Questions and Answers on Noah's Ark and the Flood

1. Are there scientific or historical evidences for Noah's Flood and the Ark?

Answer:

The flood can be seen as a scientific fact for the following reasons:

A. Marine fossils such as shells and fish skeletons have been found all over the world, even in desolate deserts and on the highest mountains like the Rockies and Everest. This proves that all continents were once covered by the sea.

B. All over the world, remains of entire populations of animals that went extinct have been found, apart from the extinction of the dinosaurs. This proves a global-scale natural disaster that wiped out Earth's creatures.

C. A scientific view of Earth's mountains, valleys, and canyons shows that Earth has indeed undergone global-scale natural disasters, a situation described as the movement of tectonic plates, matching a verse in the Torah about the flood: "All the springs of the great deep burst forth" (Genesis 7:11).

The flood is also a worldwide historical fact, as it was discovered that all cultures around the world have a historical and legendary tradition about an ancient flood that wiped out all living things, with many describing Noah and the salvation of one family in an ark that survived the flood. How can cultures distant from each other by continents and seas tell a similar story about a global flood and Noah's Ark if they did not hear the story from their ancestors - Shem, Ham, and Japheth - Noah's sons who survived the flood?

Scientific Sources:

https://www.hydepark.co.il/topic.asp?topic_id=2630671&whichpage=&forum_id=4142#R_2

https://www.hydepark.co.il/topic.asp?topic_id=2630671&whichpage=&forum_id=4142#R_4

Historical Sources:

https://www.hydepark.co.il/topic.asp?topic_id=2571664&forum_id=4142

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2. How could so many animals fit into the ark according to its dimensions, and the number of animals in the world (millions of species and varieties)? How could they enter the ark?

Answer:

Noah didn't need to bring millions of species into the ark, rather the roots of the species, from which all the distinct varieties in nature later emerged (variations among species are not evolution, as there is no new creation or emergence from a kind. These are merely genetic variations within the family).

In the Talmud tractate Chullin (page 63, second side), the Sages said: "There are one hundred and twenty types of unclean birds in the east, and they all belong to the kind of kite" - "kite" is a type of bird. The Sages explicitly teach us that more than 120 types of birds emerged from a single kind of bird, the "kite".

Rav David Luria, a dedicated student of the Vilna Gaon who lived 200 years ago and was a commentator on the Talmud, in his commentary notes the change of species according to the Talmud and the law. He explains that Noah brought into the ark only the "roots of the species," meaning the ancestors of animals, which changed and multiplied into many diverse species after leaving the ark and spreading across the world.

Rav Luria, in his commentary on "Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer" (Chapter 23, page 55): "Many kinds that we see today, different and distinct in their kinds, were created and entered as one species... and afterwards, according to their dwelling places and food habits, they separated and changed to many kinds, like the goose and wild goose mentioned in Bava Kamma (page 55, first side), and ox and wild ox. Do not be surprised, as a single man was created in the world, and we now find, spread across the earth, humans differing in their kinds, whites, blacks, and reds... all these changes due to their dwelling places and diet, according to what Hillel wrote in Tractate Shabbat - the feet of Africans are wide, etc.... In any case, the Ruler of the world, who knows His creations, commanded Noah to take the main kinds, that were known to Him and from which they would spread all over the earth and return to form all the many kinds we see today."

According to Rav Luria's explanation, animals indeed change according to their living environment. Therefore, Noah did not need to bring millions of animals into the ark. Noah had to bring only the "roots of the species," meaning hundreds or thousands of the primary animals created during the Six Days of Creation, which afterward spread and changed into species and subspecies in the world only after exiting the ark. For example, Noah didn't have to bring all dog types into the ark, but rather only one type (most dog kinds today were created through artificial selection). Noah didn't have to bring millions of butterfly types into the ark, just one type. This means not necessarily more than a thousand kinds were required, and perhaps even much less.

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3. How did Noah bring all the animals into the ark? It's not easy to catch wild animals.

Answer:

A. According to the Book, Noah was given a hundred years to build the ark and study all the animals' needs before the flood came into the world. This means Noah had decades to learn the most important needs of each animal and prepare a suitable living environment for them in the ark, as well as time to catch them.

B. Additionally, the Torah explicitly mentions that Hashem sent the animals to the ark under divine guidance, so Noah didn't have to gather them himself, and they obeyed him (Genesis, chapter 7, verse 8): "Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that crawls on the ground, two by two they came to Noah into the ark, male and female, as God had commanded Noah."

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4. How was there enough food for the animals in the ark for a year, especially since meat rots, and where was all this food stored?

Answer:

- Most predatory animals eat only rarely, sometimes once every few weeks.

- Also, don't forget about hibernation, which can last about half a year, during which many animals do not require food or settle for very little.

- In the ark, there was likely not much physical activity for the animals, so they could survive on smaller amounts of food.

- Nowadays, we know that wild animals can survive a very long time on small amounts of food or occasional meals once or twice a month.

- Even in ancient times, people knew how to preserve meat. However, according to many interpretations, all animals were herbivores before the flood.

- According to the Torah, Noah's Ark had three stories, with one entire floor used for storing food. If we spread out the ark’s floors in length, we discover that Noah’s Ark was about one and a half times the size of the Titanic. The Torah says the ark was completely sealed, not like those drawings that show it with an open roof and penthouse. Hence, there was ample space to store food in the ark.

