Bereishit Rabba 33 Core Text Use alongside supplementary texts https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/267556?lang=bi

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When R. Joshua b. Levi visited Rome he saw there pillars covered with tapestry, in winter so that they should not contract, and in summer that they should not split. As he was walking in the street, he espied a poor man wrapped in a mat — others say, in half an ass's pack-saddle. To those pillars he applied the verse, ' Thy righteousness is like the mighty mountains' — where Thou givest, Thou givest in abundance ; while to the poor man he applied the verse, 'Thy judgments are like the great deep 7 — where Thou smitest, Thou smitest with force. 2

Alexander of Macedon visited King Kazia beyond the dark mountains. 3 He came forth, offering him golden bread on a golden tray. * Do I then need your gold ? ' he demanded. 'Had you then nothing to eat in your own country that you have come here ? * he retorted. ' I came only because I wished to see how you dispense justice/ was the reply.

As he sat with him a man came with a complaint against his neighbour. 'This man/ he stated, 'sold me a dunghill and I found a treasure in it/ The buyer argued, 'I bought a dunghill only/ while the vendor maintained, *I sold the dunghill and all it contained/ Said he [the king] to one: 'Have you a son?' 'Yes/ replied he. 'And have you a daughter?' he asked the other, 'Yes/ was the answer. 'Then marry them and let the treasure belong to both.'

He noticed him [Alexander] sitting astonished, and asked him, 'Have I then not judged well?' 'Yes/ he replied. 'Had this happened among you, how would you have judged ? ' ' I would have slain both and kept the treasure for myself.'

'Does rain descend in your country?' he asked. 'Yes.' 'Does the sun shine?' 'Yes.' ' Have you small cattle [sheep and goats] ? ' 'Yes,' he replied. ' By heaven ! 71 he exclaimed, ' it is not for your sake but for the sake of the cattle, as it is written, Man and beast Thou preservest, O Lord: Man for the sake of beast Thou preservest, O Lord.'

R. Judah b. R. Simon referred the verse to Noah. The Holy One, blessed be He, said : ' The righteousness [mercy] which I showed to Noah in the ark I showed him nowhere save on the mighty mountains ' : as it is written, And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat (Gen. vin, 8). 2 * Thy judgments are like the great deep ' ; the chastisement which I brought on his generation, I brought from nowhere else than the great deep, as it is written, on the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up (ib. vn, n). And when I remembered him, not him alone did I remember, but him and all that were with him in the Ark, as it is written, And God remembered Noah, and EVERY LIVING THING, etc.

2. There was a little city (Eccl. ix, 14): this alludes to the world; And few men within it (ib.), to the generation of the Flood; And there came a great king against it, and besieged it (ib.) — to the Holy One, blessed be He; And built great bulwarks against it (ib.) — ambushes and snares. 3 Now there was found in it a man poor and wise (ib. 15), viz. 1 Lit. ' curse the man ! ' 2

Yet no man remembered that same poor man (Eccl. loc. cit): said the Holy One, blessed be He: 'Since none of you remember him, / will remember him': hence, And God remembered Noah, etc. 2

3. The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works (Ps. cxlv, 9). R. Joshua b. Levi trans- lated: The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all, because they are His works. R. Samuel b. Nahman interpreted: The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all, for it is His nature to be com- passionate. 3 R. Joshua interpreted in R. Levi's name: The Lord is good to all, and He inspires mankind with His [spirit of] compassion.

