The Ark, the Dove and the Rainbow

This time, when Aviya opened the Chumash, a warm wind blew out of the pages — and the sisters were standing on a dusty hill. The land below was full of people, but it was full of chamas, too — people grabbing and hurting. "That's not how the world is supposed to be," said Tzofia. Aviya read: Noach was a righteous man, wholehearted in his generation. Noach walked with God. He had three sons: Shem, Cham and Yefet.

God told Noach exactly how to build the ark: gopher wood, with rooms inside, covered with pitch inside and out. Three hundred cubits long, fifty wide, thirty high. A tzohar for light. A door in the side. And three decks: lower, second and third. Aviya showed Tzofia a cubit — from her elbow to her fingertips. "Three hundred of those?!" Tzofia gasped. Lielle banged two pieces of wood together to help.

Noach went into the ark with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives, because of the waters of the flood. And then the animals came — two by two, male and female, just as God had commanded. Two elephants. Two giraffes, ducking their heads. Two tiny ladybugs. Tzofia counted them all: "Two! Two! Two!" Lielle waved at a pair of monkeys, and the monkeys waved back.

In the six hundredth year of Noach's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day, all the fountains of the great deep burst open and the windows of the sky opened up. Rain fell for forty days and forty nights. The sisters hurried up the ramp. Then Aviya read a line that made her stop: "And Hashem shut him in." The great door closed behind them — safe and dry.

The water rose and rose and lifted the ark right off the ground. The ark floated on the face of the waters, higher than the tallest mountains. Inside it was warm and noisy — mooing and roaring and chirping. The sisters peeked out of the tzohar at the gray water everywhere. Aviya read that the waters swelled on the earth for one hundred and fifty days. "That's a long time to be on a boat," said Tzofia.

Then God remembered Noach and all the animals in the ark. He sent a wind over the earth, and the waters began to go down. The fountains of the deep closed, and the rain stopped. Bump! The ark stopped moving. Aviya read: in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. Lielle clapped. Tzofia shouted, "We landed!"

After forty days, Noach opened the window of the ark and sent out a raven. It flew back and forth, back and forth, until the water dried up. Then he sent out a dove. But the dove found no place to rest her foot, because water still covered the earth. So she came back. Tzofia held her breath as Noach reached out his hand and brought the dove back in. "She's safe," whispered Aviya.

Noach waited seven more days and sent the dove out again. In the evening, the dove came back — and in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf! "Something is growing again!" shouted Tzofia. Lielle reached for the leaf. Noach waited another seven days and sent the dove out once more. This time she did not come back at all. "She found a home," said Aviya.

God said to Noach: "Go out of the ark — you, your wife, your sons and your sons' wives — and bring out every living thing with you." The big door opened. The animals poured out onto the dry, fresh land — running, hopping, flying. Tzofia ran too. Then Noach built an altar to Hashem and brought offerings. The sisters stood quietly and watched the smoke rise.

Then God made a promise — a brit — with Noach and every living creature: never again would the waters become a flood to destroy all life. And He gave a sign: "My bow I have set in the cloud." A rainbow stretched across the whole sky. Tzofia named every color. Lielle reached up to grab it. "Every time we see one," said Aviya, "it's the sign of the promise."

Years later, the whole earth had one language and the same words. People settled in a valley in Shinar and baked bricks. "Let's build a city," they said, "and a tower with its top in the sky, and make a name for ourselves, so we won't be scattered." Hashem came down to see the city and the tower. He mixed up their language so they couldn't understand each other. "Brick!" said one. "Huh?" said another. And Hashem scattered them over the whole earth.

Many generations later, the Chumash told of a family: Terach, and his sons Avram, Nachor and Haran. Avram married Sarai. Terach took Avram, Sarai and his grandson Lot and left Ur Kasdim to go to the land of Canaan — and they came as far as Charan, and settled there. The page began to glow. Aviya smiled and closed the Chumash. "Next week," she said, "Hashem is going to tell Avram to go."