창세기 7:11의 주석

בחדש השני IN THE SECOND MONTH — Rabbi Eliezer said, “This is the month Marcheshvan”; Rabbi Joshua said, “This is the month Eyar (Rosh Hashanah 11b).

בשנת שש מאות שנה לחיי נח, although Noach’s age had already been reported before, here the Torah adds further precise data about the month and the day of the month when the deluge commenced. בחודש השני, there is a disagreement between the scholars of the Talmud if the “second month” refers to a count based on the lunar year or the solar year. According to the view that the world was created in the month of Tishrey, (i.e. that Adam was created on the first of that moth), the month described here is the month of Marcheshvan, whereas according to the view that the universe was created in the month of Nissan, the deluge would have started in the month of Iyar. Rabbi Yonathan (Rosh Hashanah 11) decided that the correct version is that of Rabbi Eliezer who translated the verse בירח האתנים in Kings I 8,2 as the “ancient” month. It appears that this month was called איתנים, seeing it was the month (תשרי) in which the universe had been created. It was only after the Jewish people left Egypt, that they adopted the month of Nissan as the first month of their calendar year, (partially), as we know from Exodus 12,1-2. The verses there make sense only if the other nations had not used the month of Nissan as the first month of the calendar year.

To release their waters. [Rashi is explaining that] this was not an ordinary bursting, which conveys that the object is now broken. This bursting conveys that the wellsprings grew stronger.

פקח ,פקע) ,בקע) : auseinanderreißen. — עין ,מעין : Quell und Auge. Das Auge ist, wie schon bemerkt, der Quell, durch welchen die sichtbare Welt in den Geist einströmt. So auch באר ein Brunnen und klar machen. חפר ausgraben und untersuchen. Die Wurzel von עון :עין (wie זון :זין), kommt nur noch in עונה, die Zeit vor. Heißt עון als Wurzel von עין: aus dem Verborgenen in die Sichtbarkeit treten, so dürfte mit derselben Wurzel die Zeit, als der aus der verborgenen Vergangenheit quellende, in der sichtbaren Gegenwart sich dahin bewegende, in die verborgene Zukunft sich verlierende Strom der Dinge (מן העולם עד העולם) gezeichnet sein. — תהום, von המם, das Gewoge, die große, mächtige Flut. Dem auch sonst vorhandenen Wasser wurden weite Öffnungen aufgerissen. — ארב ,חרב ,ערב ,ארב ,ארבות: das noch zurück-- gehaltene Bestreben hervor- und in etwas hineinzustürzen. ערב ist das bereits Eingedrungensein des Fremdartigen. חרב ist die völlige Überwältigung durch etwas Fremdartiges. אֳרֻבָה ist also eine Vorkehrung, durch welche etwas zum plötzlichen Hervorstürzen bereit gehalten wird.

נבקעו WERE BROKEN UP — so that they might give forth their waters.

נבקעו, they began to crack open, and to emerge from below. As a result of tremendous amounts of rain having poured down from the skies, the crust of the earth was weakened, so that the waters underneath found it easy to burst forth in streams all over the place. This process, once started continued and accelerated and even when the 40 days of rain had stopped, the waters kept rising for 150 days due to the waters coming out of the bowels of the earth.

תהום רבה THE GREAT DEEP — Measure for measure: they had sinned with רבה רעת האדם “great was the evil of man” (i. e. their sin is described by the word רבה “great”) and they were therefore punished by תהום רבה “the great deep” (i.e. the expression “great’’ is used of the instrument by which they were punished for their great sin) (Sanhedrin 108a).

תהום רבה, the noun תהום here is used as a feminine noun, as it is also in Ezekiel 31,4. However, the same noun also occurs in the masculine mode in Psalms 42,8.

וארבות השמים נפתחו, the letter ו at the beginning of the word וארבות refers to something in addition. The Torah reports that after the “windows,” or storage chambers of the waters in the heavens had opened and poured down rain in great quantities, also the fountains in the earth below joined in flooding the surface of the globe. We already explained the procedure in our commentary on verse 4. The letter ו is used in a similar fashion in Isaiah 64,4 הן אתה קצפת ונחטא, “You are angry seeing that we have sinned.” Similar constructions are found in Judges 4,21 והוא נרדם ויעף “seeing that he was tired he fell asleep.” Or, Leviticus 9,22 וירד מעשות העולה, “seeing that he had performed the rites of the burnt-offering” he descended.” Seeing there was so much rain, the Torah, using a figure of speech, describes the source of the rain as the ארבות השמים נפתחו, “the windows of the sky having opened.” The term ארבות השמים also appears in Kings II 7,19 where the grain which had been in short supply is predicted by the skeptical captain as being inadequate to supply the necessary quantity even if all of the celestial windows were to be opened and it would rain down from there.