פירוש על בראשית 8:2

ויסכרו מעינות AND THE FOUNTAINS … WERE STOPPED –– When they were opened, it was stated that all fountains were opened (7:11), whilst here the word all is omitted: the reason is that such of them as were essential to the world were left unstopped, such as the hot springs of Tiberias and their like (Sanhedrin 108a).

ויסכדו מעינות תהום. The wells of the deep closed up. The Torah here hints that the waters beneath the earth had risen in proportion to the rain descending from the heavens. These two phenomena go hand in hand. Our verse alludes to this fact by mentioning the withdrawal of the waters beneath the earth as occurring simultaneously with the cessation of the rain from the heavens. We have pointed out previously that these two types of waters complement each other, enabling growth to occur (Taanit 28).

ויסכרו, they were shut, i.e. prevented from adding further turbulence on the surface of the waters which had flooded the globe. As a result of the wind blowing, the earth gradually began to dry out, the moisture being blown away, gradually. However, these subterranean wells were not all of them shut off. This enabled some of the waters on the surface of the globe to flow back gradually into the bowels of the earth from which they had come forth. While it is true that at the time these waters had risen to the surface they had found many more apertures through which to rise, and their appearance on the surface had been rapid, now it seeped back at a much slower pace.

ויכלא הגשם, “the rain ceased.” Here the Torah cannot refer to the rain that descended as part of the deluge, seeing that this rain had stopped already on the 27th of Kislev, after 40 days. The Torah reports here that during this period of over 200 days after the first of Sivan and the family of Noach and the animals leaving the ark, no normal rainfall occurred. The strong prevailing winds at this time prevented any rain clouds from forming and descending. The purpose of the wind was to gradually restore the atmosphere to its traditional dryness.

For which the world had need. You might ask: If the world has need of them, why were they not created at the time of Creation? The answer is: Before the Flood they were not needed, as people were healthy and robust. After the Flood, people became weak [and there was a need for them].

סכר ,ויסכרו verwandt mit סגר: schließen. Auch שכר ist nichts anderes als eine Lücke schließen, ersetzen, ergänzen, daher: Lohn.

ויסכרו מעינות תהום רבה, “The subterranean sluices of the earth were shut down;” Rashi points out that the absence here of the word: כל, “all,” i.e. all these sluices, is proof that some of these springs were left open for healing purposes so that man could enjoy them in the future. [Spas such as Marienbad, Karlsbad, Leukerbad, etc. Ed.] The hot springs of Tiberias are quoted by Rashi as an example. If you were to ask that according to the opinion quoted in the Midrash that the deluge did not affect the land of Israel, whence did the hot springs in Tiberias originate? 1) There are similar hot mineral springs all over the world, Tiberias just happens to be the only such in the Holy Land. 2) When the Torah first wrote about these springs having been opened at the time of the deluge, (7,11) when the Torah there spoke about “all the springs,” it clearly included the hot springs of Tiberias, although rain may not have fallen in the Holy Land during that period. When the springs closed, the ones in Tiberias were one of the several that remained open.

ויכלא means was restrained. withheld, as (Psalms 40:12) “Thou wilt not withhold (תכלא) thy mercies” and (Genesis 23:6) “None of us will withhold (יכלה) from thee.’’

וארבות השמים, those “windows” of the heavens had already closed after the forty days of rainfall. Now no more water inundated the earth either from above or from below.

ויסכרו מעיינות תהום, this is not really the logical place where we would have expected to find this verse. Rather, we would have expected it after 7,17, before continuing with that the waters continued to rise further. The reason it was inserted here is that the Torah wished to mention together all the causes that contributed to the termination of the deluge.

ויכלא הגשם, the Torah mentions this to tell us that not even normal rainfall still occurred during this period when the earth returned to normal.

ויסכרו, the word is spelled with the letter כ,.which in this instance is used instead of the customary letter ג, in the root סגר. The construction is not unique, as we also find it in Psalms 63,12 כי יסכר פי דובר שקר, “when the mouth of liars is stopped.”