Nature After the Flood

Sforno (Bereishis 08:22) Nature will not cease to function dependably as it had prior to the deluge. The sun will orbit predictably, its orbit will be subject to calculation in advance, so will be its position relative to other phenomena in the sky. All the time periods mentioned in this verse will somehow be related to the position of the sun at different times during the year. It would be different from before the deluge. Whereas prior to the deluge the sun had remained at a fixed distance relative to the earth all year round, its orbit being circular, resulting in eternal spring in the populated parts of the earth, now there would be all these changes, though at predetermined intervals, resulting in alternating seasons of relative warmth and cold due to the elliptical nature of the sun’s orbit until such time as G-d would correct this deterioration in living conditions on earth due to the effect of the deluge. This “correction” is what the prophet Isaiah 66,22 had in mind when he spoke of the “the new earth which I am going to make.” In that future foreseen by the prophet, the sun will once more orbit like a circle instead of like an ellipsis, a configuration responsible for the uneven temperatures on earth during different parts of the year. At that time, the whole vegetation on earth will undergo an upgrading, the curse earth experienced both after Adam’s sin and after Kayin’s murder of his brother Hevel being lifted. Conditions of length of human life will revert to what they had been before the deluge, as the prophet said that , a youth, if he dies at a hundred years old will be considered as having died in his adolescence and more verses there describing this future. This is also what David referred “You make the lands of sunrise and sunset shout for joy.”