After the Flood, however, the Almighty altered nature itself, tilting the world on its axis to create the familiar patterns of climatic change. In this new world, Noah and his family exited the ark to discover the phenomena of changing temperatures, of rain and snow, of summer heat, of annual seasons for sowing and reaping.
Question 1: I'd never heard this angle before...that the meteorological laws of the earth changed at the flood. Does anyone have a source for this?
Question 2: I know ZC, you are committed to literalism of the Hebrew text, so I'm curious...do the rabbinic commentators comment upon the extent of the "eretz" covered by the flood? In other words, is there any support in Jewish traditional interpretation for a Flood that is *anthropologically* universal but not necessarily *geographically* so--i.e., it killed all men but those in the ark, but did not necessarily cover all the lands where no humans lived.
I'm not familiar with the classical sources, though Rabbi Shlomo Rotenberg in Volume I of `Am `Olam (available now in English translation) says the laws of nature were altered both after the Flood and after the Haflagah (the division of tongues). And that's not even taking the "fall" into consideration!
Question 2: I know ZC, you are committed to literalism of the Hebrew text, so I'm curious...do the rabbinic commentators comment upon the extent of the "eretz" covered by the flood? In other words, is there any support in Jewish traditional interpretation for a Flood that is *anthropologically* universal but not necessarily *geographically* so--i.e., it killed all men but those in the ark, but did not necessarily cover all the lands where no humans lived.
I have never heard of a "local flood" being taught anywhere in Jewish tradition. The flood was geographically universal and covered the tops of the highest mountains. The waters came from both the heavens and the depths and was hot and boiling. However (and I can't give you the source here) 'Eretz Yisra'el was exempted from the Flood and its inhabitants killed by the heat alone. This was so that afterwards the bodies could be buried correctly in order to prevent the Holy Land from being defiled by the dead bodies. The Prophet Ezekiel, I believe, refers to this somewhere.
In addition to the eight people in the Ark `Og (one of the giants descended from the two fallen angels) survived the Flood by clinging to the outside. Noah provided him with food through an aperture and required him to take an oath to serve his descendants. This is how `Og (an antedeluvian giant) survived into the days of Moses.