Commentaire sur La Genèse 7:17

ותרם מעל הארץ AND IT WAS LIFTED UP ABOVE THE EARTH — It was eleven cubits deep in the water like a laden ship that has part of it sunk in the waters (Genesis Rabbah 32:9); the following verses prove that this is the meaning.

ויהי המבול ארבעים יום, day and night, as has been mentioned in verse 12. The night is usually included when the Torah speaks of יום, day. We have learned this already in Genesis 1,8 ויהי ערב ויהי בוקר יום אחד, “it was evening, it became morning, one day.”

ויהי המבול ארבעים יום, “The deluge continued for a period of 40 days.” According to Rashi, the first day, i.e. the 17th of the second month, does not count as one of the 40 days mentioned here, the reason being that the deluge started during the daylight hours, part of that date, i.e. the night, already having passed. Accordingly, the 40 days mentioned here ended on the 28th day of Kislev. Everybody questions Rashi’s commentary in view of his own commentary later on (8,3) that the words ויחסרו המים מקצה חמישים יום, “at the conclusion of 150 days the waters began to recede,” refers to the first day of Sivan. Rashi proceeds to make the following calculation: “on the 27th of of Kislev the rains ceased. We are left with 3 more days in Kislev, plus 29 days for Tevet, which amount to a total of 32. Adding a total of 118 days for the months of Shevat, Adar, Nissan, and Iyar, brings us to a total of 150. [2 of the last four months are presumed to have 29 days and 2 have 30 days. Ed.] According to this latest calculation by Rashi, the 17th of Marcheshvan forms part of the 150 days!

It was immersed in water. Rashi is answering the question: After forty days there was high water. Why did the ark not lift up before? Because, “It was immersed eleven cubits in water.”

ויהי המבול ארבעים יום, “the deluge lasted for 40 days;” how do we square this with verse 12 according to which the rain had continued for 40 days? We must assume that matters which had not been spelled out in the earlier verse have now been added, i.e. that after a period of 40 days of continuous rain and other manifestations of the deluge, the ark began to rise from its site. We find a similar construction in verse 19 where the waters are described as covering the mountains, after the Torah had first given details about the gradual inundation of high places on earth by the waters of the deluge. Had we only read verse 18 and the first half of verse 19, we would not have been able to imagine the extent of the flooding.

וירבו המים, when the waters had increased for forty days, and the waters of the underground wells were added to the rainwater, the latter were powerful enough to lift the ark and all the creatures inside. Due to its weight it had not risen from the ground until the force of the subterranean geysers lifted it, and the ark now floated on the waters.