We all know the story – the flood, the animals, the rainbow. But have you ever stopped to imagine the sheer logistical nightmare of keeping all those creatures alive and well for over a year?
According to Legends of the Jews, as retold by Ginzberg, gathering the animals was just the beginning for Noah. The real challenge? Food and lodging. Shem, Noah's son, later recounted the trials to Eliezer, Abraham's servant. "We had sore troubles in the ark," he confessed. : day animals needing daytime snacks, night animals demanding midnight feasts.
How did Noah even know what to feed each creature? The story goes that one day, he sliced open a pomegranate for some hungry critter, and a worm wriggled out. A tiny zikta (the text doesn't elaborate what this is, but you can imagine some small, unusual creature) snapped it up. From then on, Noah apparently became a worm farmer, kneading bran and waiting for the wriggling treats to emerge!
And the lion? Poor thing had a fever the whole time! Apparently, he was too sick to cause trouble and lost his appetite. Then there was the polite urshana. Finding him asleep, Noah asked if he needed anything. The urshana replied that he didn't want to add to Noah’s burdens. So Noah blessed him, wishing him eternal life – and, according to the tale, that blessing was realized.
But the chaos didn’t stop there. Imagine being tossed around like a lentil in a pot as the floodwaters raged. The lions roared, the oxen lowed, the wolves howled – a cacophony of animal agony. Noah and his sons, fearing death, cried out to God. "O Lord, help us!" he prayed. "The billows surge about us... death stares us in the face!"
Where did all that water come from anyway? The flood, we learn, was a result of the joining of the male waters above the firmament and the female waters from the earth. According to this tradition, the upper waters burst through the space left when God removed two stars from the constellation Pleiades. To stop the deluge, God had to move two stars from the constellation of the Bear to Pleiades. Hence, the Bear forever chases the Pleiades, longing for her lost children, who will only return in the future world. How's that for cosmic drama?
And the darkness! For the entire year, the sun and moon hid their faces. That’s why Noah's name is connected to the Hebrew word for "resting" (noach), because during his time, the heavenly lights “rested." How did they see? The ark was illuminated by a precious stone, shining brighter at night than during the day, allowing Noah to distinguish between the two.
The flood lasted a full year, beginning on the seventeenth of Heshvan (a month in the Jewish calendar, usually falling in October/November) and raining for forty days until the twenty-seventh of Kislev (November/December). The punishment, we are told, fit the crime. The sinful generation was punished for their immoral behavior.
For 150 days, the water remained at the same level, fifteen ells above the earth. During this time, all the wicked perished, each receiving their due punishment. Even Cain, the original murderer, met his end, avenging the death of Abel. The waters were so powerful that even Adam's grave wasn't spared.
Then, on the first of Sivan (May/June), the waters began to recede, a quarter of an ell each day. After sixty days, on the tenth of Av (July/August), the mountain tops emerged. But before that, on the tenth of Tammuz (June/July), Noah sent out the raven, and a week later, the dove.
Now, about that raven… He wasn't exactly enthusiastic about his mission. As Ginzberg tells us, drawing from earlier traditions, the raven whined, "The Lord, thy Master, hates me, and thou dost hate me, too!" He felt unfairly chosen, arguing that Noah favored the species with seven pairs in the ark. Maybe Noah just wanted to get rid of him to get to his mate! Noah, understandably, was offended. "Wretch!" he retorted. "I must live apart from my own wife in the ark. How much less would such thoughts occur to my mind as thou imputest to me!"
The raven’s mission failed. Spotting a floating corpse, he decided to snack instead of delivering the message. So, the dove was sent. She returned in the evening with an olive leaf in her beak, plucked from the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, a sign that the Holy Land had been spared. As she plucked it, she prayed, "O Lord of the world, let my food be as bitter as the olive, but do Thou give it to me from Thy hand, rather than it should be sweet, and I be delivered into the power of men." A powerful prayer of trust and reliance.
It took until the first of Tishri (September/October) for the waters to completely recede. Even then, the ground was so muddy that Noah and his family had to wait until the twenty-seventh of Heshvan to leave the ark – a full solar year after they entered.
The story of Noah's ark is more than just a children's tale. It's a complex narrative about survival, divine judgment, and the incredible challenges of preserving life against all odds. It makes you wonder, doesn't it? What "ark" are we building today, and what sacrifices are we willing to make to ensure its survival?
