Sivan 17 – The ark came to rest…

June 12, 2025

03 – Sivan, Ararat, Genesis, Noah

Noah

Sivan 17, 5785; from sunset June 12, 2025, to sunset June 13, 2025

(The seventeenth day of the third month)

Noah’s Ark (1846), by the American folk painter Edward Hicks.

Today in the Bible, according to Rabbi Schlomo Yitzchaki (aka Rashi, 1040-1105 CE), is the day that the ark came to rest in the mountains of Ararat. Noah and his family have been in the ark over six months now. Month after month there was nothing but water and nothing to gauge if the water was going down or holding steady. Today had to be an exciting day…they finally hit ground! I can’t imagine the joy they must have felt.

But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. – Genesis 8:1-4 (NIB)

According to Rashi, the seventh month referenced in Genesis 8:4 means the seventh month of the flood. Below is how he calculated Noah’s calendar of events.

11 Cheshvan – Noah enters the ark (Oct/Nov)
17 Cheshvan – The windows of heaven and the fountains of the deep are opened
27 Kislev – 40 days later, the windows of heaven are closed

Now let’s do the math for how Rashi calculated today as the 17th day of the 7th month.

03 days to finish out the month of Kislev
29 days in the month of Tevet
30 days in the month of Shevat
29 days in the month of Adar
30 days in the month of Nisan
29 days in the month of Iyyar
150 days of receding waters

Rashi places the end of the 150 days on the first day of Sivan. Our text for today states the ark came to rest on the 17th day of the 7th month. Rashi explains that the 7th month, in this case, means the seventh month since the windows of heaven were closed. In an alternate view, Rabbi Joshua adjusts all of these dates forward by six months. We don’t know the exact calendar layout for the story of Noah and the flood, but we’re choosing to align with Rashi and take the opportunity to remember Noah and those with him in the ark.

If you’d like to read all of our posts on Noah, please click on the image above.