פירוש על בראשית 8:1

ויזכור אלהים AND GOD REMEMBERED— This Divine Name really signifies the God of Strict Justice but it is transformed into Divine Mercy through the prayers of the righteous, whilst the evil practised by wicked people transforms Divine Mercy into Strict Justice, as it is said (Genesis 6:5) “And the Lord ('ה) saw that the wickedness of man was great” and (Genesis 5:7) “And the Lord ('ה) said, “I will blot out etc.”— yet in these passages the Name ('ה) is מדת רחמים, that signifying Divine Mercy (Genesis Rabbah 33:3).

AND G-D REMEMBERED NOAH, AND EVERY LIVING THING, AND ALL THE CATTLE. The remembrance of Noah was because he was a perfectly righteous man, and He had made a covenant with him to save him. The word “Noah” here includes his children that were there with him. Scripture did not mention them specifically, though, for they were saved by his merit. However, the remembrance stated concerning beast and cattle was not on account of merit, for among living creatures there is no merit or guilt save in man alone. But the remembrance concerning them was Because He remembered His holy word¹⁰⁸Psalms 105:42. which He had spoken, causing the world to come into existence, and the Will which was before Him at the creation of the world arose before Him and He desired the existence of the world with all the species that He created therein. Thus He now saw fit to bring them forth so that they should not perish in the ark. Scripture does not mention the fowl and the creeping things for the remembrance of the living thing is similar to their remembrance, and the companion thereof telleth concerning it.¹⁰⁹Job 36:33. That is, since the remembrance of the fowl and creeping things would be the same type of remembrance as that of all animals—i.e., the remembrance of His holy word—one implies the other.

ויזכר אלוקים את נח. G'd remembered Noach. The reason the Torah was not content to mention that G'd remembered Noach but added that He remembered all the beasts that were in the ark with him may have been that the animals by themselves already warranted that G'd should remember them.

ויזכר, there is no “remembering” as far as G’d is concerned, seeing that He could not have “forgotten” something. When the Torah, nonetheless, uses such terms as “He remembered” as applying to G’d, this is a figure of speech enabling the reader to employ his imagination and to realise that such wording introduces an activity by G’d now which had been latent for a while previously. We have numerous examples of such a term being used when a period of apparent inactivity by G’d had come to an end. Compare Leviticus 24,45 וזכרתי את בריתי, where the subject is that after a period of retribution, events occur which make it appear as if G’d had remembered His covenant only at that time. There are numerous other examples of this type. Here, it describes the fact that G’d concerned himself with the great discomfort experienced by all the people and creatures in the ark after such a long period of being cooped up.

ויזכר אלוקים את נח, “G-d remembered Noach, etc.” It would have been more appropriate for the Torah to write that “G-d remembered Noach and his sons, etc.” After all, we know that they too were beneficiaries of His presence since the Torah wrote in 9,8 “G-d spoke to Noach and to his sons, etc.” Why then did the Torah here mention only Noach as the one to whom G-d spoke? It is possible to understand the word את in front of the word נח as a reference to his sons. This would certainly not be the first time that the word את is used as a רבוי, a word which alludes to something additional which the Torah had not spelled out in detail. Seeing that Noach’s sons were extensions of his own self, the Torah did not see fit to mention them separately at this stage. We find a similar occurrence in Exodus 1,1 where the Torah mentions את יעקב, and Shemot Rabbah interprets the word את as a reference to all the people who descended to Egypt because they were “extensions” of Yaakov. This meant that sons and wives were automatically included in the people whose fate G-d had “remembered.” As to the fact that the Torah specifically refers to the animals and all other creatures in the Ark with Noach, something which at first glance makes it appear as if their fates were of greater concern to G-d than that of Noach’s wife, his sons and their wives, this is not so. We distinguish between השגחה כללית, and השגחה פרטית, G-d’s general overall concern and supervision of their fate, and G-d’s specific individual supervision of someone’s fate. Whereas the animals, etc., qualified for G-d’s general concern, Noach and his family qualified for G-d’s specific concern. Hence the word את is an indication that G-d’s specific concern extended also to the members of Noach’s family.
Alternatively, the reason Torah chose to mention G-d’s concern for the domestic beasts and the free-roaming animals was to draw our attention to the fact that He displayed no such concern for the birds; hence the birds are not mentioned in this verse. The reason may have been that seeing that the mammals were all created on the sixth day of creation, i.e. the same day as man, they shared special consideration by G-d with man; the birds which had been created already on the fifth day did not enjoy this distinction. This may also be reflected in the wording אשר אתו בתיבה “who were with him in the Ark.” The Torah wanted to stress that there was something that man and the other mammals shared to the exclusion of other phenomena on earth, namely G-d’s especial concern for their fates. It is noteworthy that the same word את occurs in the narrative of the Torah when it describes both man’s and the mammal’s creation on the sixth day. Please compare Genesis 1,24-25. The words אשר אתו in our verse here may be an allusion to that verse in 1,24.

