Citazione Commento su I Re 17:6

It appears to me that when we keep in mind these comments of the author of חובת הלבבות, we can better appreciate why Solomon wrote in Proverbs 3,5: בטח אל ה' בכל לבך, “trust towards G’d with all your heart,” instead of writing בטח בה' בכל לבך, “trust in G’d with all your heart.” He wanted to alert us that a person who truly puts his faith in G’d is someone whose thoughts are oriented only towards G’d. Another example of such a construction is found in Psalms 25,15 עיני תמיד אל ה', “my eyes are ever toward G’d.” We have already mentioned that Elijah was a prime example of someone who did not try and survive by looking for logical means to do so, but that he took refuge in a place where there was no possible chance to find food and that he relied on G’d to provide it for him in His own way. This is the highest level of trust in G’d.

וישלח את העורב, “he sent out the raven, etc.” Our sages in Sanhedrin 108 claim that the raven had an incontrovertible argument against Noach, claiming that both G-d and Noach hated it. G-d hated the impure creatures, seeing that He had commanded Noach to save only a single pair of each. Noach hated the raven seeing that he was prepared to endanger its survival as a species by sending it on a dangerous mission when he could have sent out a dove or another pure bird of which there were seven pairs. It therefore taunted Noach by accusing him of having sexual designs on its mate. Noach retorted by telling the raven that it was being deliberately vicious seeing it was well aware that he had refrained from indulging in sexual relations in the Ark even with his own wife, someone with whom he was permitted to have relations. Why then would the raven suspect him of having designs on a species which was forbidden to him, i.e the raven’s mate? The raven was not willing to accept Noach’s argument. As a result, Noach told the raven that it would neither be fit to eat nor to be offered as a sacrifice to G-d. At that point G-d intervened and told Noach to take the raven back into the Ark at least until the waters on the earth had dried off. G-d explained that in the future a certain righteous individual (the prophet Elijah) would dry out the world (decree drought) and at that time G-d would need the raven who would carry food to Elijah who would be in hiding at that time. (compare Kings I 17,8). The word יבשת, “dry land,” is closely related to the word תשבי, a favourite description of the prophet Elijah whose home town appears to have been Tishbi or something similar.

עד יבשת המים UNTIL THE WATERS WERE DRIED UP—The real sense of the verse is what it plainly implies (until the waters of the Flood were dried up); but the Midrashic explanation (Genesis Rabbah 33:5) is: The raven went to and fro in the world being kept in readiness for another errand during the time when the rain was withheld and the waters dried up in the days of Elijah, as it is said, (1 Kings 17:6) “And the ravens brought him bread and flesh”.