What is the significance of the fact that the word "Haytzei" (tell to leave) is written as "Hotzei" (take out by force)?
Rashi: Initially, Noach was instructed to tell them to leave the Ark. If they refused to leave, however, he was ordered to take them out by force. 1
They animals had it good in the Ark, and some of the occupants would have felt comfortable remaining there. It is like the Mishnah in Pirkei Avos (4:22), "Against your will you are born (you exit the womb)"!
QUESTIONS ON RASHI
Rashi writes: ""Tell [the animals] to leave [the Ark]; ... if they are unwilling, then you bring them out(physically)." How is this implied in the verse?
Gur Aryeh: "Hotzei," as the word is written, means "bring them out." "Yeitzei" would mean "to leave (voluntarily)." "Haytzei," as the word is read, is a mix of the two: first ask them to leave willingly, but if not, bring them out even against their will.
Rashi writes: "... if they are unwilling, then you bring them out." Why would they be unwilling? We see that the dove demonstrated that it preferred to be provided for by HaSh-m!
Gur Aryeh: The dove is a kosher bird, and is of decent character. Non kosher-birds, and other beasts of prey, have a different nature; they kill and eat as they please, and do not prefer to be provided for by HaSh-m.
Rashi writes: "They shall swarm upon the earth - This teaches that even the beasts and birds were forbidden to mate while on the Ark." Seemingly, the verse only proves that they did not multiply while on the Ark. How do we know that they did not even mate?
Gur Aryeh #1: The phrase would then be unnecessary, because the verse continues, "... and they shall be fruitful and multiply upon the earth."
Gur Aryeh #2: Noach surely knew by observation that the animals did not bear young while on the Ark; HaSh-m would not have had to inform him of this. 1 Noach did not know, however, that they did not even mate, because many species mate at night, and it is in any case forbidden to observe mating animals (Avodah Zarah 20b).
HaSh-m was informing Noach that it would now once again be permitted for people to breed animals (of the same species); this implies that mating had been forbidden while on the Ark (Gur Aryeh).
Rashi writes: "Even the beasts and birds were forbidden to mate while on the Ark." Why were Cham, the raven and the dog intimate with their respective mates (Sanhedrin 108b) in spite of this prohibition?
Maharal (Chidushei Agados Vol. 3, p. 258, to Sanhedrin 108b): These beings set themselves apart from the general order of nature, and were aloof to the calamity taking place in the world. The raven exhibits cruelty, 1 the dog is a despised species, and Cham was already on the way to being condemned to slavery and curse, as we see below (9: 22-27).
Refer to 8:7:2.2:1*; refer to 8:7:3.1:1.
