Parashah of the week: Noach

Every Jewish or secular child can tell you that Noah gathered every species “two by two” to take into the Ark. What is less known is that of “clean” animals Noah gathered seven pairs, presumably to enable Noah’s family to eat during the Flood and to be able to offer sacrifices on their departure from the Ark.

Of birds there is less clarity about whether Noah gathered seven pairs of
all types or merely of the clean birds. Birds, of course, play a crucial role in Noah’s story as he sends first a raven and then a dove to test whether the waters have receded.

The raven is a bird of carrion which would have fed on the drowned floating carcasses and is considered “unclean” for the Jewish diet or sacrificial system.

The Babylonian Talmud records a conversation between a raven and Noah: “The raven made a telling point when it said to Noah: You must hate me, for you did not send out to scout from the species of birds of which there are seven pairs in the ark, but from a species of which there is only one pair. If the power of the sun or of the cold had overwhelmed me, would not the world be missing a species?” (Sanhedrin 108a).