Parashas Noach 5772

“And [Noach] sent the dove from with him, in order to see if the waters upon the face of the ground had lessened” (B’raishis 8:8). Although the dove returned from its first trip empty-beaked, on its second trip it brought back a torn leaf from an olive tree, so “Noach knew that the water had lessened from the land” (8:11). What was Noach’s reaction upon finding this out? He sent the dove away a third time, a trip from which it never returned (8:12). Noach then removed the ark’s cover and saw that the ground had dried (8:13), but remained on the ark until G-d told him to leave it (8:16). The Brisker Rav, z”l, quoted by Rav Yitzchok Sorotzkin, sh’lita (Rinas Yitzchok I), asks why Noach sent the dove (and the raven before it) if he wasn’t planning to leave the ark until G-d gave him permission to do so.

Rav Sorotzkin suggests two answers, both of which are rather puzzling. B’raishis Rabbah (34:2) uses the verse that says G-d commanded Noach to leave the ark to show that Noach was among those who G-d tested with confidence that he would pass. Maharzo explains that even though Noach knew that the ground had dried, he didn’t leave the torturous conditions of the ark (aside from being confined to it for an entire year, and being unable to bathe, the smell of the similarly unbathed animals and all of the bodily waste they produced made for extremely harsh conditions) until G-d told him he could. Rav Sorotzkin points out that Noach knew that the ground had dried because the dove didn’t return the third time, which prompted him to remove the ark’s cover and verify it. Therefore, Rav Sorotzkin continues, Noach had to send the birds in order to find out that he could physically leave so that G-d could test him. What puzzling about this approach is that it was G-d who was testing Noach to see if he would leave before being told he could, not Noach putting himself in a position to have to resist the temptation to do so before getting permission. Nevertheless, unless Maharzo thought Noach would have found out that the land was dry even if he hadn’t sent the birds, his explanation needs further explaining (as would the Midrash itself). Rav Sorotzkin’s second suggestion, which is based on sources that indicate that G-d gives the righteous something to base hope upon even while they are suffering, has the same issue. Did Noach decide to send the birds so that G-d could take credit for providing hope that he could soon leave?

There’s another issue that needs to be addressed as well. If Noach knew that he wasn’t allowed to leave until G-d gave him permission to, how could he send the raven and the dove out of the ark without divine permission? The same commandment that told him to enter and not leave until given the go ahead should apply to the animals as well; until G-d gave him permission to let the animals get off the ark, he should have been bound to keep them there as well. Chasam Sofer (Toras Moshe and Chidushum) asks this question, and maintains that Noach sent the birds out despite not having the needed permission as a “hora’as shu’uh,” a temporary suspension of the rules due to extenuating circumstances. (He doesn’t explain what those extreme conditions were.) Netziv also addresses this issue, suggesting that this raven and this dove were not part of the “2 by 2” (or “7 and 7” for the dove) that G-d had commanded Noach to take aboard, so weren’t subject to the prohibition of not being able to leave until G-d said they could. Rather, these birds were Noach’s personal pets, so he was allowed to send them off the ark even though all the other animals had to stay until G-d said it was okay to get off. Although it might have been traumatic for Noach to have left his pets to drown with the rest of civilization, was that enough to be able to bring them aboard? If G-d approved, why weren’t these birds part of the “2 by 2” (and “7 and 7”) needed? Why did G-d have Noach bring another two ravens (et al) besides his personal one? [Obviously, the Midrash (see Sanhedrin 108b) regarding the raven’s complaint that sending him risked his species coming to an end did not think there were two other ravens on the ark.]

“Noach said, ‘just as I did not enter the ark without permission, so too I will not leave [the ark] without permission.” The wording of the Midrash (B’raishis Rabbah 34:4) indicates that there was no explicit prohibition against leaving the ark before G-d told him he could leave. Rather, Noach, on his own, took it upon himself not to leave before G-d gave him the go-ahead. This may help mitigate the problem of how Noach was able to send the birds away, but leaves us wondering why he applied this logic to himself and his family but not to the animals if the commandment to board the ark applied to both. Was it only “midas chasidus” (going above and beyond the requirement), which didn’t apply to the animal kingdom? If so, how could he make his family suffer longer than they were required to? Did they follow his lead? How could not leaving until he was given permission be considered a “test” if he was really allowed to leave?

If Noach was unsure whether or not he was allowed to get off the ark before G-d gave him permission, or if his family wanted to get off ASAP and Noach was trying to convince them that they can’t, all of these questions (and others) can be answered. I would suggest that the reason Noach sent the raven was not in order to find out if the waters had receded (which is why it isn’t mentioned until he sent the dove). Rather, Noach sent the raven specifically to try to determine whether or not he was allowed to leave the ark before G-d explicitly gave him permission to.

Although Noach was commanded to gather two animals from each species (male and female), they came by themselves (see Rashi on 7:9). Not that a lot of animals from each species camped out overnight in order to be first in line so they can get in. Rather, only the two G-d wanted to save from each species had their natural instincts “hijacked,” leading them to the ark. It would follow that this “instinct” to board the ark lasted throughout their stay on the ark, or the animals wouldn’t have been able to live there calmly for the entire year. When did this “ark instinct” fade? Was it in affect until Noach threw them off (see Rashi on 8:17)? Was it only in affect until they no longer needed to be on the ark? Sending the raven away might indicate whether or not the ark’s inhabitants had to stay on board until G-d gave them permission to leave. If the raven refused to leave, it would indicate that G-d didn’t want any of them to leave until He said it was okay. On the other hand, if the raven did leave, meaning its “ark instinct” was no longer active, it would indicate that G-d didn’t forbid them from leaving without divine permission.

Noach sends the raven away, and it goes (8:7). Even though it can’t find anyplace to land (so it stayed near the ark or continuously went in and out of it), its willingness to “go out” should indicate that permission to leave need not be granted. However, Noach discovers something else–that the raven had impregnated its mate (see Sanhedrin 108b), thus negating its need to stay in the ark. The “raven test” was no longer valid, as the raven could be the exception to the rule; it no longer needed its “ark instinct,” so its willingness to leave couldn’t prove that permission wasn’t needed. (The very fact that it cohabitated with its mate–while almost every other animal didn’t–could mean that it didn’t have the same “ark instinct” as the others. If Noach had already known that the raven had been with his mate, he may have told his family that even if it left it wouldn’t prove that they could leave without permission, although if it refused to leave it would prove that they couldn‘t.)

Noach was hoping the “raven test” would either indicate whether or not he had to wait for G-d’s permission to leave or convince his family that they couldn’t. Even though it didn’t accomplish this, he saw how their demeanor improved when the process of leaving the ark (seeing if the raven’s “ark instinct” had expired) was started, and how disappointed they were after discovering that the test didn’t work and that the raven couldn’t find any dry land. In order to revitalize their spirits, he decided to send out the dove so that they could track the progress of the water’s recession. Was he allowed to send the dove out “from with him” (8:8), indicating its reluctance to leave, before divine permission was given? Perhaps this was a “hora’as shu’uh” made because of how necessary it was to provide his family reason to think they would leave the ark soon, or perhaps the issue of leaving the ark prematurely wasn’t the same for those species that had 14 members aboard and not just two. Either way, the “raven test” led to Noach sending out the dove, which provided a “light at the end of the tunnel” as well as placing Noach (and his family) in the position of knowing that the land was dry, yet waiting for G-d’s permission before leaving the ark. G-d may have been purposely ambiguous about whether or not Noach could leave the ark without permission so that he would try to figure it out, and in the process be faced with the test of not leaving the ark despite knowing that the land was dry, all the while knowing that the end was within sight.