“On that very day, Noah, and Shem and Ham and Yefet, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, entered into the ark” (Genesis 7:13). “On that very day, Noah…entered” – Rabbi Yoḥanan said: The Holy One blessed be He said: If Noah enters the ark at night, his entire generation would then say this: We did not know about him [entering the ark]. Had we known about him, we would not have allowed him to enter.
Rather, it was “on that very day”25In broad daylight. – let anyone who is bothered by this speak up. “They, and every beast according to its kind, and every animal according to its kind, and every crawling creature that crawls upon the earth according to its kind, and every flying thing according to its kind, every bird, every winged creature” (Genesis 7:14). “They, and every beast” – they26Noah and his family. are primary, and the rest are secondary to them.
“Every bird, every winged creature”27This could also be translated: “Entire birds with entire wings.” – Rabbi Eliezer said to the group, in the name of Rabbi Asi: To the exclusion of those with clipped wings and severed legs, which are not valid for offerings for Noahides. “And they that came, male and female from all flesh came, as God commanded him, and the Lord shut it for him” (Genesis 7:16). “And they that came, male and female” – Rabbi Asi said: To the exclusion of those with extra limbs and those with severed limbs, which are not valid for offerings for Noahides.
“And they that came, male and female” – Noah said to Him:28When God first told him “And of every living being, of all flesh, two of each you shall bring to the ark…” (Genesis 6:19). ‘Am I a hunter?’ He [God] said to him: ‘Why are you concerned? “They that will be brought” is not written here, but rather, “they that came” – they came of their own accord.’ Rabbi Yoḥanan said: “Examine the book of the Lord and read it” (Isaiah 34:16)29The prophet tells us that if we look closely in the Torah we will corroborate what he has just said, which is that all the wild animals and birds will come to the site of God’s destruction of Basra. – if to be shut up in the ark for twelve months they came on their own, to be fattened from the flesh of the mighty men, all the more so.
That is what is written: “You, Son of man, so said the Lord God: Say to every winged bird and to every beast of the field: Gather and come, assemble yourselves from all around to My feast that I am slaughtering for you, a great feast upon the mountains of Israel, and you will eat flesh and drink blood. The flesh of the mighty men you will eat, and the blood of the princes of the earth you will drink: rams, lambs and goats, bulls, fattened bulls of Bashan, all of them” (Ezekiel 39:17–18).
“And the Lord shut it for him” – Rabbi Levi said: This is analogous to a prince who issued a decree of annihilation against a province, and he took his friend and placed him in prison and placed his seal upon it.30By keeping him imprisoned, he was actually saving him. So, “and the Lord shut it for him.” People sought to overturn the ark, and He surrounded it with lions so they would not touch it.