Where Did the Olive Leaf the Dove Found Come From?

The Aish Rabbi Replies

Thank you for your observant question. The Midrash explains that the leaf came from the Land of Israel, where the flood waters did not fall. (See Bereishis Rabbah 33:6. See also Talmud Zevachim 113a; this is based on Ezekiel 22:24 which refers to Israel as a land “not rained upon on the day of fury.”) If so, you might ask, how was the leaf a proof that the Flood had ended? There was no Flood in Israel in the first place! The answer is that although it did not directly rain in Israel and the groundwaters did not rise, the burning waters of the Flood flowed in from outside Israel’s borders (Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer 23). This is why no one survived even in the Holy Land (with the possible exception of the giants which still inhabited the postdiluvian world – see this past response). However, the trees of the Land of Israel, not directly impacted by the rains, clearly did survive – unlike those of the rest of the land, which had been utterly obliterated. Thus, the fact that the dove was able to reach a tree in Israel and pluck its leaf made it clear that the waters had at last subsided (Ramban, Genesis 8:11).