Murder Can’t Be Left to the Human Mind The Torah warns us (Noach 9:6) that someone who spills the blood of another human, should be killed. Why? The Torah continues, “Ki Btzelem Elokim Asah Es HaAdam; Because in the image of Hashem man was made.” Killing a person is tantamount to destroying the image of Hashem Himself. “This is an amazing thing,” notes Rav Yaakov Kamenetzky. “Murder is the most heinous crime known to man of any persuasion. Why does the Torah need to give a reason that you are destroying a Tzelem Elokim? Do we need to be so philosophical about forbidding such an act that even the most corrupt mind can comprehend on it own?” “Indeed,” says Rav Yaakov, “left to human logic and barest morality, people will murder. They will surely come up with reasons and justifications for why this is different. The Torah needed to give us a reason that stands beyond human reproach, it is laying a hand on the image of Hashem for which there is no excuse. From here we see,” says Rav Yaakov, “that without Yiras Shamayim nothing is sacred and nothing will escape the corruption and perversion of human logic.”
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Why Seven Pairs of Kosher Animals? Noach took one pair of each non-kosher animal species to keep the specie alive after the Mabul. He also took seven pairs of each kosher animal so that he could offer them as korbanos after the mabul ended. Why did he need fourteen of each? The Maskil L’Dovid answers that when a Nes happens to a person he must thank Hashem for saving him in the past and daven for the future. SImilarly, after the Mabul, each person needed two animals of each for a korban. One for his salvation from the Mabul and one for the future. Noach, his sons, and their wives, were a total of eight people. From the fourteen animals one pair was needed to be let free and multiply in the land. That left 12 animals for eight people. Since Cham and his wife were Reshaim, as they disobeyed the command not to have relations on the Teivah, they did not need any Korban because Zevach Resha’im To’eivah. The six-remaining people took two each for a total of twelve.
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The Rainbow, Its Symbolism, and Why It Didn’t Exist Before the Mabul The rainbow is shaped like an archer’s bow. The Nevi’im tell us that when Moshiach comes, the Keshet or bow will no longer be an instrument of battle and death, it will be used to help mankind sustain life by working the ground. “Similarly,” says Rav Yehonoson Eibushitz, “when Hashem is battling us, Chas V’Shalom, the bow would be facing downwards to the earth, to shoot arrows. His promise after the Mabul is that if He wants to battle us, he will flip the bow upside down. This shows that we are the ones fighting Hashem but in his mercy, he will not punish us.” “The rainbow,” says Rav Yehonoson Eibushitz, “is a natural phenomenon made up of dirty cloudy air, struck by the rays of the sun. These two elements symbolize a human being’s two main excuses for failure to live up to his mission in life of keeping Torah and mitzvos. First, is that we are made of earth which dirties and clouds our pure and clean neshama. Our second excuse is that we were born with bad mazal. Our inborn traits prevent us from doing Hashem’s will. Mazal is represented by the sun. Therefore, when Hashem is angry, He looks at the rainbow and consoles himself over human failings and does not vent His wrath upon us.” Before the Mabul the air was always crisp and clear. A rainbow was not possible. Only after the Mabul, when the atmosphere became less pure was a natural rainbow possible.
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Mount Everest vs. Har Ararat, Which Is the Tallest?
“Chamaish Esrey Amah Milmalah Govru HaMayim Vayichusu HeHarim;The waters of the Mabul were 15 Amos taller than the tallest mountain.” The pasuk continues by telling us that when the waters went down 15 Amos, the Tayvah landed on Har Ararat. This seems to be telling us that Har Ararat was the tallest mountain. Can this be? We know that Mt. Everest in the Himalayas and Mt McKinley in Alaska are both taller than Ararat. How does the Torah say that Ararat was the tallest? The Netziv answers that in those days Har Ararat was the tallest mountain. It was only due to the change of the earth’s surface after the Mabul that caused certain mountains to shrink and others to become taller. That is how these other mountains attained greater heights than Ararat.

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