Friday, January 24, 2020

agriculture - How did plants survive the Mabul?


Inspired by this answer:


As far as I can tell, there is no mention of Noach bringing plants into the ark. Moreover, it appears Noach had nothing to do with the survival of the plants, given that the dove brought back the olive tree leaf after the flood, before anyone had a chance to plant anything.


So, how did plants survive the Mabul?



Answer




The Classic Questions to Bereshit 8:11 in the Gutnik Chumash brings several different opinions on this matter (while specifically addressing where the olive branch came from).




  • Rabbi Levi says (Bereshit Rabbah 33:6) that the floodwaters did not fall in the Land of Israel. If so, even if all the plants in the rest of the world were destroyed, that would not mean the extinction of the plants.




  • The Ramban says that since the whole world was filled with water, there weren't strong currents that would uproot trees, and the trees survived the flood.




  • The Abarbanel says that the branches from the destroyed trees were floating in the water. As the flood subsided, the branches took root and started growing again.





No comments:

Post a Comment

digital communications - Understanding the Matched Filter

I have a question about matched filtering. Does the matched filter maximise the SNR at the moment of decision only? As far as I understand, ...