The assembling of the animals in the ark was but the smaller part of the task imposed upon Noah. His chief difficulty was to provide food for a year and accommodations for them. Long afterward Shem, the son of Noah, related to Eliezer, the servant of Abraham, the tale of their experiences with the animals in the ark. This is what he said: "We had sore troubles in the ark. The day animals had to be fed by day, and the night animals by night. My father knew not what food to give to the little zikta. Once he cut a pomegranate in half, and a worm dropped out of the fruit, and was devoured by the zikta. Thenceforth my father would knead bran, and let it stand until it bred worms, which were fed to the animal. The lion suffered with a fever all the time, and therefore he did not annoy the others, because he did not relish dry food. The animal urshana my father found sleeping in a corner of the vessel, and he asked him whether he needed nothing to eat. He answered, and said: 'I saw thou wast very busy, and I did not wish to add to thy cares.' Whereupon my father said, 'May it be the will of the Lord to keep thee alive forever,' and the blessing was realized." The difficulties were increased when the flood began to toss the ark from side to side. All inside of it were shaken up like lentils in a pot. The lions began to roar, the oxen lowed, the wolves howled, and all the animals gave vent to their agony, each through the sounds it had the power to utter. Also Noah and his sons, thinking that death was nigh, broke into tears. Noah prayed to God: "O Lord, help us, for we are not able to bear the evil that encompasses us. The billows surge about us, the streams of destruction make us afraid, and death stares us in the face. O hear our prayer, deliver us, incline Thyself unto us, and be gracious unto us! Redeem us and save us!" The flood was produced by a union of the male waters, which are above the firmament, and the female waters issuing from the earth. The upper waters rushed through the space left when God removed two stars out of the constellation Pleiades. Afterward, to put a stop to the flood, God had to transfer two stars from the constellation of the Bear to the constellation of the Pleiades. That is why the Bear runs after the Pleiades. She wants her two children back, but they will be restored to her only in the future world. There were other changes among the celestial spheres during the year of the flood. All the time it lasted, the sun and the moon shed no light, whence Noah was called by his name, "the resting one," for in his life the sun and the moon rested. The ark was illuminated by a precious stone, the light of which was more brilliant by night than by day, so enabling Noah to distinguish between day and night. The duration of the flood was a whole year. It began on the seventeenth day of Heshwan, and the rain continued for forty days, until the twenty-seventh of Kislew. The punishment corresponded to the crime of the sinful generation. They had led immoral lives, and begotten bastard children, whose embryonic state lasts forty days. From the twenty seventh of Kislew until the first of Siwan, a period of one hundred and fifty days, the water stood at one and the same height, fifteen ells above the earth. During that time all the wicked were destroyed, each one receiving the punishment due to him. Cain was among those that perished, and thus the death of Abel was avenged. So powerful were the waters in working havoc that the corpse of Adam was not spared in its grave. On the first of Siwan the waters began to abate, a quarter of an ell a day, and at the end of sixty days, on the tenth day of Ab, the summits of the mountains showed themselves. But many days before, on the tenth of Tammuz, Noah had sent forth the raven, and a week later the dove, on the first of her three sallies, repeated at intervals of a week. It took from the first of Ab until the first of Tishri for the waters to subside wholly from the face of the earth. Even then the soil was so miry that the dwellers in the ark had to remain within until the twenty-seventh day of Heshwan, completing a full sun year, consisting of twelve moons and eleven days. Noah had experienced difficulty all along in ascertaining the state of the waters. When he desired to dispatch the raven, the bird said: "The Lord, thy Master, hates me, and thou dost hate me, too. Thy Master hates me, for He bade thee take seven pairs of the clean animals into the ark, and but two pairs of the unclean animals, to which I belong. Thou hatest me, for thou dost not choose, as a messenger, a bird of one of the kinds of which there are seven pairs in the ark, but thou sendest me, and of my kind there is but one pair. Suppose, now, I should perish by reason of heat or cold, would not the world be the poorer by a whole species of animals? Or can it be that thou hast cast a lustful eye upon my mate, and desirest to rid thyself of me?" Where unto Noah made answer, and said: "Wretch! I must live apart from my own wife in the ark. How much less would such thoughts occur to my mind as thou imputest to me!" The raven's errand had no success, for when he saw the body of a dead man, he set to work to devour it, and did not execute the orders given to him by Noah. Thereupon the dove was sent out. Toward evening she returned with an olive leaf in her bill, plucked upon the Mount of Olives at Jerusalem, for the Holy Land had not been ravaged by the deluge. As she plucked it, she said to God: "O Lord of the world, let my food be as bitter as the olive, but do Thou give it to me from Thy hand, rather than it should be sweet, and I be delivered into the power of men."
