ליטעראַטור פֿון בית שני אויף בראשית 7:11

3. This calamity happened in the six hundredth year of Noah's government, [age,] in the second month, (14) called by the Macedonians Dius, but by the Hebrews Marchesuan: for so did they order their year in Egypt. But Moses appointed that ú Nisan, which is the same with Xanthicus, should be the first month for their festivals, because he brought them out of Egypt in that month: so that this month began the year as to all the solemnities they observed to the honor of God, although he preserved the original order of the months as to selling and buying, and other ordinary affairs. Now he says that this flood began on the twenty-seventh [seventeenth] day of the forementioned month; and this was two thousand six hundred and fifty-six [one thousand six hundred and fifty-six] years from Adam, the first man; and the time is written down in our sacred books, those who then lived having noted down,(15) with great accuracy, both the births and deaths of illustrious men.

[23] We have a symbol of this dire happening in the great deluge described in the words of the lawgiver, when the “cataracts of heaven” poured forth the torrents of absolute wickedness in impetuous downfall and the “fountains from the earth,” that is from the body (Gen. 7:11), spouted forth the streams of each passion, streams many and great, and these, uniting and commingling with the rainpour, in wild commotion eddied and swirled continually through the whole region of the soul which formed their meeting-place.