פרשת נח תשי"ב - היציאה מן התיבה

And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged;

"and Elokim remembered Noah and all the animals" - The remembrance of Noah was because he was righteous and whole and God established a covenant to save him. And, Noah includes his offspring who were with him there, they (the offspring) were not mentioned because they were saved through his (Noah's) merit. However, the remembering of the domestic and wild animals is not because of some merit. This is because of all the possessors of souls, only mankind has merit and fault. Rather, the remembrance of them (domestic and wild animals)is that He remembered His own holy words that He spoke and the world came into being. Additionally, the desire to create the world which He had, came before Him and He desired the existence of the world and the species He had created in it. He therefore acted to take them out, as they could not persist in the ark. He did not remember the birds and the fish because the remembrance of the land mammals included them.

But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him to the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth; and he put forth his hand, and took her, and brought her in unto him into the ark.

And God spoke unto Noah, saying:

And he sent forth a raven, and it went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.

And he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground.

וישלחנו, although in other instances when the word שלח is used it never has a dagesh, reinforcing it, here, seeing the dispatch of these angels was not in order to assist, but in order to destroy, this is indicated by the change in the mode and reinforcing the word with the dot in the letter ל. We find another example of this construction in a similar context in Deut. 32,24, ושן בהמות אשלח בם, “the teeth of beasts I will set loose against them,” where the verb שלח is also used destructively. The same is true of Psalms 78,45, ישלח בהם ערב “He dispatched ferocious beasts against them.”

וישלח And HE SENT FORTH — This does not mean merely “sending on an errand”, but “sending away”, “letting go” — he freed her to go where she liked, and thus he could see whether the waters abated, because if she could find a resting place she would not return to him.

And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dried.

יבשה WAS [THE EARTH] DRIED — It became hard as is its normal condition.