“And of every living being, of all flesh, two of each you shall bring to the ark, to keep alive with you; they shall be male and female” (Genesis 6:19). “And of every living being, of all flesh, two…” – Rabbi Hoshaya said: Even [malevolent] disembodied spirits entered the ark with Noah, as it is stated: “…of every living being” – of those for whom souls were created, but bodies were not created for them.
Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Neḥemya, Rabbi Yehuda says: The re’em55A creature of incredible size. did not enter [the ark] with him,56Because it was too large. but its young did enter. Rabbi Neḥemya said: Neither it nor its offspring [could enter], but Noah tied it to the ark and it would dig furrows [in the ground]57As the ark travelled. like the one from Tiberias to Susita.58This is a reference to the Sea of Galilee.
That is what is written: “Can you bind the re’em with his rope to a furrow? Will he loosen the soil of valleys after you?” (Job 39:10). In the days of Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba, one of its [a re’em’s] young ascended to the Land of Israel and it did not leave a single tree that it did not uproot. They declared a fast and Rabbi Ḥiyya prayed, whereupon its mother bellowed from the wilderness, and it went back down following her voice.
“They shall be male and female” – if you see a male pursuing a female59In courtship. accept it; a female pursuing a male, do not accept it.60The fact that male is mentioned here before female teaches that it is proper that the male, not the female, should play the dominant role in courtship.