This is the fifth of a series of translations from the Bialik-Ravnitzky Sefer Ha-Aggada. Previous selections (“Men and Women,” “The Creation,” “Adam and Eve and the Serpent,” and “The Decay of the Generations”) appeared in the issues of July 1949 and January, March, and August 1950.

The Aggada is made up of stories, dialogues, homilies, sayings, proverbs, fables, and riddles which are scattered through the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds, as well as other sources. The Bialik-Ravnitzky edition of the Aggada, which appeared in six volumes from 1908 onwards, and from which this translation was made, was the fruit of research by the famous Hebrew poet and his scholarly patron into the numerous traditional collections of Aggadic sayings. It was created with the needs of the modern Hebrew-reading and Hebrew-speaking generation in mind and intended as a popular, literary folk collection rather than an archeological or scholarly monument. It has become one of the most popular modern Hebrew books. The translation into English is by Hilda Auerbach.—Ed.

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And he called his name Noah, saying: This same shall comfort us in our work and in the toil of our hands (Gen. 5:29).

In the period before Noah was born, men did not reap as they had sown, for they would sow wheat and barley and reap thorns and thistles. Noah having been born, the world returned to an orderly state, what was sown was reaped—they sowed wheat and reaped wheat, sowed barley and reaped barley. What is more, until Noah was born they worked with their hands; that is why it is written “and in the toil of our hands” when Noah was born, he instituted plows and sickles and spades and all the work tools.

Said Rabbi Yochanan: When the Holy One, blessed be He, created the first man He made him lord over everything, the cow obeyed the plowman and the furrow obeyed the plowman. Adam having sinned, they rose up against him: the cow no longer obeyed the plowman, nor did the furrow obey the plowman. With Noah, they quieted down.

Rabbi Simeon ben Lakish said: Before Noah the waters used to rise twice a day, once at morning prayer and once at evening prayer, and they used to flood the dead in their graves. With Noah, the waters quieted down.

Noah was in his generations a man righteous and whole-hearted (GEN. 6:9).

Said Rabbi Yochanan: “In his generations” and not in other generations; and Resh Lakish said: “In his generations”—and all the more so in other generations. Said Rabbi Hanina: To what can the example of Rabbi Yochanan be compared? To a barrel of wine that was lying in a storeroom for vinegar. When it stood in its place its odor spread, when it did not stand in its place, its odor did not spread. Said Rabbi Hoshaya: To what can the example of Resh Lakish be compared? To a flask of oil of myrrh lying in a filthy place. When it stood in its place its odor spread, and all the more so in a perfumed place.

Noah walked with god (Gen. 6:9).

Said Rabbi Yehuda: This may be compared to a king who had two sons, one big and one small. Said he to the small one: Walk with me, and to the big one he said: Come and walk before me. So it was with Abraham whose power was efficacious—“Walk before Me, and be thou wholehearted” (Gen. 17:1). But with regard to Noah whose power was not efficacious—“Noah walked with God.”

Make thee an ark of gopher wood (Gen. 6:14).

Said Rav Huna for Rabbi Yosi: For a hundred years the Holy One, blessed be He, forewarned the generation of the flood, so that they might repent. As they did not repent He said to him, to Noah: “Make thee an ark of gopher wood.” Noah stood up and planted cedars. And they would say to him: Why these cedars? Said he to them: The Holy One, blessed be He, wishes to bring a flood upon the world and told me to make an ark, so that I and my household may escape. And they would laugh at him and mock at his words. He watered those very cedars and they grew. And they would say to him: What are you doing?

And he would answer them in this connection. And they would mock at him. At the end of a certain time he chopped down the cedars and was sawing them. They would ask him: What are you doing? And he would say to them: Thus and thus, and he would warn them. As they did not repent—the Holy One, blessed be He, soon brought a flood.

When they saw that they were lost they attempted to overturn the ark. What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He had the ark surrounded by lions.

And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark (Gen. 6:19).

Said Rabbi Yehuda: The wild ox did not enter with him, but his cubs did enter. Rabbi Nehemiah said: Neither he nor his cubs—but Noah tied him to the ark, and he would plow great furrows fin the water] as [far as] it is from Tiberias to Susita.

When the waters of the flood rose up, Og, king of Bashan, sat on one of the ladders of the ark, and swore to Noah and his sons that he would be their servant forever. What did Noah do? He cut a hole in the ark and would hand out his food to him every day. And thus it is said: “For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants, the Rephaim” (Deut. 3:11).

Said Rabbi Yochanan: Every drop that the Holy One, blessed be He, would drop upon them He would boil in hell and take it out and drop it upon them.

And he sent forth a raven, and it went forth to and fro (Gen. 8:7).

