The story of Noach and the flood raises two obvious questions for most people. First, what could the human race have done that was so terrible that it had to be wiped out. Second, why would an omnipotent G-d bother with the whole business of constructing an ark. Why not simply send Noach and all the animals to the top of the highest mountain. Or simply prevent the water from entering the area where he already was. The answers to these questions are interrelated. G-d tells Noach that the end of all flesh comes because the earth is filled with robbery. Robbery seems like a peculiar reason. Certainly it's a sin, but why is humanity doomed because of it? To understand that we have to look at the nature of robbery. Mass theft on the scale related by the Sages had eliminated the very notion. Theft was so widespread that property had literally become theft. No one could have anything that was legitimately his because everything had been stolen at some point and theft had become le...