R. Abba said: Should a year of famine commence to-morrow and men show compassion to each other, then the Holy One, blessed be He, will also be filled with compassion for them. In the days of R. Tanhuma Israel had need of a fast, 4 so they went to him and requested: 'Master, proclaim a fast.' He proclaimed a fast, for one day, then a second day, and then a third, yet no rain fell. Thereupon he ascended [the pulpit] and preached to them, saying: 'My sons! Be filled with compassion for each other, and then the Holy One, blessed be He, will be filled with compassion for you.* Now while they were distributing relief to the poor they saw a man give money to his divorced wife, whereupon they went to him [R. Tanhuma] and exclaimed, 'Why do we sit here while such misdeeds are perpetrated ! ' 'What then have you seen?' he inquired. 'We saw So-and- so give his divorced wife money/ He summoned them and asked him, 'Why did you give money to your divorced wife?* 'I saw her in great distress/ replied he, 'and was 1 He saved the world by sacrificing to God (cf. supra, xxvi, 1). Tanhuma, however, reads: Come thou and all thy house into the ark (Gen. VII, 1), which seems preferable. 2 Eccl. R. ix, 14, 15, §1. s Interpreting His works as the manner in which He rules. 4 On account of drought. 260 GENESIS (NOACH) [XXXIII. 3 filled with compassion for her/ Upon this R. Tanhuma turned his face upward and exclaimed: 'Sovereign of the Universe! This man, upon whom this woman has no claim for sustenance, yet saw her in distress and was filled with pity for her. Seeing then that of Thee it is written, The Lord is full of compassion and gracious (Ps. cm, 8), while we are Thy children, the children of Thy beloved ones, the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, how much the more shouldst Thou be filled with compassion for us!' Immediately the rain descended and the world enjoyed relief. 1

Our Teacher 2 was sitting and studying the Torah in front of the Babylonian Synagogue in Sepphoris, when a calf passed before him on its way to the slaughter and began to cry out, as though pleading, 'Save me!' Said he to it, 'What can I do for you? for this you were fashioned/ [As a punishment for his heartlessness] our Teacher suffered toothache for thirteen years. During these thirteen years no woman miscarried in Eretz Israel, and none suffered pain in childbirth.

3 After this period a creeping thing ran past his daughter. She was about to kill it, when he said to her, 'My daughter, let it be, for it is written, And His tender mercies are over all his works J ^

Our Teacher was very modest, and he used to say, T am prepared to do whatever any person tells me, except what the Family of Bathyra did for my ancestor [Hillel], for they relinquished their high office and promoted him. 5

And if R. Huna, the Resh Galutha, were to come up here [Palestine], I would rise before him, for he is descended from Judah, whereas I am from Benjamin; he is descended on the male side, while I am descended [from Judah] on the female side/ 6 Said R. Hiyya the Elder to him, 'Behold, he has comeP At this Rabbi's face turned pale. 'His coffin has come/ he added. 'Go and see who wants you without/ he ordered. He went out and found no one, where- upon he treated himself as banned for thirty days. 1

R. Jose [Assi] remarked: During these thirty days of his excommunication he taught Rab, his sister's son, all the [exegetical] principles of the Torah, while he [Rab] taught him the laws 2 of the Babylonians. 3 At the end of the thirty days Elijah, of blessed memory, came before Rabbi disguised as R. Hiyya the Elder, 4 laid his hand upon his teeth, and cured him. When R. Hiyya subsequently visited Rabbi he asked him, 'How is your tooth?' 'Since you laid your hand upon it it is cured/ he answered. 'I know nothing about it/ said he. On hearing this Rabbi showed him honour and set him on the inner [bench]. 5

Said R. Ishmael b. R. Jose to him, 'Even before me?' 'Heaven forfend/ replied he, 'let such a thing not be done in Israel!' 6

