Three Generations That Failed to Learn From the Flood

Another interpretation of "Though you pound the fool in a mortar" (Proverbs 27:22): Rabbi Nehemiah, son of Rabbi Samuel bar Nahman, said: To what are they comparable? To a full flask upon which locusts climbed. The first climbed and fell, [the second climbed and fell, the third climbed and fell], yet the second did not learn from the first, [nor the third from the second]. So it is with the wicked: the first comes, rises, grows mighty, and falls, and the second does not learn from the first. Thus arose the generation of Enosh and called out to idolatry, as it is said, "Then it was profaned to call upon the name of the Lord" (Genesis 4:26). What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He called for the sea and flooded them, as it is said, "He who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the face of the earth" (Amos 5:8). The generation of the Flood arose and provoked the Holy One, blessed be He, to anger, as it is said, "And they said to God, 'Depart from us'" (Job 21:14), and they perished from the world, and they did not learn from the generation of Enosh. [The generation of the Dispersion did not learn from the former generations.] Hence, "Though you pound the fool in a mortar with a pestle, among the grain" (Proverbs 27:22) — this is the generation of the Dispersion, for they were bringing forth words of reviling against the Sole One of the world, as it is said, "And the whole earth was of one language and of uniform words" (Genesis 11:1). Rabbi Berekhyah the Priest said: What is "one language"? That they were one family. Another interpretation: "one language," in that they poured out retribution upon the world. [And "uniform words" — words that they brought forth against the Sole One of the world.]