november 2024, Chesjwan 5785
(1) This is the account of Noach, a righteous man who kept God’s ways.
When God saw that mankind did not keep God’s ways, he spoke and said to Noach ‘I will destroy all flesh that goes on the earth’ except Noach, who was a good man in the eyes of God.
God said to Noach ‘I will make a treaty with you. Make an ark as I will describe to you. Take your wife, your sons, and their wives in the ark because you are righteous and do good. Take from all the clean animals seven males and seven females, and of all unclean animals two males and two females. Seven days from now it will start raining and it will rain 40 days and nights so that all creation that is not in the ark, will be destroyed.’
Noach was 600 years old and did as God had told him, and after seven days it started raining and it rained for forty days and nights until the waters rose to cover the tops of the highest mountains. All creatures that had remained on earth; birds, cattle, animals and men died, only Noach and his family and all the animals that were in the ark, were left alive.
It rained forty days and nights and it took another 150 days until the water receded and the ark got stuck on top of mount Ararat.
When the mountaintops became visible over the receding waters, Noach opened a window and sent out a raven. The raven flew back and forth but could not find a place to rest and returned to the ark.
Then Noach sent out a dove, but it flew back and forth but could not find a place to rest and returned to the ark.
Noach waited another seven days and sent out the dove again and it came back with an olive leaf. Now Noach knew that the water was receding.
Noach waited another seven days and sent out the dove again and this time it did not return.
God said to Noach ‘Go and leave the ark; you, your wife, your sons, and their wives and all the animals. Let them live on the earth and be fruitful and multiply.
Noach did as God had told him and then he built an altar and offered sacrifice to God.
God accepted Noach’s sacrifice and promised ‘never again will I destroy life on earth. As long as the earth exists shall seedtime and harvesttime follow each other, just as cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will follow each other.’
(2) And God said ‘I shall give a sign of my promise, I will set my rainbow in the sky to be visible when it rains. Go and all that grows shall be your food just like all animals that move, but beware that there be no blood left in the meat you eat.’
The sons of Noach, Shem, Ham and Yafeth had many children who became the fathers of peoples.
Cham’s grandson was named Kush. His son was named Nimrod who was the first mighty ruler on earth and therefor it is said: ‘like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before God’ He ruled over Babylon, Erech, Akad and Kalne and the land of Shin-ar. He went to Ashur and built Ninevé, Rechovot-Ir, Kelach and the city of Resen between Ninevé and Kélach.
The whole earth used one language. A people lived in the valley of Shin-ar and they said ‘let us build a city with a tower unto the sky’
(3) God looked at the work and said ‘see they are one people with one language. If they succeed in this, they will again become equal to us.’
Therefore God descended and confused their language so that one did not understand the other and God dispersed them over the earth. Hence the place is called ‘Bavel’ what means ‘confusion’ because God confused their language.
This is the history of Shem, Noach’s son. From Shem’s offspring was born Therach who had three children: Awram, Nachor and Haran. Haran died in the house of his father in Ur-Kasdim and left his son Lot.
Therach and his son went with Awram, Awram’s wife Sarai and with Lot the son of Haran Therachs’ grandson, away from Ur-Kasdim to the land Cana-an. Awram and Sarai had no children. They arrived in Charan and stayed there. Therach was two hundred and five years old and died in Charan
There is a storyline in Parasha 1 Bereshit: In the beginning there was creation, and all was good, and even very good, and then gradually it becomes so evil that God considers destroying all he had created. To some extent this storyline comes back in this parasha. Creation gets a second chance after the flood, but in the end, men again try to become like unto God, but this time God can’t destroy creation, he promised not to do so. Instead, he confused their languages.
God tells Noach to take from all the clean animals 7 couples and from the unclean animals two couples. But how did Noach know which animals were clean and which were unclean? After all, only much later in the Torah (parasha 26 Shmini) do we get a list and definition of clean and unclean animals.
The ark must have been enormous. Just try to make a drawing with space for all the animals:
7 couples of all the clean animals
2 couples of all the unclean animals
All the food.
Refer also to the timeline of the flood at the end of this parasha.
Keep in mind that there will be animals born and that also Noach and his family must have food (they were vegetarians at the time, just like all animals were vegetarian).
For a list of clean and unclean animals you can have a look at Parasha 26 Shmini and parasha 47 Re-eh in the fifth book Dwarim – Deutronomy.
The text reads: ‘Seven days from now it will start raining and it will rain 40 days and nights so that all creation that is not in the ark, will be destroyed.’….but what about the fish?
Jesja-a-ja (Jesaja) chapter 54:1-55:5
There were no ‘ten commandments’ given yet, but generally, this is interpreted as that Noach kept to some basic laws, the so called ‘seven Noachide laws’
Of course, a lot of questions can be asked here such as ‘what is a sexual transgression’, ‘what was the civil law that Noach was supposed to keep’ etc.
In parasha Bereshit Adam, Chava and all animals are vegetarians. Now, after the flood, mankind is allowed to eat meat, but all the blood must be removed. Although not explicitly mentioned, it is a reasonable assumption that also some animals now eat other animals after the flood.
Literally the text says: All creatures that live to you shall be food (Genesis 9:3) That would also include animals that later in the Torah are named to be unclean – or was that already clear? Remember that Noach is ordered to take seven pairs from every clean animal; how did he know what was a clean animal? The text does not say anything about that.
The reference is to the previous parasha where if men should eat from the tree of life, they would become equal to God.
The flood started in the second month on the 17th day and ended on the second month on the 27th day. It rained 40 days, and it took 150 days for the water to sink so that the ark got stuck on the mountain. Reading the text verse by verse we can see that the whole episode of the flood lasted 371 days.
| Days | What happened | Text | Notes |
| 1 | Flood begins | Gen: 7:10-11 | |
| 40 | It rains and the ark is lifted | Gen: 7:17 | Reading the text, it would appear that the ark did not move until day 40. The water continued to rise after day 40. |
| 150 | Ark lands on Mount Ararat | Gen: 7:24-8:4 | On this day the rain stopped, and water could begin to recede. |
| 224 | Tops of the mountains become visible | Gen: 8:5 | This is 74 days after the ark got stuck on the mountaintop. |
| 264 | The raven is sent out | Gen: 8:6-7 | |
| 271 | The dove is sent out the first time | Gen: 8:8-9 | The dove returns because it found no dry land |
| 278 | The dove is sent out the second time | Gen: 8: 10-11 | The dove returns with an olive leaf |
| 285 | The dove is sent out the third time | Gen: 8: 12 | The dove does not return because it has found sufficient dry land |
| 314 | The waters had receded from the land | Gen: 8:13 | The waters had dried, but not enough for Noach and the animals to leave the ark yet |
| 371 | The land had dried out enough for Noach, his family, and the animals to leave the ark. | Gen: 8:14 | The Hebrew text uses different words in verses 13 and 14 to indicate ‘dry’ making it clear in verse 14 that the land was now sufficiently dry, and Noach and the animals could now leave the ark. |