- Let us not forget that according to the Torah, Noah prepared for the flood for 100 years, during which he learned the animals' habits and needs and made arrangements over many years to provide for each type with suitable food and living conditions that enable their survival in the ark.

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5. What did the animals eat after leaving the ark? Since only two of each kind went into the ark, when the predators ate animals, they would erase entire species. So, what did the tiger or lion eat? Also, the flood destroyed all plants, so all herbivorous animals would theoretically starve.

Answer:

This is indeed an interesting question, which would certainly have received much attention from Noah and his sons who took care of the animals. The Midrash Rabbah on Parashat Noah also testifies: "Said Rabbi Huna in the name of Eliezer son of Rabbi Yose the Galilean: When Noah was leaving the ark, a lion bit him and he wasn't fit to offer sacrifice."

It is reasonable that Noah continued to care for the animals even after they exited the ark, at least until they could reproduce (it is to be remembered that according to the size of Noah’s Ark as described in the Torah, the food supply on the top floor contained a quantity, a quarter the size of the Titanic, and could probably feed the animals for several more years).

Concerning herbivorous animals: the Torah explicitly mentions the dove that returned with an olive leaf in its mouth, which is a clear verse teaching that the first thing Hashem renewed in the world after the flood was vegetation. Noah did not leave the ark before the vegetation was renewed.

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6. How did animals reach everywhere in the world? Each continent has unique creatures.

Answer:

A. This is definitely an important question, and the answer in number 2 touches on it. Take for example the polar bear, a bear whose distribution is limited to the Arctic area, but physiologically it does not differ significantly from any bear on any other continent. This means an entirely ordinary bear migrated to the Arctic area and changed into the polar bear we see today. Noah did not need to carry different kinds of animals in the ark, but it sufficed that he brought into the ark the roots of the species, which migrated after the flood to different parts of the world and gained unique traits according to the area and climate. In summary: after the animals left the ark, they adapted to the different habitats they reached.

B. Regarding specific animals found nowhere else - we must assume that the animals migrated to their respective places around the world under divine guidance, just as they arrived at the ark under divine guidance, and this is explicitly written in the Book of Genesis (chapter 7, verse 8): "Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that crawls on the ground, two by two they came to Noah into the ark, male and female, as God had commanded Noah." This means that after the flood, Hashem sent each group of animals to their respective places by special direction, and the animals migrated to different places as if by instinct.

C. And what about continents separated from each other? Well, we should know that aside from Australia and certain islands, there is actually a connection between all continents on Earth. There are paths linking different continents, and this is also the reason we find the Incas and Mayans in America, although they are very far from Asia and Europe. There was a technical possibility to migrate from place to place, and humans did so without ships. Animals also migrated. We must also remember that plate tectonics is a continuous process that occurs over hundreds and thousands of years and continues even today. It can be assumed that 4000 years ago the continents were closer together, or at least the paths connecting the different lands were wider, allowing for easy and continuous passage from continent to continent, a passage that today is difficult and sometimes impossible.

From the Torah, it is possible to learn that the separation of the continents occurred after the flood, in a later period during the time of the Tower of Babel, and probably was a gradual process that occurred during the flood and in the hundreds of years afterward in several stages. In Genesis, chapter 1, only one land mass is described: "And God said, ‘Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear’ (and it was so), and God called the dry land Earth" (Genesis 1:9), but after the flood it is described there was a child of Eber named Peleg: "In his days the earth was divided" (Genesis 10:25). The Zohar, published more than 700 years ago, also settled this as a fact: "Only one land did the waters bring forth and from it were created seven lands" (Zohar, Parashat Bereishit 21a). This explanation might explain the global distribution of animals. It can be said that animals of every kind migrated under divine guidance to specific places on the single landmass and remained there when the land split over hundreds or thousands of years into the different continents we see today.

There is indeed a more far-fetched explanation that I have seen in a book somewhere, suggesting the distant possibility that the flood did not drown remote islands or continents not populated by humans, but only affected the continent of Asia where all humans were concentrated before the flood. However, it is difficult to find evidence for this narrow interpretation.

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7. If the flood raised the water and the ark to the height of mountains, weren't the animals at risk of lack of oxygen or freezing?

Answer:

This is indeed an interesting question, but we don't have enough data about the atmosphere before the flood. The Malbim wrote that the rainbow was created due to the flood and the atmospheric change that occurred afterward.

The Torah describes that the ark was completely sealed (unlike most drawings), except for one upper opening meant for oxygen. Since the rain accumulated, the increase in sea level happened gradually, not suddenly. As is known, it is possible to adapt to atmospheric pressure and decreased oxygen done in slow stages (as climbers and even divers do, needing to adjust to changes in pressure, and mainly giving their bodies time to acclimate to the change). The situation is easier when there's no need for much movement. It's likely that the ark protected them from the atmospheric change.

Regarding the cold: there might have been means of heating in the ark. The Midrashic texts describe a flood of warm water (according to the Book: "All the springs of the great deep burst forth," and if it involved tectonic plate movement, it means the flood included volcanic eruptions that warmed the sea surface, so the waters were not frozen, but lukewarm).

In any case, these are speculations, as we do not have enough scientific data to answer the question accurately.

Readers are invited to raise additional questions.