Genesis8chapter 8

This chapter is heard inside the second portion of the annual cycle, in the same sitting as the rest of the flood account and the table of the nations (src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts). The going out of the ark and the altar built after it are read without a break from the rising of the waters. The card above carries the portion and the prophetic reading set beside it.

Rashi is quoted here from the public domain Rosenbaum and Silbermann edition. Sforno stands with one comment, in the CC-BY translation of Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash.

Rashi reads the divine name in the first verse as a change of measure. The name of strict justice is turned to mercy by the prayers of the righteous. The mercy of God is turned back to justice by the deeds of the wicked (Rashi on Genesis 8:1:1, citing Genesis Rabbah 33:3). He asks what was remembered of the cattle, and answers that they had kept to their own kind before the flood and lived apart in the ark (Rashi on Genesis 8:1:2).

The dating of the chapter is where Rashi works hardest. He counts the hundred and fifty days from the day the rain stopped, and sets the decrease on the first of Sivan (Rashi on Genesis 8:3:1). He reads the seventh month as Sivan and the tenth as Av, and argues the two counts against each other at length (Rashi on Genesis 8:4:1 and 8:5:1, citing Genesis Rabbah 30:6). On the first month of the thirteenth verse he reports the dispute plainly. Rabbi Eliezer reads it as Tishri and Rabbi Joshua as Nisan (Rashi on Genesis 8:13:1, citing Rosh Hashanah 11b). He reads the twenty seventh day of the fourteenth verse by the ten days the solar year runs beyond the lunar one. The judgment therefore lasted a full solar year (Rashi on Genesis 8:14:1, citing Genesis Rabbah 33:17).

Sforno reads the dove finding no rest for her foot at its plainest. The mountain tops were visible and still wet through, so there was nowhere on them to stand (Sforno on Genesis 8:9:1).

Ibn Ezra and Radak carry one comment each that the corpus holds by reference alone, because the licence Sefaria reports for the English versions keeps the text out. They are Ibn Ezra on Genesis 8:3:1 and Radak on Genesis 8:18:1.

Rashi carries five sayings of the rabbis on this chapter, and each stands here as what they taught.

On the stopping of the springs he reports that the word for all is missing from the second verse on purpose. The springs the world needed were left open, and Rashi names "the hot springs of Tiberias and their like" among them (Rashi on Genesis 8:2:1, citing Sanhedrin 108a).

On the raven he reports the reading of the Aggadah that the bird circled the ark and would not go. It suspected that Noah wanted its mate (Rashi on Genesis 8:7:1, citing Sanhedrin 108b).

On the going out he reports two things. The husband and wife are named together because family life was allowed again (Rashi on Genesis 8:16:1, citing Genesis Rabbah 34:8). The animals took it on themselves to keep to their own kind (Rashi on Genesis 8:19:1). On the altar he reports Noah reasoning that the seven pairs of clean animals were commanded for the sake of this offering (Rashi on Genesis 8:20:1, citing Genesis Rabbah 34:9).

The last is on the evil inclination. Rashi reports a reading of the spelling in the twenty first verse, that the inclination is given to a person from the first stirring in the womb (Rashi on Genesis 8:21:1, citing Genesis Rabbah 34:10). The six seasons of the last verse he reads as two months each, in the division the Talmud sets out (Rashi on Genesis 8:22:1, citing Bava Metzia 106b).

The corpus records forty places where the Midrash and the Talmud cite this chapter, thirty four under Midrash and six under Talmud, with the locator for each one and no text. Bereshit Rabbah reads the second verse at 33:4, the sixth at 33:5, the tenth at 33:6 and the thirteenth at 33:7. It reads the fifteenth verse at 34:1, the sixteenth at 31:12, and the seventeenth at 34:8.

Midrash Aggadah runs almost the length of the chapter, at Genesis 8:4:1, 8:5:1, 8:6:1, 8:9:1, 8:12:1, 8:12:2, 8:14:1, 8:17:1 and 8:18:1. Midrash Lekach Tov reads the second, third, seventh, eighth, tenth and fourteenth verses at the locators of the same names. Eikhah Rabbah reads the dove at 1:29, and Bereshit Rabbati reads the third verse at Parashat Noah 16 and the eleventh at Parashat Noah 18.

The Talmud is cited at Avodah Zarah 51a:15 on the altar, at Avot DeRabbi Natan 32:2 on the evil inclination and at Bava Metzia 106b:5 on the six seasons. The Jerusalem Talmud reads the fifth verse at Rosh Hashanah 1:1:2, the thirteenth at Rosh Hashanah 1:1:3 and the fifteenth at Makkot 2:6:11.