ספר בראשית

An alternative explanation of G’d’s directive to take along ‎provisions. [The following is based on the Torah choosing the ‎word ‎מאכל‎ instead of the customary word ‎אוכל‎, for food. Ed.] ‎‎(Compare Genesis 41,35; 41,48; 42,7 et al) By using the causative ‎mode, ‎מאכל‎ as in ‎מאכיל‎, the Torah suggests that G’d made it ‎Noach’s task to feed others, primarily the animals, of course. ‎When understanding the word ‎מאכל‎ in this way, a commentary ‎by Bereshit Rabbah 19,12 becomes clearer. Rabbi Abahu ‎there draws our attention to Adam when challenged by G’d ‎‎(Genesis 3,12) if he came by the knowledge that he was nude ‎because he had eaten from the tree that G’d had forbidden him to ‎eat, having said: ‎האשה אשר נתת עמדי הוא נתנה לי מן העץ ואכל‎, “the ‎woman that You have given me to be my mate, she gave me from ‎the tree vaochel”. Adam used the future tense when describing his ‎having eaten instead of saying ‎אכלתי‎, “I ate.” The author of the ‎‎midrash sees in this Adam’s implied promise to repair ‎whatever damage he had done by eating the forbidden fruit, by in ‎future pronouncing a blessing before partaking of anything that ‎G’d put at man’s disposal in this universe. He hoped to undo any ‎harm his eating from the tree of knowledge had done. When ‎Adam’s eating from the tree is looked at in this light, he had ‎indeed “fed” the human beings that were born after him, by ‎bequeathing them a world that they could call their own. This ‎was confirmed by G’d at the moment when He told Noach ‎קח לך ‏מכל מאכל אשר יאכל‎, “Take for yourself of all the food that is ‎fit to be eaten.” Noach’s taking with him all the animals into the ‎ark set the stage for man’s being permitted to eat the meat of ‎animals after they had died and become fit as food. This is also the ‎allusion contained in Yoel 2,26 ‎ואכלתם אכול‎, “and you will eat ‎your fill (and praise the name of the Lord).” The repetition of the ‎word ‎אכול‎ is the veiled reference to Adam’s having been ‎responsible for all this in a constructive sense. [This editor views ‎this midrash as especially inspiring, as it suggests that ‎Adam himself “invented” the principle of the punishment ‎having to fit the crime. Ed.]‎