מכל הבהמה הטהורה, “from all of the ritually pure domestic animals;” seeing that the Torah had not been given yet, and therefore there were no ritually impure domestic animals or creatures, Rashi understands the expression as referring to the domestic animals that would in the future be described as being ritually pure. We therefore learn that Noach had already studied Torah laws which had not yet been revealed publicly (B’reshit Rabbah, 40, based on Psalms 1,2) If so, why did the Talmud in tractate Zevachim folio 116 have to pose the question of how Noach knew, and to answer that the ritually pure animals came to the ark on their own, whereas Noach had to round up the others in order to bring them into the ark? According to the Talmud, Noach only recognised ritually pure animals after the event, not because he had learned the physical signs described in the Torah. There is a third opinion according to which it became clear which animals had been ritually pure only after Noach offered some of these as offerings after having left the ark. This interpretation is also not logical as G–d had commanded him prior to entering the ark to take seven pairs each of the ritually pure animals into the ark, so that he must have known beforehand which animals to take. This is also what Rashi commented on chapter 8, verse 20. He had realised that the only reason he had been commanded to take seven pairs of the species concerned was in order to have these animals available after the deluge to serves as sacrifices. It would appear therefore that the statement that Noach had studied the Torah, must have referred to the instructions to take such ritually pure birds, (6,4) something which became clear to him when noting that these birds were monogamous, mating only with the same female. When he saw that the ark accepted more than one pair of certain animals, it became clear to him that the extra specimens must have been meant to serve as sacrifices as G–d considered them as ritually pure. “Studying Torah,” as mentioned by Rashi, must mean therefore that he learned Torah by keeping his eyes open and drawing the right conclusions. He had also noted that these animals had only kept company with members of their own species during the long months in the ark. This is most likely also the reason why, when the Torah wrote the details about the laws of chastity and forbidden sexual intercourse in Leviticus 18,23-24, it stated that Jews must not defile themselves through such animals.

והמבול היה מים על הארץ, “when the deluge covered the earth with water.” There is good reason to ask why G–d chose the deluge as the instrument with which to punish mankind, rather than any other means at His disposal. Our sages in the Talmud tractate Rosh Hashanah folio 12 answered this question by stating that this method was chosen as it conformed to the principle of making the punishment match the sin. Man had sinned by means of boiling water, (metaphor for extremely serious sins, involving sexual emissions that are considered as the result of the body becoming heated) so G–d chose equally severe measures as the means to punish them by. The subject has been illustrated by a parable in which a king magnanimously set aside a section of a city to serve as residence for blind people, and he provided them with all comforts in order to make their lives more tolerable. Whenever the king passed this way, the blind people would rise and shout in gratitude for the king’s generosity. Once the king heard their voices and enquired from his entourage who was the source of this shouting. He was told that it originated with the blind people whom he so lavishly supported. They added that the blind people do the same whenever they hear horses galloping in their neighbourhood. He responded by saying: “how much louder would be their shouting if they were able to see their benefactor with their own eyes.” He therefore commanded to return these blind people to their former locations, and to install people with eyesight in the section formerly reserved for the blind. He ordered that the new residents be provided with all that he had formerly provided the blind with. When these people now realised that they had been promoted, they lived it up. Instead of being grateful, whenever the king passed in their area they raised their voices cursing him for having forced them to relocate. When the king was told about this, he decided to execute all these people. The point of the parable is that originally the universe having been in chaos, was transformed into water, i.e. an element that is both blind and deaf. Even though, the waters praised the Lord for having thus raised their status. We know this from Psalms 93,3: נשאו נהרות ה', נשאו נהרות קולם, נשאו נהרות קולם, “the oceans sound o Lord, the oceans sound their thunder, the ocean sounds its pounding.” When the Lord heard this, He ordered the oceans which had covered the surface of the earth to be relocated so as to provide room for the earth to emerge and be seen. (Genesis 1.9) He created man in order to inhabit that earth, where previously there had only been water, providing man with fruit-bearing trees and all kinds of other luxuries, expecting, of course, to be rewarded with man’s expression of appreciation. The earth was so good that it required to be tilled only once in forty years. Instead, man took his good fortune for granted and instead of accepting the rules laid down by the Creator, rebelled against Him. When the Lord became aware of this, He had no choice but to punish them for their ingratitude. He commanded the waters to return to their original areas, allocated them at the beginning of creation. [The author credits his Rabbi with telling him this parable, who in turn had credited it to Rabbi Nathan Afniel.]

ויבא נח, ובניו, ואשתו ונשי בניו, “Noach, his sons, and his wife and his sons’ wives, with him entered the ark;” Rashi, analysing the sequence in which Noach and his family entered the ark, explains that the men and women did so separately, realising that as long as the deluge would last they would not be allowed to have marital relations. (Based on an ancient version of the Tanchuma)

ארבעים יום, “forty days.” According to Rashi, the first day is not to be counted. (as the first night no rain had fallen) The Torah had made a point of writing in verse 11: ביום הזה נבקעו כל מעינות תהום, “on this day all the fountains of the deep broke open.” Accordingly the 40 days came to an end on the 28th day of Kislev.” This does not seem accurate, seeing that he himself wrote on verse 24, where the Torah wrote that the water level on earth kept increasing for a period of one hundred and fifty days which would mean that they kept increasing until the first day of Sivan where the Torah spoke about the seventh month as the day when the rains stopped descending. (compare his commentary on 8,4) We would therefore have to include the first day of the “forty” days as being part of that count. I believe therefore that the rains had started falling as soon as it was daylight on the seventeenth of the second month, as the words: ביום הזה in our verse do not prove anything about which part of the day it refers to. We find this expression in the Torah on numerous occasions when it clearly includes the preceding night. (The author quotes Genesis 2,2, and Leviticus 23,28 as examples to prove his point.) The author also cites Seder Olam, an ancient history text, as supporting his conclusion. He quotes that text verbatim: “on this day all the fissures in the earth broke open, and rain fell on the earth from the sky. This state of affairs continued until the 27th day of Kislev, but the level of water covering the surface of the earth continued to rise until the end of 150 days, that day being the first day of the month of Sivan.” In light of what the author of that text writes, we must include the first day of the “forty” days given in the Torah in our total.

וישאר אך נח ואשר אתו בתבה, “there survived only Noach and the people and animals with him in the ark.” According to a quote attributed to Rabbi Yehudah hachasid, this wording contains a hint that the giant Og, later known as the king of Bashan, survived the deluge, the letters in the words: אך נח in our verse, which are unnecessary, have the same numerical value as the letters in the or עוג, (79)