Rashi remarks on the pasuk, “And he sent forth the raven and it kept going and returning until the drying of the waters from upon the earth.” (Bereishis 8:8) When Noach thought it might be safe to emerge from the teiva, he sent out the raven. However, the raven did not fly out in search of dry land as Noach had expected but just circled the teiva, flying back and forth. Rashi, quoting the Gemara states: “The raven did not go on its mission because it was suspicious [of Noach] with regard to its mate...” (Sanhedrin 108b). As strange as it seems, the raven was afraid that Noach would take its wife while he was “off the boat” doing his mission!
R' Frand relates that he once heard a true story about a young man in a ba’al teshuvah yeshiva in Eretz Yisroel. His Rebbe came over to him and asked him how things were going. The young man replied, “things are going pretty well except that I read a Rashi today that is ridiculous.” Which Rashi was he referring to? It was the above cited Rashi that the raven was afraid Noach would have relations with his wife while he flew away on a mission.
The Rebbe carefully explained to him that such teachings of Chazal have to be understood in the light of the nature of Aggadic literature in general. They are really metaphors. There are messages here. Chazal are trying to teach us here something that has nothing really to do with ravens. It has to do with human beings.
The Maharal explains the metaphor of this teaching about the raven rejecting Noach’s mission: Ravens by their nature are obsessed with the relations they have with their mates. They are so obsessed by these relations that this is all ravens think about. Therefore, says the Maharal, since the raven was constantly obsessed with thoughts about having relations with his mate, he projected those same obsessions onto everybody else. He assumed that everybody must be thinking the same thing he was. The Maharal writes that it is very common amongst creatures (man included) to project their own thoughts and shortcomings upon others. There is a popular saying “What Peter says about Paul says more about Peter than it says about Paul.” Think about this statement.
This means that if a person goes through life thinking that everybody is out to get him — besides being somewhat paranoid — it is because he really does have such thoughts about “getting” other people. Individuals really project their life view of how they think and how they act and they are convinced that everybody else thinks and acts like that as well.
Therefore, says the Maharal, since the raven was so obsessed with having relations with his mate, in his mind he was convinced that this is what Noach must be thinking about as well. Therefore, he suspected Noach of having intentions towards his mate.
This lesson of Chazal is not trying to teach us so much about ravens as it is about ourselves, about human beings in general. It is teaching us that how we view life and how we view people says a lot about us. If we are negative about people, if we are skeptical of their motives and suspect them of wrongdoing and ill- intent then that is really a function of how we view the world. These same thoughts may be the farthest thing in the world from those other people we cynically suspect.
The lesson about the raven is not so much a teaching about birds. It is a teaching about human beings — which is the purpose of the entire Torah.
