Editing Noah's Ark (section)

===Rabbinic Judaism===
{{Main|Noah in rabbinic literature}}
The [[Talmud]]ic [[Mishnah|tractates]] [[Sanhedrin (tractate)|Sanhedrin]], [[Avodah Zarah]], and [[Zevahim]] relate that, while Noah was building the Ark, he attempted to warn his neighbors of the coming deluge, but was ignored or mocked. God placed lions and other ferocious animals to protect Noah and his family from the wicked who tried to keep them from the Ark. According to one [[Midrash]], it was God, or the [[angel]]s, who gathered the animals and their food to the Ark. As no need existed to distinguish between clean and unclean animals before this time, the clean animals made themselves known by kneeling before Noah as they entered the Ark.{{Citation needed|date=June 2018}} A differing opinion is that the Ark itself distinguished clean animals from unclean, admitting seven pairs each of the former and one pair each of the latter.<ref name="Sefaria.org">{{Cite web|title=Sanhedrin 108b:7–16|url=https://www.sefaria.org/Sanhedrin.108b.7|access-date=13 October 2021|website=www.sefaria.org}}</ref>{{Primary source inline|date=October 2021}}

According to Sanhedrin 108b, Noah was engaged both day and night in feeding and caring for the animals, and did not sleep for the entire year aboard the Ark.<ref>Avigdor Nebenzahl, ''Tiku Bachodesh Shofer: Thoughts for [[Rosh Hashanah]]'', Feldheim Publishers, 1997, p. 208.</ref> The animals were the best of their kind and behaved with utmost goodness. They did not procreate, so the number of creatures that disembarked was exactly equal to the number that embarked. The raven created problems, refusing to leave the Ark when Noah sent it forth, and accusing the patriarch of wishing to destroy its race, but as the commentators pointed out, God wished to save the raven, for its descendants were destined to feed the prophet [[Elijah]].<ref name="Sefaria.org" />{{Primary source inline|date=October 2021}}

According to one tradition, refuse was stored on the lowest of the Ark's three decks, humans and clean beasts on the second, and the unclean animals and birds on the top. A differing interpretation described the refuse as being stored on the topmost deck, from where it was shoveled into the sea through a trapdoor. Precious stones, as bright as the noon sun, provided light, and God ensured the food remained fresh.<ref name="JE Noah"/><ref name="Ark of Noah"/><ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Hirsch |editor-first=E. G. |editor2-last=Muss-Arnolt |editor2-first=W. |editor3-last=Hirschfeld |editor3-first=H. |editor-link3=Hartwig Hirschfeld|editor-link1=Emil G. Hirsch |editor-link2=William Muss-Arnolt |title=Jewish Encyclopedia |year=1906 |publisher=JewishEncyclopedia.com |chapter=The Flood |chapter-url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=218&letter=F }}</ref>  In an unorthodox interpretation, the 12th-century Jewish commentator [[Abraham ibn Ezra]] interpreted the ark as a vessel that remained underwater for 40 days, after which it floated to the surface.<ref>[http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=9597&st=&pgnum=123 Ibn Ezra's Commentary to Genesis 7:16] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130524092028/http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=9597&st=&pgnum=123 |date=24 May 2013 }}. HebrewBooks.org.</ref>