ויזכור אלהים את נח "And God remembered Noah". According to Rashi: He (God) remembered them for sticking to their kind, etc. And the Ramban wrote: "to Noah" (את נח) that he remembered his righteousness and made a covenant with him to save him, and Noah would include his seed with him, but the remembrance of animals and beasts is not their right, that they have neither right nor punishment, except that he reminded them of his holy word that he said, and the world and his will were In the creation of the world. He (Noach) came before him (God) and (God) desired their existence and remembered to take them out so that they could not be anymore in the ark.

ויסוכו המים, “the waters subsided.” The expression is parallel to the one in Esther 7,10 which describes the king’s anger as subsiding with the words וחמת המלך שככה, the letters ס and ש being interchangeable letters on frequent occasions. Alternatively, the word is parallel to the root סתר as in הסתר, meaning “hiding, a form of receding.” According to סדר עולם, the waters that had come forth from the bowels of the earth during the deluge, now receded back to their habitat within the bowels of the globe.

ויכלא הגשם, “the rain ceased.” Here the Torah cannot refer to the rain that descended as part of the deluge, seeing that this rain had stopped already on the 27th of Kislev, after 40 days. The Torah reports here that during this period of over 200 days after the first of Sivan and the family of Noach and the animals leaving the ark, no normal rainfall occurred. The strong prevailing winds at this time prevented any rain clouds from forming and descending. The purpose of the wind was to gradually restore the atmosphere to its traditional dryness.

ותנח התבה בחודש השביעי, “the ark came to rest in the seventh month.” According to Rashi this was the month of Sivan, and we would learn from this information that the keel of the ark was submerged in the water by 11 cubits (approx 6.6 meters*)* Nachmanides confirms that Rashi’s explanation follows Bereshit Rabbah He adds that seeing that Rashi himself frequently takes issue with such Midrashim in light of the dictum that on the one hand there are 70 facets to the written Torah, whereas at the same time we must establish the plain meaning of the text, (a major concern of Rashi), we too may also be permitted to emphasise another aspect of our verse. The difficulty with Rashi’s explanation is that he counts the words “in the seventh month,” as referring to a date, as the seventh month after the original rains had stopped at which time the waters had already begun to recede; how can the Torah immediately afterwards refer to the first of the month of the 601st year of Noach’s life (8,13) where clearly the reference must be to the first month of the calendar year, i.e. the first of Tishrey? How could the Torah switch its terms of reference and confuse its readers? Besides, whence do we have proof that the keel of the ark was submerged by 11 cubits? This calculation appears based on Rashi’s assumption that the waters receded at a constant speed of 1 cubit every four days, seeing that the keel of the ark had been reported as above the highest mountain by 15 cubits (7,20). From the 1st of Sivan till the first of Av there are 60 days. If the ark, as reported, ran aground on the17th of the seventh month, and the summits of the highest mountains became visible once more, how could the surface of the earth become dry by the first of Tishrey according to Rashi’s calculation, seeing that many mountains were thousands of cubits high? According to the calculation of Rashi all this took place within 13 days (from the 17th of the seventh month counting from Kislev, as interpreted verse 4) Furthermore, from a mariner’s point of view, a vessel which is more than one third submerged in water (the ark’s total height being 30 cubits), is not really capable of navigating waters, too much of its weight being under the water’s surface. In view of the problems of Rashi’s interpretation, Nachmanides understands that the 150 days which the Torah describes the waters as being turbulent and rising, commence by including the 40 days of rain, so that these days concluded on the 17th of Iyar, seeing that the major flooding took place during the 40 days of incessant rainfall. 73 days after the 17th of Iyar on the first of the tenth month, i.e. the first of Av. This was the tenth month after the beginning of the rainfall, the tops of the mountains becoming visible. Another approach to the report of the dates in the Torah, and this is the correct approach according to Nachmanides, is that the 150 days certainly commenced with the 17th of the second month (Marcheshvan) the day the deluge began, and ended on the 17th day in Nissan (which is the seventh month after Tishrey, which is the first month of the year.) On this day the ark came to rest on Mount Arrarat, for then G’d made a strong easterly wind blow (verse 1).This wind dried out the surface of the earth.(The wind accelerated the lowering of the water level dramatically.) Until the Exodus from Egypt all of mankind considered the first of Tishrey as New Year. Only immediately prior the Exodus from Egypt did G’d command the Jewish people to henceforth count “their” years from the first of the month of Nissan. [concerning matters which they did not have in common with mankind as a whole, Ed.] Proof that this approach is correct is the fact that the Torah does not mention that the waters decreased by a certain amount on a certain day during a specific month. Such details were reserved for the second stage of the recovery after the waters had peaked, such as when the Torah mentions the date on which the highest mountain peaks once again became visible. The sequence in which the various stages occurred was as follows: on the day the rain started falling on earth, the fountains of the earth below also opened and added huge amounts of water which flooded the surface of the earth. The atmosphere became extremely saturated with moisture. The flooding of the earth continued at this level for 150 days. At that point G’d made a strong wind sweep over the earth that accounted for a sudden and substantial drop of the water level on earth as well as a drying of the atmosphere. The water level dropped so much on that day as a result of that wind that the ark landed on top of Mount Arrarat on that same day. Prior to that the ark’s keel had been submerged by 2-3 cubits. 73 days later, on the first of the month of Tamuz, the tenth month of the year, the tops of various mountains became visible. 40 days later, on the tenth of Av, Noach opened the window of the ark for the first time and three weeks later on the first day of Ellul he dispatched the dove for the first time. 40 days later he decided to remove the roof of the ark. The meaning of the words (verse 1) “G’d made a wind sweep the earth so that the waters calmed,” is something that occurred simultaneously with the retreat of the subterranean waters into the bowels of the earth. You will note that the Torah speaks of a wind sweeping over the earth, not over the water.

