Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 8:17 gives Noah his first instruction on the new earth, and it is almost identical to the instruction the Holy One gave Adam in Eden. Bring forth with thee every living animal that is with thee of all flesh, of fowl, of cattle, and of every reptile that creepeth on the earth, that they may produce in the earth, and spread abroad and multiply on the earth.
Listen to those verbs. Produce. Spread abroad. Multiply. These are the same verbs of Genesis chapter one. The Targum is signaling that Noah is being treated as a second Adam, and the ark is being treated as a second Eden. The same commandment that launched creation is launching it a second time, this time with the mercy of hindsight.
But notice what is different. Adam was told to fill an empty world. Noah is told to release a world that has been kept safe inside a box. His righteousness was not only survival. His righteousness was stewardship. The animals were alive because he fed them, he cleaned after them, he honored the kinds.
The takeaway the Maggid draws: when the Holy One rebuilds, He rebuilds through people who have learned to care. The new world is not handed to the clever. It is handed to the one who fed the animals in the dark.