The Dove, the Olive Leaf, and the Flood Waters Receding

"And the dove found no resting place" (Genesis 8:9). Had she found a resting place, she would not have returned. And similarly, "She dwells among the nations, she found no rest" (Lamentations 1:3)? had they found rest, they would not have returned. And similarly, "And among those nations you shall have no repose, and there shall be no resting place for the sole of your foot" (Deuteronomy 28:65)? had they found a resting place, they would not have returned. "And he waited yet another seven days" (Genesis 8:10): three weeks of days in all. "And behold, in her mouth was an olive leaf, plucked off [taraf]" (Genesis 8:11). What is taraf? Killed, as you say, "Joseph is surely torn in pieces [tarof toraf]" (Genesis 37:33). She said to him: had I not killed it [the branch], it would have become a great tree. From where did she bring it? Rabbi Levi says: she brought it from the young shoots in the Land of Israel. This is what people say: the Land of Israel was not submerged in the waters of the Flood. This is what is written, "You are a land not cleansed, not rained upon on the day of wrath" (Ezekiel 22:24). Rav Bibi said: the gates of the Garden of Eden were opened to her, and from there she brought it. But could she not have brought something choice, such as cinnamon or balsam? Rather, she gave him a hint, saying to him: My master, better is bitterness from under the hand of the Holy One, blessed be He, than sweetness from under your hand. "And he waited yet again" (Genesis 8:12): this supports the one who says three weeks. "And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year" (Genesis 8:13). We learned: the judgment of the generation of the Flood was twelve months. How so? "In the six hundredth year of Noah's life" and so on, and it is written, "And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights" (Genesis 7:12)? this is Marheshvan and Kislev. "And the waters prevailed" and so on (Genesis 7:24)? that is Tevet, Shevat, Adar, Nisan, and Iyar. "And the ark rested in the seventh month" (Genesis 8:4)? this is Sivan, which is the seventh from the descent of the rains. On the sixteenth day [the waters] had decreased four cubits, at the rate of one cubit per four days, a handbreadth and a half each day. You then find that the ark was submerged in the water eleven cubits, and all of them decreased in sixty days. This is what is written, "And the waters went on decreasing until the tenth month" (Genesis 8:5)? this is Av, which is the tenth from the descent of the rains. "And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year" and so on: it became like a thick mash. "And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month" (Genesis 8:14): it became like dry crust, and they sowed it, but it did not sprout. Why? Because it was a sign of curse, and a sign of curse does not turn to blessing. So they waited until the rains came down, and then they sowed. And Scripture need only have said the sixteenth day of the month; why does it say the twenty-seventh day? Rather, these are the eleven days by which the days of the solar year exceed the days of the lunar year. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel said: one who wishes to know that the days of the sun exceed [by eleven days], let him scratch a single mark on a wall on the first day of the season of Tammuz, and the next year at that same time the sun does not reach there until eleven days later.