Oct 8, 2026 · 49 min · 13 segments
Could G-d Regret Creation?! Is it even possible for us to raise such a question? Why would Torah commentator Rashi want us to know the question was ever posed?!
So this week's Torah portion we read about creation, Adam and Eve, and the first 10, 10 generations till Noah.
And then the end of the portion is the intro to Noah.
Next week's portion is the portion of Noah.
So God sees that man has become bad, and that man's inclination is negative thoughts all day long.
Verse number six, "[Hebrew] Hashem," and God regrets, or He reconsiders, " [Hebrew]," that He has made man in the land, " [Hebrew] " means, "And His heart became saddened." Rashi, very interestingly, I'm not gonna go through the whole Rashi, but Rashi very interestingly gives two meanings on, "And He was sad." Who was sad? So the first interpretation that Rashi gives is that God made man sad.
In other words, God said, "You guys are not very good, and I'm gonna give you reason to be sad." Then Rashi says, "I'll give another explanation.
Let's look at the more literal meaning of the verse." For some reason, initially Rashi doesn't want to say this, but he says, "You know what? There's problems with my first interpretation 'cause it sounds like it's not exactly consistent with the interpretation of the verse, and therefore I'm gonna give you a second explanation, which is that it was God being sad." And he says that He is sad that He is going to destroy the workmanship of His hand.
He creates the world, and now He is saddened by the fact that He has no choice but to destroy it.
You know what? I took the cup and I forgot to fill it up.
[laughs] Not very efficient.
See, he explains either it means that God is making humanity sad, 'cause He says, "Hey, I've got, I've got reason to make you depressed," or, "I am saddened by the fact that I have to destroy you all." And then he brings out something very interesting, and it's in your books- Um, toward proba- probably on the next page.
Let me see.
Let me put what...
Dean, you pass me your book quickly.
Yeah.
Put it there, and I'll, I'll put...
I'll show you both where it is.
Okay, so we're gonna go from V'zo katavti.
So it's on page 62, like four lines down on that big paragraph.
Okay? I'll, I'll, I'll go through and explain to you what it says there.
Okay? So Rashi says something very interesting.
So this week's Torah portion we read about creation, Adam and Eve, and the first 10, 10 generations till Noah.
And then the end of the portion is the intro to Noah.
Next week's portion is the portion of Noah.
So God sees that man has become bad, and that man's inclination is negative thoughts all day long.
Verse number six, "[Hebrew] Hashem," and God regrets, or He reconsiders, " [Hebrew]," that He has made man in the land, " [Hebrew] " means, "And His heart became saddened." Rashi, very interestingly, I'm not gonna go through the whole Rashi, but Rashi very interestingly gives two meanings on, "And He was sad." Who was sad? So the first interpretation that Rashi gives is that God made man sad.
In other words, God said, "You guys are not very good, and I'm gonna give you reason to be sad." Then Rashi says, "I'll give another explanation.
Let's look at the more literal meaning of the verse." For some reason, initially Rashi doesn't want to say this, but he says, "You know what? There's problems with my first interpretation 'cause it sounds like it's not exactly consistent with the interpretation of the verse, and therefore I'm gonna give you a second explanation, which is that it was God being sad." And he says that He is sad that He is going to destroy the workmanship of His hand.
He creates the world, and now He is saddened by the fact that He has no choice but to destroy it.
You know what? I took the cup and I forgot to fill it up.
[laughs] Not very efficient.
See, he explains either it means that God is making humanity sad, 'cause He says, "Hey, I've got, I've got reason to make you depressed," or, "I am saddened by the fact that I have to destroy you all." And then he brings out something very interesting, and it's in your books- Um, toward proba- probably on the next page.
Let me see.
Let me put what...
Dean, you pass me your book quickly.
Yeah.
Put it there, and I'll, I'll put...
I'll show you both where it is.
Okay, so we're gonna go from V'zo katavti.
So it's on page 62, like four lines down on that big paragraph.
Okay? I'll, I'll, I'll go through and explain to you what it says there.
Okay? So Rashi says something very interesting.
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