Our Teacher was singing the praises of R. Hiyya the Elder to R. Ishmael b. R. Jose. Said he [R. Ishmael b. R. Jose] to him: ' One day I saw him [R. Hiyya the Elder] at the baths but he did not make an obeisance before me.' 'Why did you not bow before him? 1 inquired he [our Teacher]. ' I was meditating on an Aggadah of the Psalms/ he answered. On hearing this he gave him two disciples who used to go in with him to the vapour room, lest he should stay too long there and become enfeebled. 7 Another interpretation: ' The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works.' As it is written, And God remembered Noah, etc. And Elohim (God) remembered Noah. R. Samuel b. Nahman said: Woe to the wicked who turn the Attribute of Mercy into the Attribute of Judgment. Wherever the Tetragrammaton ['Lord'] is employed it 1 He understood this to be Rabbi's meaning. 2 Perhaps: guiding principles of exegesis. 3 Rab being a Babylonian. * Elijah was thought to visit men quite frequently. 5 Nearest to Rabbi — this was a special mark of honour. • I do not promote him at your expense. 7 Meditating on sacred subjects in the baths is forbidden. Hence he assumed that he was given to absent-mindedness, in the course of which he might stay too long in the vapour room. Cf. I£id. 33a. 262 GENESIS (NOACH) [XXXIII. 3-4 connotes the Attribute of Mercy, as in the verse, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious (Ex. xxxiv, 6), yet it is written, And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great (Gen. vi, 5), And it repented the Lord that he had made man (ib. 6), And the Lord said; I will blot out man {ib. 7). Happy are the righteous who turn the Attribute of Judgment into the Attribute of Mercy. Wherever Elohim (God) is employed it connotes the Attri- bute of Judgment: Thus: Thou shalt not revile Elohim — God (Ex. xxii, 27) ; the cause of both parties shall come before Elohim — God (ib. 8) ; yet it is written, And Elohim heard their groaning, and Elohim remembered His covenant (ib. 11, 24); And Elohim remembered Rachel (Gen. xxx, 22); And Elohim remembered Noah. 1 What did He remember in his favour ? 2 That he provided for [the animals] the whole twelve months in the Ark, hence And God remembered Noah, and the spirit of justice approves it, 3 for the sake of the clean animals that were with him in the Ark. R. Leazar said: He was called [Noah] on account of his sacrifice, as it is written, And the Lord smelled the sweet (nihoah) savour (Gen. viii, 21). R. Jose b. R. Hanina said: On account of the resting of the Ark, as it is written, And the ark rested — wattanah (ib. 4). R. Johanan said: The planets did not function the whole twelve months. Said R. Jonathan to him, They did function, but their mark was imperceptible. R. Liezer said : They shall not cease (ib. 22) implies that they never ceased. R. Joshua deduced : * They shall not cease ' : hence it follows that they had ceased. 4 4. The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped (viii, 2). r. Leazar said : In connection with punishment it is written, 1 Thus in the former case the wicked made the Lord decree punishment, while in the latter Elohim showed mercy. Cf. supra, xn, 15. 2 Since there is no forgetfulness before Him, the Midrash assumes that the verse implies that He bore in mind something in his (Noah's) favour. z I.e. Elohim, which connotes justice, approved Noah's actions. 4 V. supra, xxv, 2, for notes. 263 XXXIII. 4-5] MIDRASH RABBAH On the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up (ib. vn, 11); but in connection with good it is written, The fountains also of the deep . . . were stopped, but not all the fountains, the exceptions being the great well [of Biram], the gulf [of Gaddor], and the cavern spring of Paneas. 1 And the ark rested in the seventh month . . . upon the mountains of Ararat (viii, 4): i.e. upon the mountain range Cordyene. 2 5. And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the halon [E.V. 'window'] of the ark (viii, 6). This supports the view that it w y as a window [trapdoor]. 3 And he sent forth a raven (viii, 7): thus it is written, He sent darkness, and it was dark (Ps. cv, 28). 4 And it went forth to and fro (yazo wa- sh ob). R. Judan said in the name of R. Judah b. R. Simon: It began arguing with him 5 : 'Of all the birds that thou hast here thou sendest none but me!' 'What need then has the world of thee ? ' he retorted ; ' for food ? for a sacrifice?' 