והמים היו הלוך וחסור עד החודש העשירי בעשירי וגו', “and the waters had been in a steady retreat until the tenth month; on the tenth day of that month, etc.” This verse sounds like the kind of verse our sages describe as מסורס, “truncated,” and its meaning is that the waters had kept receding until the time when the tops of the mountains had become visible in the tenth month; the Torah informs us that during these 73 days the level of the water fell by 15 cubits. This contrasts with the first period during which the water level fell, as a result of which there occurred the landing of the ark on top of Mount Arrarat. We do not know how many cubits the water level had fallen then, nor do we know how deeply the ark had sat beneath the surface of the waters. It was of no concern to us. Personally, I believe that the fact that the ark was floating was due to the current created by the subterranean wells which had opened up. Had it not been for this, the extreme weight of the ark, caused by both the great number of passengers and the tremendous amount of food stored within it, would have resulted in the ark sitting pretty much in the same spot during all this time. As soon as the current of the subterranean wells subsided, and these waters had returned to their former habitat, and the wind which G’d had sent ceased, the ark, in accordance with the laws of physics, settled more deeply in the water and struck solid rock (foundered) on Mount Arrarat. Note that both according to our understanding and according to the understanding of our sages in the Midrash, as well as in accordance with the various commentators who have laboured over our chapter, Arrarat is one of the tallest mountains in the region, and the waters of the deluge covered its peak to a depth of at least 15 cubits. This “axiom” is difficult to comprehend, as according to general agreement Mount Olympus is considerably higher than Mount Arrarat. The Arrarat mountain range is located close to the valley within which Bagdad is situated. [modern cartographers give the height of Mount Olympus as 2917 meters, and that of Arrarat as 5122 meters. Ed.] Perhaps the Torah meant to tell us that prior to the 17th of the seventh month the ark was far more than 15 cubits above the tallest mountain, and that other higher mountain tops had been visible already before then but that by that time the waters had receded so much that even Mount Arrarat, though far lower, was already capable of arresting the movement of the ark. Noach had opened the window of the ark ever since the rains had stopped (after the first 40 days) closing it at will from time to time. After the 73 days when the ark had become stationary, Noach used the window to look out and observe what was happening around him. When he perceived the tops of high mountains all around him, he closed the window and waited for another 40 days before checking on his surroundings again. 40 days later he dispatched the raven. You will note that the Torah did not write “Noach opened the window, etc.,” but merely that this event occurred at the end of a period of 40 days. This is to tell us that the raven was dispatched 40 days after the tops of other mountains had become visible. Noach had hoped that enough time had elapsed to reveal the tops of the trees, (on mountains below the tree line) If correct, he thought to release the birds, as there would be a habitat available for them once more. The raven was released on the first of Tishrey when for the first time חרבה הארץ, the surface of the earth was earth instead of water, although the earth dried out sufficiently only in the second month. At that time (17th of Marcheshvan) Noach and his passengers left the ark at G’d’s command. There is a minor difficulty with Nachmanides’ description, in that he perceives the tops of the mountains having become visible before the first of the tenth month, seeing that the Torah writes specifically that these mountain tops became visible on the first of the month. Nachmanides’ saying that these words refer once more to Mount Arrarat is difficult to accept.