The merit that they did not corrupt... This implies that the other animals corrupted their ways on their own, not due to demons. Otherwise, what was the merit of these animals? The same is implied by, “They did not cohabit in the ark,” meaning, on their own. (Kitzur Mizrachi) Both merits were needed, since “not corrupting their ways” was not an active mitzvah; it was merely refraining from sin. (Although it says in Makkos 23b that he who passively refrains from a sin is rewarded as if he did a mitzvah, but it says in Kiddushin 39b that this applies only when a chance to sin presented itself but he held back.) Therefore the animals needed also the merit of not cohabiting in the ark, which was self-imposed abstinence from permitted behavior. But this merit alone was insufficient, as it somewhat resembled doing a mitzvah without being commanded, [which is a lesser merit]. For we have no source to indicate that the animals were forbidden to cohabit in the ark. Hashem forbade only Noach and his sons. Although Rashi later says that, “Let them spread over the earth” (v. 17), teaches that the animals had a prohibition to propagate in the ark, they accepted this upon themselves without Hashem’s command. Why does the verse not say that Hashem remembered also the birds and Noach’s sons? It seems the answer is: Cham, and the raven, sinned by cohabiting in the ark. That is why Noach’s sons and the birds are not mentioned. [If so, why are beasts and animals mentioned, when the dog cohabited in the ark (Bereishis Rabba 36:7)? The answer is:] There is an uncertainty about dogs. Perhaps they are in the category of “beasts”; perhaps in that of “animals.” Although Heaven surely knows, still, the Sages disagreed about it. Thus we see that Hashem’s will is not to resolve it, and therefore, Scripture does not omit either beasts or animals [although dogs are included in one of these two categories]. (Nachalas Yaakov)

זכר .ויזכור verwandt mit סכר verschließen, also: im Gedächtnis bewahren und festhalten. — ׳אלקי, nach der Bemerkung der Weisen war diese Rettung und Wiederherstellung eine nach Gottes Gerechtigkeit verdiente, selbst ohne Rücksicht auf die sich an dieselbe knüpfende Fürsorge für die neue Zukunft des Geschlechtes, daher dieser Gottesname in dieser Erzählung hervortritt.

ויעבר אלוקים רוח על הארץ, “ G–d made wind pass over the earth;” this was the same wind of which the Torah in Genesis 1,2 had written that it was “hovering” over the surface of the waters. In other words, at this point the earth had basically reverted to what it had been before the creation of light. It was this “wind,” G–d made use of now to repair the damage earth had sustained by making the waters subside.

ויזכור אלקים את נח, “G-d remembered Noach;” G-d remembered that for a full year Noach had fed the entire animal kingdom that was with him in the ark, playing “waiter” for them.

‘ויזכור אלהים את נח וגו AND GOD REMEMBERED NOAH etc. — What did He remember regarding the cattle? The merit that no perversion of their way had been seen amongst them previously to the Flood, and that they lived apart in the Ark.

ויעבר אלוקים רוח על הארץ וישכו המים, G’d made this wind blow over the surface of the globe in order to prevent the waters from rising any further. We find the word שככה used in a similar sense, i.e. suppressing turbulence of matter or mind in Esther 7,10, and in Samuel II 11,20.the words תעלה חמת describe the exact opposite. The King’s reaction to Haman’s hanging calmed him down, whereas anger, turbulent emotions coming to the surface are described as “rising”, תעלה. The word שככה is therefore aptly translated as something abating.

ויסוכו המים, “the waters subsided.” The expression is parallel to the one in Esther 7,10 which describes the king’s anger as subsiding with the words וחמת המלך שככה, the letters ס and ש being interchangeable letters on frequent occasions. Alternatively, the word is parallel to the root סתר as in הסתר, meaning “hiding, a form of receding.” According to סדר עולם, the waters that had come forth from the bowels of the earth during the deluge, now receded back to their habitat within the bowels of the globe.