6 R. Berekiah said in R. Abba's name: The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him [Noah]: 'Take it back, because the world will need it in the future/ ' When ? ' he asked. ' When the waters dry off from off the earth 3 (ib.). He replied: 'A righteous man will arise and dry up the world, 7 and I will cause him to have need of them [the 1 V. Sanh. 108a (Sonc. ed.), p. 740, n. 8; the bracketed additions are in accordance with the reading there, Th. ad loc. identifying the first two mentioned here with the two quoted from there. The hot springs of Tiberias are omitted, as only the strongest springs are mentioned, the cavern spring of Paneas being substituted. The last named is a city in the north of Palestine 0ast. : Csesarea Philippi, modern Baneas) whence the Jordan issues. S A district E. of the Tigris and S. of Armenia. 3 V. supra, xxxi, 11. * Translating: He (Noah) sent darkness, viz. the raven, which is dark- hued, and the raven found it dark — i.e. without light or hope, and so returned. * Lit. * giving him answers, refutations '. 'Wa-shob' (returning) is con- nected by a play on words with hasheb, the hifil form, * to answer.' 8 You are fit for neither. Cf. Sanh. 1086. 7 Viz. Elijah, who threatened drought, and the threat was fulfilled. 264 GENESIS (NOACH) [XXXIII. 5-6 ravens]/ as it is written, And the ravens ('orbim) brought him bread and flesh, etc. (1 Kings xvn, 6). R. Judah said: It refers to a town within the borders of Bashan called Arbo. 1 R. Nehemiah said: Ravens literally are meant, and whence did they bring him [food] ? From Jehoshaphat's table. 2 R. Akiba preached in Ginzak 3 on the theme of the Flood, and the audience did not weep, but when he mentioned the story of the raven they w T ept. 4 He then quoted this verse : The womb (rehem) forgetteth htm ; the worm feedeth sweetly on him; he shall be no more remembered ; and un- righteousness is broken as a tree (Job xxiv, 20). 'Rehem forgetteth ' : They [the generation of the Flood] forgot to be merciful to their fellow men, 5 therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, made His mercy forget them. ' The worm feedeth sweetly on him * : the worm became sweet through [feeding on] them. 6 ' He shall be no more remembered, and unrighteousness is broken as a tree ' ; R. Aibu said : It is not written, ' is uprooted, ' but ' is broken ' : i.e. like some- thing which is broken, yet produces another stock in exchange ; and to what does that allude ? To the generation of the Separation [of races]. 7 6. AND HE SENT FORTH A DOVE. . . BUTTHE dove found no rest, etc. (viii, 8 f.) : R. Judah b. Nahman said in the name of Resh Lakish: Had it found a place of rest, it would not have returned. Similarly, She dwelleth among the nations, she findeth no rest (Lam. 1, 3) : but had she [the nation] found rest, they would not have returned [to God]. Again, And among these nations shalt thou have no repose, and there shall be no rest for the sole 1 Th. conjectures that it is El Arbain in Transjordania. R. Judah main- tains that the citizens of this town were called Orbim, and it was they who supplied Elijah with food. 2 Lev. R. xrx, 1 ; Sanh. 1 13a; Hul. 5a. 3 A city in the North of Media Atropatene; v. Neub. Geogr. t p. 375. 4 Probably what is related at the beginning of this section, viz. that the raven would be required one day. They wept at God's marvellous foresight. The reading 'Job* of cur. edd. is obviously out of place. 5 Rehem is translated mercy, from rahem, to be merciful : he forgetteth to be merciful. 6 This corresponds to E.V. 7 Which succeeded the generation of the Flood in wickedness. 265 XXXIII. 6-7] MIDRASH RABBAH of thy foot (Dent, xxvm, 65) : but had they found it, they would not have returned. 1 And he stayed yet another seven days (viii, 10 ff .). R. Jose b. R. Hanina said : There were three periods of seven days in all. 2 And again he sent forth the dove . . . and the dove came in to him . . . and lo in her mouth an olive-leaf freshly plucked (taraf). What does taraf mean? Killed [slain], as you read, Joseph is without doubt torn in pieces — tarof toraf (Gen. xxxvii, 33). He said to her: 'Had you left it, it would have grown into a great tree/ 3 Whence did she bring it? R. Abba said: She brought it from the young shoots of Eretz Israel. R. Levi said: She brought it from the Mount of Olives, for Eretz Israel was not submerged by the Flood. Thus the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Ezekiel : Son of man, say unto her : Thou art a land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation (Ezek. xxn, 24). R. Birai 4 said: The gates of the Garden of Eden were opened for her, and from there she brought it. Said R. Abbahu : Had she brought it from the Garden of Eden, should she have not brought something better, e.g. cinnamon or the balsam leaf? But in fact she gave him a hint, saying to him [in effect] : ' Noah, better is bitterness from this source [God], than sweetness from your hand.' 5 AND HE STAYED YET OTHER SEVEN DAYS, etc. (viii, 12 ff.). This supports what R. Jose b. R. Hanina said: [He waited] three seven-day periods in all. 7. AND HE SENT FORTH THE DOVE, AND SHE RETURNED NOT AGAIN TO HIM ANYMORE, ANDIT CAME TO PASS IN THE SIX HUNDRED AND FIRST 1 Lam. R. 1, 3,3 29. s Two as stated in w. 10 and 12, while Yet other seven days implies that he had already waited this period before, between the return of the raven and the sending forth of the dove. % Thus she 'killed* its potentialities. Lev. R. xxxi end; Zeb. 113a. 4 In Lev. R. ad loc. the reading is: R. Berekiah. * S anh . 