I really want to know about the translation of the verse Genesis 4:26 (quoted below) . The word in question is at the end of this verse. I have heard that it is either chalal or qara referring to, I guess, the manner of calling upon the lords name. Does it mean that after he was born men began to cry out to the Lord and seek his ways or does it mean they began to profane his name meaning that it was the start of a down hill slide of morals and respect of God?

“Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh; at that time men began to call on the name of Hashem.” The second half of the verse in Hebrew is “az huchal liqro b’shem Hashem”.

The phrase is quite cryptic and hard to translate, as is much of the narrative from the birth of man. Many translate huchal as “began”, but it’s certainly an unusual usage. Our sages in the Midrash, therefore, felt that the word also has a darker connotation, relating to the word “chol”, secular, mundane, unholy. Then the phrase would mean, “There was a profanation in calling in the name of G-d.” (There are several similar usages of the word nearby in these passages: Genesis 6(1) And it was that man BEGAN to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, And the noble sons saw these daughters…, 10(8) And Kush gave birth to Nimrod, he BEGAN to become a mighty man in the land, 11(6) And G-d said, behold, they are one nation, and one language, and this they have BEGUN to do…)

Sadly, in those days of descent, leading up to the Flood, most of mankind’s “beginnings” were original insights on how to turn away from G-d.These sages understand that in the days of Enosh, humanity began its disastrous connection with idol worship, profaning its desire for closeness to G-d by turning it into flirtation with impersonal spiritual power. They would “call in the name of G-d”, i.e., exercise spiritual connections, but use them for their own purposes.

Best wishes,
Michoel Reach