Why God Remembered the Animals in Noah's Ark

Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Noach 7:4

Curated by Arthur·Translated by Maggid (Beta)·

Another interpretation: A person boards a ship, and a beast is with him. And if a storm arose upon the sea, what do they do? They cast the beast into the sea and keep the person alive, because they do not have mercy upon the beast as they have mercy upon the person. But the Holy One, blessed be He, is not so. For just as He is merciful upon the person, so does He show mercy upon the beast. Know for yourself that this is so. For at the time when the Holy One, blessed be He, sought to destroy His world in the generation of the Flood, at the time when they sinned, He weighed the human against the beast, as it is said: "And the LORD said: I will blot out [... from man unto beast]" (Genesis 6:7). And when He came to be reconciled, just as He was reconciled to the children of man and had mercy upon them, so did He have mercy upon the beast, from what we have read on the matter: "And God remembered Noah [... and all the cattle]" (Genesis 8:1).

Themes

AnimalsNoahFloodLoveCompassion

Biblical References

Continue Reading

Targum OnkelosThe Flood Through Onkelos's Aramaic LensThe Hebrew Bible says God "shut him in" the ark (Genesis 7:16), a strangely intimate image of the Creator personally closing Noah's door. Targum Onkelos rendersYalkut Shimoni on TorahSpirits Without Bodies and the Giant Reem at the ArkThe verse says Noah took aboard "every living thing," and the sages pressed on that word "living." Some read it to include even the spirits, those beings createYalkut Shimoni on TorahHow the Giant Reem Survived the FloodThe verse says the animals came "male and female." From this the sages drew a rule for which creatures Noah should welcome aboard: if a male pursued a female, aYalkut Shimoni on TorahNoah Waits for Permission to Leave the ArkThe door of the ark could have been forced. Rabbi Yudan even admitted he would have broken it open and walked free. But Noah refused. "Just as I came in only byMidrash AggadahThe Beasts That Guarded Noah's Ark From the Flood GenerationWhen the rains finally broke open the sky, the men of that doomed generation did not repent. They ran instead toward the ark of Noah, fists and tools in hand, mMidrash AggadahWhy Noah Sent the Raven and the Dove After the FloodWhen the rains had ceased, Noah waited forty days for the mountaintops to break the surface, and then he opened the window of the ark. First he sent out the rav