Commentaire sur La Genèse 8:19

למשפחתיהם AFTER THEIR FAMILIES — They took upon themselves to keep to their specie.

כל החיה, as we explained on verse 17. הרמש וכל העוף, followed by כל הרומש על הארץ, including both the domesticated animals and the free-roaming beasts.

למשפחותיהם יצאו מן התבה, “they left the ark according to their respective families.” In Sanhedin 108 this is understood as למשפחותיהם ולא הם.This statement is not elaborated on there. [The simplest interpretation is that only those animals capable of reproducing left the ark; any animal which was sterile did not live on after the deluge for any length of time. Some commentators believe that whereas the animals left the ark without awaiting instructions from either Noach or G’d, Noach and family awaited such instructions. Noach demanded a promise from G’d that He would not again bring a flood upon the earth. Still other commentators view the word למשפחותיהם here as a hint that the animals undertook henceforth to mate only with their own species.

They accepted... Rashi is answering the question: No beast or bird remained in the world. How could they go to their families? Thus Rashi explains that they accepted to keep to their own species, i.e., to be a family. And this is what R. Yochanan meant when he said (Sanhedrin 108b), “According to their families, but not they themselves.” (R. Yaakov Taryosh)

למשפחתיהם, beim Hinausgehen wird noch einmal das große למיניהם- Gesetz der lebendigen organischen Welt als Geleit gegeben. — משפחה, Wurzel שפח, verwandt mit צבא ,סבא ,שפה ,ספה ,ספח ,שבע ,שבע ,שפע, usw. die alle eine Fülle, eine Ansammlung vieler zu einer Masse bedeuten. (In Parenthese sei bemerkt, wie die dasjenige Individuum, welches in der nichtjüdischen Anschauung auf der tiefsten ,שפחה sozialen Stufe steht, nach jüdischer, in ihrer Benennung ausgedrückter Anschauung, als Mitglied in die Familie gehoben wird.)

למשפחותיהם יצאו מן התבה, “they left the ark as families.” On the face of it this sounds incredible; the Torah wishes to tell us that the animals which prior to the deluge had mated only with members of their own species were rewarded by being able to continue to do so. This was also why these pairs had seen fit to enter the ark together in the first place.

למשפחותיהם, according to their species, every species separately.