Genesis 8: Finding Rest on Shabbat

A staple of the Shabbat zemirot liturgy is a poem written by Rabbi Yehudah HaLevi: “Yonah Matzah Bo Manoach,” “The Dove found in it [Shabbat] rest.” This Shabbat lunchtime song has a recurring chorus about the dove finding a resting spot on Shabbat. The rest of the song, though, deals with the giving of the Torah. How does the author know the dove found the resting spot on Shabbat and what is the connection between the dove and giving of the Torah and Shabbat? To answer the first question, we can look at today’s chapter- “He waited another seven days, and again sent out the dove from the ark/The dove came back to him toward evening, and there in its bill was a plucked-off olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the waters had decreased on the earth/ He waited still another seven days and sent the dove forth; and it did not return to him any more”(Verses 10-12). Noah waits seven days twice to send the dove, and after the first time, the dove waits to return until the evening after the seventh day. The only previous “seventh day” that is mentioned in the Torah is the Sabbath. This is, ostensibly, where Rabbi Judah HaLevi determines that the dove rested on Shabbat. The answer to the second question is a little more complicated. The Israelites are compared to doves a few times in Tanach e.g., in Genesis 15:11 “And He said unto him: ‘Take Me a heifer of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon,” in Psalms 68:14 “even for those of you who lie among the sheepfolds there are wings of a dove sheathed in silver, its pinions in fine gold.” The dove is also sent out when the Ark rests on a mountain. The third stanza of the poem reads: “Once on Moriah's mountain He bade His folk heed; 'Keep ye my Sabbaths, hallowed in word and deed.” After a tumultuous year of the flood, the dove finally finds a resting spot at the top of a mountain signaling the end of the flood. For the Israelites, their tumultuous beginning as a nation starting with slavery in Egypt followed by passing through water on dry land. Only after this chaos, were they able to find a resting spot at the base of a mountain and with the giving of the Ten Commandments. They, like the dove, finally found rest.