ויהי מקץ ארבעים יום ויפתח נח את חלון התבה, “it was at the end of 40 days that Noach opened the window of the ark.” According to Rashi the meaning of the line is that this was 40 days after the tops of the mountains had become visible. If that were correct, we are hard pressed to understand why the dove did not find a resting place. Nachmanides writes concerning this that it is not the nature of the birds to seek out resting places in lofty mountains.

ויצא יצא ושוב, “it kept coming back;” Noach concluded at that point not to endanger the species of which only one pair was in the ark, and to dispatch birds of the “pure” species of which he had seven pairs each at his disposal.

ולא מצאה היונה מנוח, “but the dove did not find a place to rest the ball of its foot on.” Even though one of our sages holds that the deluge left the Land of Israel unaffected, the dove did not descend there on account of the heat. The giant Og took refuge in the vicinity of the ark as the immediate area around the ark was cooler than the atmosphere at large. The truth is that –as Nachmanides writes- that even though the deluge did not flood the Holy Land directly and the rains did not fall there, water from the surrounding countries flooded the Holy Land also, seeing that the Holy Land was not enclosed by a water-proof fence which could keep out the waters. The Biblical verse supporting the view that the waters of the deluge did not descend on the Holy Land, only speaks of ארץ מטוהרה לא גושמה ביום זעם, “a land which remained pure and did not experience destructive rain on the day of (G’d’s) anger.” (Ezekiel 22,24) The verse did not mention that no water penetrated the Holy Land during the deluge, only that it did not endure the rain, and that the subterranean wells did not gush forth from underneath it.

והנה עלה זית בפיה, “and here she had torn off an olive leaf with its beak.” According to Nachmanides, the plain meaning of the words indicate that the trees in that region had not been uprooted, the reason being that the deluge was not like a raging river which sweeps everything ahead of it. However, according to Bereshit Rabbah, the wording supports the view that the trees themselves had disintegrated, There is a discussion in the Midrash according to which the dove brought this leaf from the Holy Land, proving to Noach that in that region there had not been a deluge. True, that the waters had flooded the earth also in that region, as we pointed out already, however, seeing that no torrential rain had descended on that region and no hot geysers had gushed forth in that region from below, the trunks of the trees had survived, whereas elsewhere all the trees had been completely destroyed. There is another opinion in the Midrash according to which the dove found the leaf in Gan Eden. Nachmanides questions how, according to the view that the olive leaf came from Gan Eden, did Noach know that the waters outside the ark had subsided? Surely, the waters had never penetrated into Gan Eden in the first place? He answers that possibly the gates of Gan Eden had been shut to prevent the waters from getting inside, and as soon as the waters subsided these gates were reopened.

והנה עלה זית טרף בפיה. Our sages explain that the word טרף here means “booty,” as it does many times in the Bible, and that the dove had prayed to find such booty, i.e. it succeeded בפיה, thanks to the pleading with her mouth. Still other commentators understand the word טרף as meaning “torn off,” as in Exodus 22,30 ובשר בשדה טרפה, “flesh of an animal in the field which has been torn apart, etc.” This corresponds to Onkelos who renders the word there as תליש, meaning שבור, broken, damaged, ripped off. [a reference to tissue ripped from a live beast. Ed.] If that were not so, perhaps the dove had simply scooped up a torn leaf that was floating on top of the water.

צא מן התבה, “leave the ark!” Noach was not willing to leave the ark without specific instructions from G’d.

למשפחותיהם יצאו מן התבה, “they left the ark according to their respective families.” In Sanhedin 108 this is understood as למשפחותיהם ולא הם.This statement is not elaborated on there. [The simplest interpretation is that only those animals capable of reproducing left the ark; any animal which was sterile did not live on after the deluge for any length of time. Some commentators believe that whereas the animals left the ark without awaiting instructions from either Noach or G’d, Noach and family awaited such instructions. Noach demanded a promise from G’d that He would not again bring a flood upon the earth. Still other commentators view the word למשפחותיהם here as a hint that the animals undertook henceforth to mate only with their own species.

ויאמר ה' אל לבו, “The Lord said to Himself, etc.” According to Nachmanides this strange formulation simply means that G’d did not reveal His thoughts to anyone at that time. Only when Moses received the Torah, did G’d reveal what His thoughts had been at the time. He had not revealed to Noach what precisely His reaction had been to Noach’s sacrifice, i.e. that on account of it He would not again use the deluge as a means to punish mankind.

בעבור האדם, “because of man.” The earth had only been cursed on account of original man. Had Adam not sinned, his descendants, despite their corruption, would not have had to endure a deluge.

ולא אוסיף עוד להכות את כל חי, “and I will not again smite all living creatures simultaneously. However, I reserve the right to decree collective punishment on a city or a country.