Noach

[17] In the third reading, the rains fell 40 days and 40 nights, the waters swelled 15 cubits above the highest mountains, and all flesh with the merest breath of life died, except for Noah and those with him on the Ark.

[47] In the continuation of the reading, Canaan's descendants—Sidon, Heth, the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites—spread out from Sidon as far as Gerar, near Gaza, and as far as Sodom and Gomorrah.

When a person brought out a basket of beans for sale, one would come and seize less than the worth of the smallest coin in circulation, a perutah (and thus there was no redress under the law).

[89] Similarly, Rav Aḥava bar Zeira taught that when Noah entered the Ark, he brought precious stones and jewels with him to keep track of day and night.

)[92] The Gemara read the words, "and to a cubit shall you finish it upward," in Genesis 6:16 to ensure that thus would it stand firm (with the sides of the roof sloping, so that the rain would fall off it).

[94] Similarly, Rabbi Jose of Caesarea read the words, "He is swift upon the face of the waters; their portion is cursed in the earth, he turns not by the way of the vineyards," in Job 24:18 to teach that the righteous Noah rebuked his contemporaries.

Moses, however, saved both himself and his generation when they were condemned to destruction after the sin of the Golden Calf, as Exodus 32:14 reports, "And the Lord repented of the evil that He said He would do to His people."

So God heated the waters of the deep so that they rose and burnt their flesh, and peeled off their skin, as Job 6:17 says, "What time they wax warm, they vanish; when it is hot, they are consumed out of their place.

Another explanation is that during "the seven days" God reversed the order of nature (בְּרֵאשִׁית‎, bereishit) (established at the beginning of creation), and the sun rose in the west and set in the east (so that sinners might be shocked into repentance).

The midrash deduced that God was mourning by noting that Genesis 6:6 reports, "And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him (וַיִּתְעַצֵּב‎, vayitatzeiv) at His heart."

Rabbi Joshua taught that the events of Genesis 7:11 took place on the seventeenth day of Iyar, when the constellation of the Pleiades sets at daybreak and the fountains begin to dry up.

Rabbi Eliezer, however, taught that the events of Genesis 7:11 took place on the seventeenth of Cheshvan, a day on which the constellation of the Pleiades rises at daybreak, and the season when the fountains begin to fill.

A baraita on the authority of Rabbi Joshua ben Karḥa compared this to a father who set up a bridal canopy for his son and prepared a banquet with every sort of food.

But Rav Huna said in Rabbi Liezer's name that when Noah was leaving the Ark, a lion nonetheless set on him and maimed him, so that he was not fit to offer sacrifices, and his son Shem sacrificed in his stead.

[127] Rabbi Ḥaninah cited the report of Genesis 8:21 that "the Lord smelled the sweet savor; and ... said ... 'I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake,'" for the proposition that those who allow themselves to be pacified when drinking wine possess some of the characteristics of the Creator.

And Rabbi Assi taught that the children of Noah were also prohibited to do anything stated in Deuteronomy 18:10–11: "There shall not be found among you any one that makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one that uses divination, a soothsayer, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or one that consults a ghost or a familiar spirit, or a necromancer.

Rabbi Jacob bar Aha said in the name of Rav Assi that this demonstrated that were it not for the מעמדות‎, Ma'amadot, groups of lay Israelites who participated in worship as representatives of the public, then heaven and earth could not endure.

[149] The Mishnah taught that the rainbow (of Genesis 9:13) was one of ten miraculous things that God created on the sixth day of creation at twilight on the eve of the Sabbath.

The scholars of the academy of Rav Shila taught that they sought to build a tower, ascend to heaven, and cleave it with axes, that its waters might gush forth.

[180] Similarly, the Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer counted as the 10 trials (1) when Abraham was a child and all the magnates of the kingdom and the magicians sought to kill him (see below), (2) when he was put into prison for ten years and cast into the furnace of fire, (3) his migration from his father's house and from the land of his birth, (4) the famine, (5) when Sarah his wife was taken to be Pharaoh's wife, (6) when the kings came against him to slay him, (7) when (in the words of Genesis 17:1) "the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision," (8) when Abram was 99 years old and God asked him to circumcise himself, (9) when Sarah asked Abraham (in the words of Genesis 21:10) to "Cast out this bondwoman and her son," and (10) the binding of Isaac.

"[184] Rav Naḥman said in the name of Rabbah bar Abbuha that the redundant report, "And Sarai was barren; she had no child," in Genesis 11:30 demonstrated that Sarah was incapable of procreation because she did not have a womb.

[185] The parashah is discussed in these medieval Jewish sources:[186] Baḥya ibn Paquda read the description "perfect" (תָּמִים‎, tamim) in Genesis 6:9 to describe one who aims to make one's exterior and interior selves equal and consistent in the service of God, so that the testimony of the heart, tongue, and limbs are alike and support and confirm each other.

[189] Abraham ibn Ezra wrote that Genesis 6:18, "But I will establish My covenant," could be read to indicate that God had sworn earlier to Noah that he and his children would not die in the Flood, even though the text had not previously mentioned it.

Naḥmanides also taught that by way of the Kabbalah, the covenant (בְּרִית‎, berit) is everlasting, the word being derived from Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created (בָּרָא‎, bara)."

After doing so, people can learn that such description was only metaphorical, and that the truth is too fine, too sublime, too exalted, and too remote from the ability and powers of human minds to grasp.

"[204] In their commentaries to Mishnah Avot[172] (see "In classical rabbinic interpretation" above), Rashi and Maimonides differed on what 10 trials Abraham faced:[205] The parashah is discussed in these modern sources: Victor P. Hamilton observed that genealogies bracket narrative blocks in the opening chapters of Genesis.

[215] Similarly, Benno Jacob, writing in 1934, saw irony in the report of Genesis 11:5, "And the Lord came down," which implied that the tower supposed to reach to the heavens was still far from there, and that seen from above, the gigantic structure was only the work of "children," of miniature men.

[229] Similarly, the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch read the words of Genesis 9:5, "And surely your blood of your lives will I require," to support the proposition that one who commits suicide is considered an evildoer of the highest degree.

[230] The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch taught that upon arising in the morning, one should wash one's face in honor of one's Creator, as Genesis 9:6 states, "for in the image of God made He man.

[232] Some Jews read the words "for in the image of God made He man" from Genesis 9:6 as they study chapter 3 of Pirkei Avot on a Sabbath between Passover and Rosh Hashanah.