The Bible itself gives us some clues, but the full picture? It's painted in vibrant detail in the Legends of the Jews, Louis Ginzberg's masterful compilation of rabbinic lore.

So, picture this: the rain has stopped. The ark is bobbing gently. Now what?

According to the Legends, on the first of Siwan – that's a month in the Jewish calendar, roughly corresponding to May/June – the floodwaters began to recede. But it wasn’t a dramatic, overnight thing. Instead, the waters lowered gradually, about a quarter of an ell (an ancient unit of measurement) each day. Slow going. Sixty days later, on the tenth of Av (around July/August), something amazing happened: the mountaintops peeked through the receding waters! A sign of hope, a promise of land.

But even before that, Noah had sent out scouts. Remember the raven? According to the Legends, that happened way back on the tenth of Tammuz (June/July). And then, a week later, the dove made her first of three flights, each a week apart. Poor dove just wanted to find some dry land.

Now, here's where the timeline gets really interesting. It took from the first of Av until the first of Tishri (September/October) for the waters to completely disappear from the earth. That's a long time!

But even with the land visible, the ordeal wasn't over. Ginzberg tells us that the ground was still so muddy and swampy that the inhabitants of the ark had to stay put until the twenty-seventh of Heshvan (October/November). That made it a full solar year – twelve lunar months plus eleven days – that they were cooped up. Can you imagine?!

Talk about cabin fever! It really puts the story of Noah into a new perspective, doesn't it? It wasn’t just about surviving the flood; it was about the patience, the waiting, and the slow, almost tortuous return to a new normal. What kind of psychological toll would that take? What kind of planning and preparation would it take to start a world anew? It's a story that resonates even today, reminding us that even after the storms of life, the return to solid ground can be a long and challenging journey.