Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“He himself sent out a dove to see if the waters were abated from the surface of the ground, but the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned into the ship to him, for the waters were on the surface of the whole earth. He put out his hand, and took her, and brought her to him into the ship. He waited yet another seven days; and again he sent the dove out of the ship. The dove came back to him at evening and, behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters were abated from the earth. He waited yet another seven days, and sent out the dove; and she didn’t return to him any more.”
(Genesis 8:8-12)

Doves are not carrion eaters. There was nothing fit for the dove to eat, so it returned. It took three times before the dove had enough food to make a nest and choose to stay out in nature. If there was enough food for the dove, there would be enough food for the other animals and it was safe for them to leave the ark and begin to repopulate the Earth.

In scripture, Holy Spirit is often compared to a dove. Using this as an analogy, we can see that in the first covenants (Noah, Abraham, David, etc), the Holy Spirit came upon people, but did not rest with them. It wasn’t until after Jesus made the Way that the Holy Spirit was sent and stayed, resting in us, and not returning to Heaven.

The sage OrHaChaim writes: ‘וישלח ידו ויקחה ויבא אותה אל התבה. He extended his hand, took her (the dove) and brought her to him into the ark. The verse tells us that the dove was exhausted from its mission, not having found a place to land. Noach was worried that the dove did not have strength enough to enter the ark on her own and would fall into the water and drown.’

The sage Steinsaltz writes: ‘The dove came in to him at evening time, after it had been sent off in the morning, and behold, it had plucked an olive leaf in its mouth. Since olive leaves are relatively tough, they did not rot in the water. And Noah knew that the waters had abated [kallu], that they had become light [kal] and diminished from upon the earth.‘

The sage Radak writes: ‘ולא יספה שוב אליו עוד, this is when Noach realised that the surface of the earth had dried sufficiently and that the pigeon had found a resting place on earth as well as on many trees so that it did not bother to come back to him. This happened in the 601st year of Noach’s life, seeing that the Torah mentions that it was on the first of the first month of that year. (verse 13) Noach’s 600th year had been completed on the 30th of Ellul, and he had entered the 601st year of his life on the first of Tishrey, which is the first month of the year. On the 17th day of the second month he had completed a full year’s stay in the ark. Even though the surface of the earth was “dry” in the sense that it was no longer covered by water, it was still too muddy, and the surface was misleading, seeing that beneath the immediate surface it was soft, spongy. It was not yet ready for walking on without risking that one would break through a very thin veneer of dry earth. This is why G’d had not yet commanded him to leave the ark (until the 27th of that month) At that time, as testified by the word יבשה, the earth had dried sufficiently to make using it as one’s habitat a safe endeavour. Noach did not want to leave the ark until he had been commanded to do so by G’d. He knew that G’d would issue such a command, just as He had at the time commanded him to enter the ark.’