MISHNAH VOT 5:2: “AVRAHAM RECEIVED THE REWARD OF THEM ALL”
משנהמסכת אבות פרק ה
משנהב
[*] עשרה דורות מאדם עד נח להודיע כמה ארךאפים לפניו שכל הדורות היו מכעיסין ובאין עד שהביא עליהם את מי המבול עשרה דורותמנח עד אברהם להודיע כמה ארך אפים לפניו שכל הדורות היו מכעיסין ובאין עד שבאאברהם וקבל עליו שכר כולם
[There were] ten generations from Adam to Noah, in order to make knownwhat long-suffering He is; for all those generations kept on provoking Him,until He brought upon them the waters of the flood. [There were] tengenerations from Noah to Abraham, in order to make known what long-suffering Heis; for all those generations kept on provoking Him, until Abraham, came andreceived the reward of all of them.
Why did Avraham “receive the reward of all of them”? Why wasn’t itsufficient for him to receive his own reward? Perhaps the Mishnah is predicatedupon the assumption that every human being, in Hashem’s image, exists in orderto enhance His world through acts of righteousness. Conversely, evil behavior contributesto the destruction of His world. Each generation between Adam and Noachcontributed to the world’s ultimate destruction through the Flood. The subsequent ten generations, through theirevil behaviors, likewise recommenced this process of destroying God’s world. Avraham,by becoming the paradigm of chesed, by stressing the absolute value of theindividual, and by modelling the concept of total commitment to God’s will,succeeded in neutralizing the damage caused by the previous ten generations. Althoughfollowing the Flood, Hashem promised that “I will never again destroy all lifeas I have done [8:21] ,”, humanity nevertheless remained able to self-destruct. Avraham thus saved humanity from annihilation.Therefore, he merited receiving the reward that Hashem would have granted theprevious generations had they committed themselves to acts of righteousness.
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