In his prophecies of the messianic era, Yeshayahu foretells that “the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat... and a small child shall lead them.”
A similar atmosphere prevailed in Noach’s ark, where even the most fierce and predatory animals coexisted peacefully, despite their confinement to tiny quarters for an entire year. Moreover, the animals were so peaceful that Noach and his family alone successfully maintained them all and tended to their needs—an operation that would normally require a much larger team of caretakers. Chassidus explains that the peace between all the ark’s occupants was brought about by the extraordinary Divine revelation that was felt in the ark, comparable in nature to the revelations of the era of Moshiach.
This remarkable feeling of G-d’s presence overwhelmed the animals and changed their nature, causing even ferocious animals of prey to become peaceful and approachable.
This explains Rashi’s commentary on the word הוצא—“bring out”: “It is written הוֹצֵ א, but it is read הַ י ְ צֵ א . הַ י ְ צֵ א means: tell them that they should come out. הוֹצֵ א means: if they do not wish to come out, you take them out.”
According to Rashi, when the land was finally dry and livable again, and the time came to leave the confines of the ark, G-d alerted Noach that he might have to forcibly remove the animals. One would imagine that after spending a year cooped up in an ark, the animals would be more than happy to leave! But the opposite was true. In the ark’s cramped conditions, the animals were given a taste of the utopian era of Moshiach, and who would want to walk away from that?
—Likkutei Sichos, vol. 25, pp. 28–31
