Rabbi Mordecai Kornfeld's
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PARASHAT NOACH 5755

40 DAYS

In the six hundredth year of Noach's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month: it was on that day that all the fountains of the deep burst forth and the windows of the heavens were opened [to let forth] rain upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.
(B'reishit 7:11-12)

Rebbi Eliezer said: The world was created in the month of Tishrei.... Rebbi Yehoshua said: The world was created in the month of Nissan. Consequently, the two differed as to when the Great Flood took place. Rebbi Yehoshua said: That day [that the rain started] was the seventeenth of Iyar... . Rebbi Eliezer said: That day was the seventeenth of Marcheshvan... why is it called "the second month"? Because it was the second month from the time that Hashem decreed upon the world the Flood. [The decree was passed on Tishrei, the traditional time for passing justice on the world -- Rashi].

Our Rabbis taught us: The Jewish sages accepted the opinion of Rebbi Eliezer for dating the Great Flood, and that of Rebbi Yehoshua for dating the creation of the world. The gentile sages accepted Rebbi Yehoshua's opinion even for dating the Great Flood.
(Gemara Rosh Hashana 11a, 11b, 12a)

The conclusion of the Torah sages was that the Great Flood started on the seventeenth of Marcheshvan. A good friend of mine, Harav Chagai Preschel (presently teaching at the Tikvat Ameinu High School in Moscow) explained beautifully why Hashem specifically chose this date for bringing the catastrophic flood.

II

As the Gemara pointed out, the decision to destroy the world, was finalized during the Tishrei preceding the Flood. Judgement, presumably, was passed on the world and on its inhabitants on the first day of Tishrei, Rosh Hashana. On that day, we are told, every living creature passes in front of Hashem to be judged (Mishna Rosh Hashana 16a). Since it was decided on the first of Tishrei that the world was no longer worthy to exist, it really ought to have started raining immediately. Why, then, didn't it rain until Marcheshvan? Probably because Hashem, in His great mercy, still wanted to give the world one last chance to repent. We find that Hashem allowed the inhabitants of Ninveh a forty day grace period before they would be punished, in order for them to repent (Yonah 3:4). Here too, Hashem granted the evildoers of the world another forty days to repent.

But if so, shouldn't the rain have started forty days after Rosh Hashana, on the tenth day of Marcheshvan? Why did it only start to rain on the seventeenth day of the month?

Hashem told Noach, "Come, you and your family, into the ark... because in another *seven days* I will bring rain on the earth" (B'reishit 6:14). Rashi explains (based on Gemara Sanhedrin 108a) that the seven days metioned here were the days of mourning that followed the passing of the righteous Methuselah. In order to honor Methuselah, says Rashi, the Flood was delayed. Although it had been "scheduled" for the day of Methuselah's passing, it was withheld for another seven days, in order to allow time to mourn for the Tzaddik. Seven days after the tenth of Marcheshvan, is the seventeenth of Marcheshvan -- which explains why the Flood started exactly on that day!

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