[Avodah] Birds & Fish in the Mabul

[Zev Sero]

On 2/11/2011 6:24 AM, Chana Luntz wrote:
> Even without this, do note that if the sky as we define it on earth is
> shamayim for the purposes of this pasuk, then due to the earth being round,
> we would have to say that earth is really enveloped in shamayim, meaning
> that all parts of the earth are both tachas the bit it is "underneath" and
> over the bit over the corresponding land on the other side of the globe.

> From the point of view of an Australian, the bit of shamayim on view in
> Eretz Yisroel is tachas where they stand (ie technically the most correct
> direction in order to face Yerushalim is straight down).  And so, since the
> bit of shamayim on view in Australia is tachas where Noach is standing

"Down" means towards the centre of the earth.  "Up" means away from it.
Thus all of the sky is above the land, not under it.


On 2/11/2011 11:34 AM, Lampel wrote:
> And the relevance of Hashem declaring that seasons would not cease,
> as they implicitly had during that entire year of the Mabul

Malbim understands this to mean that seasons didn't exist before the
mabul.  The earth's axis was perpendicular to the ecliptic, so each
place's climate was steady.  Rain fell every forty years, and the earth
produced enough food to last until the next rain.  Thus when Noach came
out of the tevah and it started raining again, he was frightened and
wanted to retreat back into it, thinking that the flood was starting up
again.  Then Hashem told him not to be afraid, because from now on there
would be annual seasons, and frequent rain, and rainbows.

> Chazal speak of the Mabul having been preceded by another major Flood
> in the generation of Enosh, that had flooded merely one third of the
> world. So whatever amount of land that involved, the Mabul involved
> three times as much.

That doesn't have to be the whole earth, though.  The first flood may
have destroyed a third of humanity, or a third of the area where people
lived, and this one covered the whole inhabited earth, and all its
inhabitants, but perhaps still not the entire earth.  "Kol ha'aretz"
may mean "all the people" as in "vayhi kol ha'arets safa achat" a few
chapters later.  The part of the earth where no people lived may simply
be irrelevant, just like the moon.

-- 
Zev Sero
zev at sero.name