A spirit of comforting. Rashi is answering the question: If it was an actual wind, why is written afterwards, “And the water subsided”? On the contrary, it is written (Tehillim 147:8), “He blows His wind; water runs.” [I.e., wind does not calm the waters.] (Devek Tov) Alternatively, Rashi knows this because it says, “Over the earth.” How could a wind blow over the earth’s surface when the water covered the earth? But if it was “a spirit of comforting,” it is understandable. “Over the earth” then means, “On account of the matters of the earth.” In other words, for the sake of man who dwells on the earth.

Another reason is that the Torah includes in that statement that G'd considered all the hard and menial work Noach was subjected to in looking after all the animals under his care. G'd had pity on Noach. The Torah wanted to emphasise that G'd's major concern was Noach and not the animals.

וישכו, Wurzel שכך. Dieser Ausdruck weist darauf hin, dass die Wirksamkeit des Wassers nicht bloß eine mechanisch zerstörende, sondern zugleich eine chemisch auf- lösende gewesen. Sie waren, nach einer Bemerkung (Sanhedrin 108. b) רותחין, siedend. שכך iGegensatz des Siedens und Wallens einer Flut: חמת המלך שככה (Esther 7, 10). — Verwandt ist שכך in dieser Weise mit שגג, dem Gegensatz von זןד מזיד, sieden. שגג ist nicht zu verwechseln mit שגג .שגה ist der Irrtum aus Sorglosigkeit. Das Unrecht ist, dass man da ruhig und sorglos gewesen, wo man beides nicht hätte sein sollen. Ganz ähnlich wie שֶלִי ,שַל, was aus Versehen geübt wird, von שלו ,שלה, ruhig, sorglos sein. In Beziehung auf unser Geschick ist Sorglosigkeit, Ruhe, etwas sehr Gutes, in Beziehung auf unser Verhalten, etwas sehr Schlechtes; hier heißt es: אשרי איש מפחד נתמיד dort: שגה .פחדו בציון חטאים hingegen ist ein gerade durch zu intensive Geistestätigkeit veranlasster Irrtum. Es bezeichnet eine solche Eingenommenheit des Geistes von einer Gedankenrichtung oder einem Gegenstande, dass er dadurch von allem andern abgezogen wird und es außer acht lässt. Daher auch שוגה ביין ,באהבתה תשגה תמיד. Darum kommt in שגגה פ׳ קרבנות vom praktischen Irrtum des Volkes, שגיה vom theoretischen Irrtum der Sanhedrin vor. (Daher die Verwandtschaft von שגה mit .שגח השגית: seine Aufmerksamkeit intensiv auf etwas richten, שגע: das völlige Gefesseltsein von einer Idee, eine fixe Idee haben, wahnsinnig sein. Selbst שכח heißt ein Vergessen durch Eingenommensein von anderen Gedankenrichtungen, während נשה ein direktes Fahrenlassen aus Gleichgültigkeit ist, צור ילדך תשי ותשכח אל מחוללך, "wenn erst dein Hort dich geboren haben wird, wirst du ihn völlig vergessen, ist dir doch Gott, selbst während er dich noch zeugte, aus den Gedanken gekommen!" Aus dieser Verwandtschaft von שכח mit שגה erklärt sich׳s, wie im Chaldäischen אשכח: finden heißen kann. Es heißt: seinen Sinn auf einen Gegenstand richten, eigentlich: suchen, wie auch im Hebräischen מצא finden und suchen heißt).

וישכו המים, “the waters subsided.” The wording proves that the waters were almost boiling hot. [Subsiding, meaning that they had bubbled previously. Ed.] The expression שככ is used also for King Ahasverus’ angers subsiding in Esther 7,10. Compare Sanhedrin 108 on that verse.

ויעבר אלהים רוח AND GOD MADE A WIND (or SPIRIT) TO PASS — A spirit of consolation and relief passed before Him.

ויעבד אלוקים רוח על הארץ וישבו המים. G'd made a wind pass over the earth and the waters subsided. The Torah here wishes to tell us that G'd had commanded the waters to become tumultuous just as He had commanded the waters during the six days of creation to swarm with fish, etc. Here G'd commanded the waters to conduct themselves with their full power; as a result of that the remains of the creatures which had died disintegrated completely. Had it not been for this fact there would have been no point in verse 24 telling us that the waters swelled on earth for 150 days. After all, the remains of all creatures had already disintegrated previously. Until G'd remembered Noach (our verse) the waters had no reason to act differently than the instructions they had received from G'd.

על הארץ OVER THE EARTH — Because of what was happening on earth.

וישכו AND THE WATERS ASSUAGED — The word occurs again (Esther 2:1), “when the wrath of the king was assuaged (כשוך)”, and it means there abatement of anger.