'דרך כרמים': לבירור נוסחה ופירושה של דרשה אחת בבבלי סנהדרין

he Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 108a) cites R. Jose's homily on the verse, 'Swift is he on the surface of the water; Their portion is accursed in the land; He turns not toward the vineyards' (Job 24:18 [Anchor Bible]). According to the homily, the first two parts of the verse are addressed by Noah to the people of his generation, threatening them that they will drown in the Flood because of their transgressions. They respond by asking why God has not already brought the Flood, and Noah answers that He is waiting for a good son to be born. They react to this by saying 'If so, we turn not toward the vineyards'. In order to understand this cryptic reaction, the accuracy of the text is examined and the examination reveals that the text in the printed editions is corrupted. In the original reading it is Methuselah who admonishes his generation and, accordingly, the good son for whom God is waiting is Noah. In other words, God is waiting for Noah before He brings the deluge, in order to rebuild mankind from him. The answer of the men of Methuselah's generation, 'If so, we turn not toward the vineyards', can be understood from a parallel homily in Bereishit Rabbah (30), where the same verse is interpreted as referring to the generation of the Flood. The reason given there for the punishment of the people of that generation is that, unlike Noah whose intention was to be fruitful and multiply, 'they did not intend to plant vineyards'. The parallel homily cited in the Jerusalem Talmud (Yevamot 6:5) reads: 'They had intercourse, but not in order to reproduce'. The reaction of the people in the homily in the Babylonian Talmud now makes sense. They were in fact saying that if the coming of the Flood depends on the birth of Noah, they will not plant vineyards, i.e., they will not bring children into the world and thus prevent the birth of Noah and the coming of the Flood. R. Jose is in fact contrasting the claim of Methuselah that the Flood will come because they had intercourse not in order to reproduce with the rebuttal that on the contrary by continuing to so sin they can prevent the coming of the Flood.