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When the Holy One came to create man, God created a group of ministering angels and asked them, “Do you agree that we should make man in our image?”
They replied, “Sovereign of the Universe, what will be his deeds?”
God showed them the history of humankind.
The angels replied, “What is man that You are mindful of him?” [Let man not be created].
God destroyed the angels.
God created a second group, and asked them the same question, and they gave the same answer.
God destroyed them.
God created a third group of angels, and they replied, “Sovereign of the Universe, the first and second group of angels told You not to create man, and it did not avail them. You did not listen. What then can we say but this: The universe is Yours. Do with it as You wish.”
And God created man.
But when it came to the generation of the Flood, and then to the generation of those who built the Tower of Babel, the angels said to God, “Were not the first angels right? See how great is the corruption of mankind.”
And God replied (Isaiah 46:4), “Even to old age I will not change, and even to grey hair, I will still be patient.”
—Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 38b
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