The raven began to bandy answers with him, saying to him: Of all the cattle, beasts, and birds that there are here you do not send anyone forth but me. Said he to him: What use is there in the world for you? Not for eating and not for sacrificing.

Said Resh Lakish: The raven gave Noah a strong answer, saying to him: Your master hates me and you have hated me. Your master hates me—[for] of the clean there are seven, of the unclean two; and you hate me—for you let the seven kinds be and send forth the two kinds. If the prince of heat should harm me or the prince of cold should harm me, would there not be one creature less in the world?

[Nevertheless] “And he sent forth a raven”—to discover what was going on in the world. The raven went out and found a man’s corpse cast on the tops of the hills, and he sat himself down there to his food and did not return on his errand to him who sent him. Noah sent forth the dove and she returned on his errand.

And lo in her mouth an olive-leaf freshly plucked (Gen. 8:11).

Whence did she bring it? Said Rav Bavi: The gates of the gardens of Eden were opened to her and she brought it from there. Said Rabbi Ayvu to him: If she had brought it from the garden of Eden would she not have brought something more choice, such as cinnamon or balsam? But the dove was hinting at something to Noah and she said to him: My master Noah, it is more bitter than this [to be] under the hand of the Holy One, blessed be He, and it is not sweet to be under you.

And God spoke unto Noah, saying: go forth from the ark (Gen. 8:15).

Said Rabbi Yudan: If I had been there, I would have broken out. But Noah said: Just as I did not enter it without permission, so I shall not leave it without permission. “Come . . . into the ark”—“And Noah went in”; “Go forth from the ark”-“And Noah went forth.”

After their families [they] went forth out of the ark (Gen. 8:19).

Said Eliezer to Shem the eldest: How were you? Said he to him: We had great trouble in the ark. The creature whose custom it was to feed itself by day—we fed by day; [if] at night—we fed it at night. [As for] this chameleon—father did not know what she ate. Once he was sitting and cutting up a pomegranate: a worm fell out of it and she ate it up. From then on he would pound up a vegetable that had worms in it and she would eat it. Father found the phoenix sleeping in a corner of the ark. Said he to it: Why did you not ask for food? Said it to him: I saw that you were troubled and I said to myself, I shall not bother you. Said he to it: You feared to trouble me—may it be [His] will that you do not die.

Our teachers said: For the twelve months during which Noah was in the ark he did not know the taste of sleep, neither he nor his sons, neither by day nor by night, for he was busy feeding the creatures who were with him. There were animals who ate at one o’clock during the day, and others at two o’clock, and others at three, and others at four, and others at the third watch of the night, and others in the middle of the night, and others at the crowing of the cock. And what did he feed them? Each kind as it was accustomed: straw for the camels, twigs for the elephants, barley for the donkeys, shrubby plants for the lizards, grass for the ostriches.

Said Rabbi Levi: At the time when the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Noah: Take unto you two of each kind into the ark, all of them came to Noah and each one entered with his mate. Falsehood came and wanted to enter. Said Noah to him: You cannot enter unless you take a wife. Falsehood went off to seek a wife. He met Malediction. Said she to him: Whence do you come? Said he to her: From Noah, where I wished to enter the ark and he would not let me unless I had a wife. If you wish it, be my wife. Said she to him: And what will you give me? I will arrange it so that everything that I acquire you will take. She paid heed to him and both of them entered the ark. Having left the ark Falsehood would go and collect and Malediction would take [everything] successively. Falsehood came and said to her: Where is everything that I gathered? Said she to him: And was it not arranged between us in this way, that everything that you collect I take? To this he could find no reply.

Thus it is said: “Yea, he conceiveth mischief, and bringeth forth falsehood” (Ps. 7:15). The parable says: A lie begets and a curse takes.

And Noah the husbandman began, and planted a vineyard (Gen. 9:20).

When Noah began planting Satan came and stood before him. Said Satan to him: What are you planting? Said he to him: A vineyard. Said Satan to him: Of what sort is it? Said he to him: Its fruits are sweet, in between dry and moist, and of them one makes wine which gladdens the heart. Said Satan to him: Would you like to have us plant it together you and I? Said he to him: Aye.

What did Satan do? He brought a ewe and slaughtered her on the vine; afterwards he brought a lion and slaughtered him upon it; after that he brought a monkey and slaughtered him upon it; after that he brought a pig and slaughtered him upon it—and sprinkled their blood, irrigating the vineyard with it. He hinted thus, that when a man drinks one cup—then he is like a ewe: modest and humble. When he drinks two cups—then he becomes as valiant as a lion and begins to speak mighty words, saying: Who is like unto me? Having drunk three or four cups—soon he becomes like a monkey: standing and dancing about and speaking obscenely in front of everyone without knowing what he is doing. When he becomes drunk: he becomes soiled with mud and cast down in a dunghill.

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