Questions
(For the answers see above)
1) Every child knows that Noach's teivah was divided into three levels: one for people, one for animals, and one for refuse. But have you ever wondered why an entire floor was devoted to rubbish?
After all, the teivah floated for a full year upon an endless expanse of water. Why not simply throw the garbage overboard? It would hardly have disturbed the world beneath. The oceans were vast, and the waste would surely have disappeared over time. Why endure the discomfort, odour, and inconvenience of storing an entire year's worth of refuse inside the teivah?
2) One of the most fascinating creatures mentioned in Torah literature is a bird that grows upon a tree and remains attached to it by its beak. The Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh De'ah 84:15) records: “There is a species of bird that grows on a tree and remains attached to the tree by its mouth. Such a bird is prohibited for consumption because of the prohibition of sheretz hashoretz al ha'aretz.”
This raises several intriguing questions: Can the feathers of such a bird be used for sechach? If it may be eaten after shechitah (see the Shach who quotes the Maharshal and Rabbeinu Tam who learn it may be eaten after shechitah) what berachah would one recite upon eating it? And finally, did Noach brings these birds into the teivah?
3) When Noach wished to determine whether the mabul had ended, he sent out the raven and later the dove. Why did he not simply ask Og who was outside the teivah?
4) Did Noach survive the mabul unscathed, or did he become ill because of it?
5) At the end of this week's parsha we encounter the story of Migdal Bavel. Everyone knows it was extraordinarily tall, but just how tall was it?
A Special Riddle in Honor of Those Who Learn in Yeshivas Mir and Are Beginning Bava Basra:
6) The Yalkut Me'am Lo'ez cites Midrashim stating that Hashem assisted the Dor Haflagah in constructing the tower. Every brick they placed miraculously became two, dramatically accelerating the building process.
But where is this hinted to in the pasukim?