1086, 266 GENESIS (NOACH) [XXXIII. J YEAR, IN THE FIRST MONTH, THE FIRST DAY OF the month. We learned: The judgment of the genera- tion of the Flood lasted twelve months. 1 How Is this deduced? (i) In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month . . . the windows of heaven were opened (Gen. vn, u); and it is written, (ii) And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights (ib. 12): this embraces the rest of Marheshwan and Kislew; (iii) And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days (ib. 24) : this covers Tebeth, Shebat, Adar, Nisan, and lyar ; (iv) And the ark rested in the seventh months on the seventeenth day, upon the mountains of Ararat (ib. viii, 4) : that means Siwan, the seventh month from the descent of the rain. For sixteen days the water diminished at the rate of a cubit per four days, which is one and a half handbreadths per day. You may thus infer that the Ark was eleven cubits in the water, and it all drained off in sixty days. Thus you read, And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month (ib. 5) : that is Ab, the tenth from the descent of the rain. 2 Another interpretation 3 : (v) And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month [i.e. Tishri], on the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth (ib. viii, 13) 4 : 1 Supra, xxvnr, 9. 2 From the descent of the rain means from the beginning of the Flood. Thus from 17th Marheshwan to 17th lyar is seven months, while from Marheshwan to Ab inclusive is ten months. According to a different reading, however (which Rashi has adopted in his commentary on the Bible), the seventh month means from the end of the Flood, while the tenth is from the beginning. The calculation is the same, only we reckon from Kislew to Siwan inclusive. 3 Var. lee: and it is written. This is perhaps preferable, since the verse that follows completes the calculation (v. next note). * The verses are explained according to R. Eliezer's view (supra, xxii, 4) that the world was created in Tishri, the seventh month, so that the second month mentioned is Marheshwan. Commencing then on the 17th of Marheshwan, the forty days ended on the 27th of Kislew; the next 150 days thus included the rest of Kislew and the whole of Tebeth — lyar (thus: 3 days in Kislew, and Tebeth (29) and Shebat— lyar (118)— 150). Then on the 1st of Siwan, the water began to abate, and the 15 cubits by which it had covered the mountains (Gen. vn, 20) was completely gone by the beginning of Ab, i.e. in 60 days; thus it abated at the rate of one cubit in four days. By the seventeenth of the month Siwan there- 267 XXXIII. 7] MIDRASH RABBAH It became like a marsh. 1 (vi) And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dry (ib. vin, 14) : it became like parched soil, which they sowed, but nothing would grow. Why w r as that? Because it [the Flood] had come as a curse, and a curse cannot turn into a blessing 2 ; so they waited until the next rainfall and then they sowed. Now should not Scripture have said, 'On the sixteenth day of the month was the earth dry ' 2 : why then is it stated, 'And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dry ' ? Because of the eleven days by which the solar year exceeds the lunar year. 4 R, Simeon b. Gamaliel said : If you wish to prove for yourself that the solar year exceeds the lunar year by eleven days, make a mark on a wall on the day of the summer solstice; the following year at that season the sun will not reach it until eleven days later, and from this you may know that the solar year exceeds the lunar year by eleven days. fore it had abated four cubits, and then the Ark rested on the mountain, so that it was sunk 11 cubits in the water. Now from the 1st of Ab until the 1st of Tishri, by which time the earth was dry (ib. vin, 13), is a period of 60 days. Noah had waited 40 days after the tops of the mountains appeared (ib. 6) before sending out the dove; hence three seven-day periods -were spent in sending out the birds, and this supports R. Jose b. R. Hanina. 1 Lit. * like oozing soil * — exuding enough water to moisten other objects. 8 Therefore the water of the Flood disappeared completely, leaving the soil absolutely arid. 8 Since the punishment of the generation of the Flood lasted twelve months, and the Flood commenced on the seventeenth day of the month in the previous year. * The twelve months of punishment mean a solar year of 365 days, whereas the Jewish year is lunar, and consists of 354 days (to make up the deficiency extra months are intercalated at intervals;. 268