Commentaire sur La Genèse 7:8

OF CLEAN BEASTS, AND OF BEASTS THAT ARE NOT CLEAN. 9. TWO AND TWO THERE CAME IN UNTO NOAH. Rashi explained: “They were all equal with respect to this number for the last number of any species was two.” Others⁷⁹R’dak. said that the meaning of “two” is pairs, meaning that they came couplewise, male and female together.
In my opinion, the matter was thus: two — a male and a female — came of their own accord from each species, and Noah added by bringing six additional pairs from the clean ones since those that came to be saved arrived of their own accord while he busied himself for the sake of the commandment with those that were destined for sacrifice, for so it was told to him.⁸⁰See Ramban above, 6:20. And the meaning of the verse, And Noah did according unto all that the Eternal commanded him,⁸¹Verse 5. is, as the Rabbis have said in Bereshith Rabbah,⁷⁸32:9. that he was to prepare to bring in the cattle, beast, and fowl, meaning the clean ones, those which he himself went after and brought to his house. The verse which states a third time, as G-d hath commanded Noah,⁸²Verse 9. means that he did as He had commanded him concerning entering the ark, for this verse is connected with the above verse: And Noah came in.⁷⁷Verse 7. The verse thus states that Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives came into the ark along with two and two of the cattle and fowl and creeping things that came to him in order to enter into the ark. All of them came with him, entering the ark because of the waters of the flood,⁷⁷Verse 7. as G-d commanded him. Scripture then returns and sets forth the month and the day in which the flood came⁸³Verse 11. and how he entered the ark, stating that on that selfsame day when the rains began — and not before — Noah entered the ark, and with him were all living things.

מן הבהמה, we explained this already on verse 2 of this chapter.

ומן הבהמה אשר איננה טהורה, “and of the category of mammal that was not pure, etc.;” This “clumsy” way of describing “impure,” טמאה, by using eight extra letters merely to avoid having to use the expression: “impure,” caused the sages in the Talmud Pessachim 3, to teach us how concerned the Torah is that we use only dignified language even when describing repulsive phenomena. Actually, the Talmud could have derived this already from verse two in our chapter, i.e. אשר לא טהורה היא, but the Torah preferred to use this fine point when referring to beasts which basically are suitable as sacrifices on the altar, i.e. domesticated mammals, and free roaming mammals, although the latter do not qualify for the altar even though they may be allowed for us to eat. According to the Talmud, the word טהורה in verse 2 of our chapter would have had to be spelled with the letter ו, i.e. plene, which it is not in our texts.