Bereishit 5783

Question: Chapter 5 gives a list of the generations between אדם and נח, listing their ages. Since the Torah is not a history book, why do we need to know how long everyone lived for? To put the question in context, in the Torah we only know the ages of these people, those of the generations from נח to אברהם (by implication), and then only those of אברהם, שרה, ישמעאל, יצחק, יעקב, יוסף, לוי, קהת, עמרם, משה and אהרן.


Approach: Perhaps the initial ages of the first generations (through to תרח) are to show us how long life was initially, and - given the behaviour described at the start of פרק ו - why it needed to be slowed down to a "more manageable" 120 year maximum.

Comments

  1. Anonymous20.10.22

    The ages show many different things. e.g check Rashi on why Noah was significantly older when he has Shem, Cham and Yeffet; the year of the flood and the year Metushelach died and the waiting of 1 week etc.

    It enables us ot calculate other events, such as date of Migdal bavel, birth of Avraham and subsequent events. All the ages teach us something. Once we get to Noach, calculations are easier to work out the when and why certain things happened.

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