The Souls Not Restored and the Sentence of the Flood Generation

Another interpretation: at the time when I return the spirits to their sheaths [bodies], I will not return their spirits. Rabbi Hiyya bar Abba said: I will not fill My spirit in them at the time when I fill My spirit in mankind, for in this world the spirit is scattered into one of a man's limbs, but in the time to come it will be scattered through the whole body, as it is written, "And I will put My spirit within you" (Ezekiel 36:27). Rabbi Yudan ben Beteira said: I will no longer judge by this manner of judgment forever. Rabbi Huna in the name of Rabbi Yosef said: "I will not again" "I will not again" (Genesis 8:21) [is doubled] to mean abundantly, abundantly. The Rabbis said: "I will not again" toward the sons of Noah, "I will not again" toward the generations. I said that My spirit should judge them and they did not seek it; behold, I will scourge them with sufferings. I said that My spirit should judge them and they did not seek it; behold, I will set them one against another. For Rabbi Elazar said: you have none held liable through a man except a man like himself. Rabbi Natan says: even a dog, even a wolf. Rabbi Huna bar Guryon said: even a staff, even a strap, as it is written, "For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, You have broken as in the day of Midian" (Isaiah 9:3) like the day of judgment. Rabbi Aha said: even barren trees are destined to give judgment and accounting, as it is written, "for man is the tree of the field" (Deuteronomy 20:19) just as man gives judgment and accounting, so too the trees give judgment and accounting. Rabbi Yehoshua bar Nehemiah said: I will not judge their spirits by themselves, for they are flesh and blood, but behold, I will bring upon them the few years that I allotted them in this world, and afterward I will scourge them with sufferings. What caused them to rebel against Me? Was it not because I did not scourge them with sufferings? This door, what holds it up? Its hinges. Rabbi Elazar said: in every place where there is no judgment, there is judgment. Rav Bibi son of Rabbi Ami, following the view of Rabbi Eliezer: "My spirit shall not abide." Rabbi Meir said: they did not practice the measure of justice below; I will apply to them the measure of justice above. This is what is written, "Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them? They die, and that without wisdom" (Job 4:21) without the wisdom of the Torah "They are broken in pieces from morning to evening; they perish forever without any regarding it" (Job 4:20) and "regarding" means nothing but judgment, as it is said, "And these are the judgments which you shall set before them" (Exodus 21:1). Furthermore: I will no longer set the measure of justice against the measure of mercy. Even Noah, who was left of them, was not because he was worthy, but because the Holy One, blessed be He, foresaw that Moses was destined to arise from him, as it is said, "in their erring he too is flesh [be-shaggam]" this be-shaggam is Moses, for the numerical value of this [word] equals the numerical value of that [name]. The Rabbis derive it from here: "and his days shall be a hundred and twenty years," and Moses lived a hundred and twenty years. Our Rabbis taught: the generation of the Flood has no share in the world to come, as it is said, "And He blotted out every living thing" in this world, "and they were blotted out" from the world to come, the words of Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Yehudah says: they neither live nor are judged, as it is said, "My spirit shall not abide in man" neither judgment [din] nor spirit [ruach].