossible, a new idea becomes visible. Human morality shapes the world around us in ways we rarely consider.

World of Medrash uncovers the hidden structure beneath familiar stories and reveals how Rashi and the Midrash bring the Chumash to life in unexpected ways.