By Rabbi Shay Tahan

Ask a believing Jew about dinosaurs, and he may wonder whether the subject conflicts with the Torah. After all, scientists speak of creatures that lived millions of years ago. Does the discovery of their remains challenge our faith? Already in Parshat Bereishit, the Torah tells us that Hashem created “the great sea creatures” (Bereishit 1:21). Rashi explains that these were the great fish of the sea. The Gemara in Bava Batra (74b) discusses the Livyatan and relates that Hashem created it male and female, but then killed the female so that they would not reproduce and destroy the world.

The Torah and Chazal thus describe creatures of extraordinary size and power, some of which are beyond our ordinary experience. We should not automatically identify every creature mentioned by Chazal with a particular species known to modern science.

Nevertheless, these sources remind us that the world Hashem created contains wonders far beyond what we encounter in everyday life. The Tiferet Yisrael, Rabbi Yisrael Lipschitz, addresses the discovery of enormous fossilized creatures (in his essay Derush Or HaChaim, printed with his commentary on Seder Nezikin). He discusses the remains of creatures found near Baltimore and elsewhere, including animals known in his time as the mammoth, Iguanodon, and Megalosaurus. He connects these discoveries with the teachings of the Kabbalists concerning worlds that Hashem created and destroyed before the present world.

The Tiferet Yisrael saw these discoveries as consistent with the idea that earlier stages of creation may have contained creatures unlike those familiar to us. He discusses fossilized creatures that we today associate with the prehistoric world.

Another relevant teaching appears in Bereishit Rabbah (3:7), where Rabbi Abahu teaches that Hashem created worlds and destroyed them before creating the present world. The Midrash does not mention dinosaurs, but later Torah scholars have discussed it in connection with questions about the ancient history of the earth.

The Malbim, in his commentary to Bereishit 7:23, offers a different perspective on the remains of enormous creatures. He explains that the Flood’s waters swept away the bodies of animals and carried many of their bones into deep valleys and the depths of the earth. Although some bones were strong enough to survive, they became buried far beneath the surface. According to the Malbim, when Noach left the Ark, he found no trace of the remains of the enormous creatures that had existed before the Flood.

The Malbim’s discussion offers a Torah perspective on how the upheavals of the Flood could have affected the remains of creatures that perished. However, neither he nor the other sources mentioned here explicitly identifies dinosaurs by that modern name or establishes precisely when they lived. The important point is not that every scientific theory must be found explicitly in a pasuk. Rather, we should recognize that the world is far more complex than what we see around us today. Discoveries about ancient creatures do not, in themselves, contradict the Torah. Our faith rests on the truth of the Torah, not on the assumption that we already understand every detail of the world Hashem created.

More Than a Flood

The discussion of ancient creatures raises a broader question: How much did the Flood change the world?

We are accustomed to thinking of the Mabul as a catastrophe that destroyed the people and animals of that generation, after which the world continued much as before. But several Torah commentators describe changes that went far beyond the destruction of life. According to their explanations, the Flood altered the natural conditions under which future generations would live.

The Birth of the Seasons

At the end of the Flood, the pasuk says: “From now on, for all the days of the earth, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease” (Bereishit 8:22).

The Sforno explains that the natural order after the Flood differed from what had existed before. He writes that the sun would travel along a path inclined relative to the equator, and that this inclination would bring about the changing seasons. Before the Flood, he explains, the sun’s path remained along the equator, so it was always spring.

The Sforno presents a striking picture of the change that took place after the Flood. To understand his explanation, consider how seasons work today. The earth rotates on its axis and revolves around the sun. Because its axis is tilted, different parts of the world receive different amounts of direct sunlight during the year. When the Northern Hemisphere tilts toward the sun, it experiences summer, while the Southern Hemisphere experiences winter. Six months later, the situation reverses.

The Sforno’s account is his own explanation of the natural order described by the Torah. It should not be confused with the modern scientific explanation of the seasons, which attributes them to the earth’s axial tilt. The Sforno further explains that the change in the natural order brought about a deterioration in the conditions of the world. Before the Flood, the more favorable conditions benefited plants, animals, and human beings and contributed to their long lifespans. The promise that the seasons would continue was therefore more than a promise about the weather. It described a new and enduring natural order.

The Sforno adds that Hashem will ultimately repair the deterioration caused by the Flood. He connects this idea to the pasuk: “For the young man shall die at the age of one hundred” (Yeshayahu 65:20).

In the future, when Hashem renews the world, the conditions that existed before the Flood will be restored.

According to the Sforno, then, the Flood did not merely destroy one generation. It changed the conditions under which all subsequent generations would live.

Rain Once in Forty Years

The Midrash, as cited by the Malbim, describes another difference between the world before and after the Flood. According to this account, illness was unknown before the Flood, and rain fell only once in forty years. The rain was so remarkable that people would gather to witness it, and the land would produce enough to sustain them for years. The account also relates that when one of the Sages of the Gemara suffered from a stiff neck, he attributed it to the consequences of the Flood.

These descriptions portray a world whose conditions differed dramatically from those we know today. The pattern of rainfall, the health of human beings, and the conditions of agricultural life were not necessarily always as they are now.

The Torah’s account of the Flood therefore invites us to consider consequences that extended far beyond the destruction of the generation that lived at the time. According to these sources, the effects of the Mabul continued to shape the world in which later generations lived.

Continental Drift

Another fascinating question concerns the history of the earth: Were the continents once joined together?

In 1915, the German scientist Alfred Wegener published his theory of continental drift. He observed that the eastern coast of South America and the western coast of Africa appear to fit together like pieces of a puzzle. He also pointed to matching fossils, geological formations, and evidence of ancient glaciers found on continents that are now separated by oceans.

One striking example was the discovery of fossils of the same reptile, Mesosaurus, in both South America and Africa. Such findings supported the idea that these continents had once been connected.

Wegener could not initially explain the physical mechanism that moved the continents, and his theory was disputed. Later research developed the modern theory of plate tectonics, which explains how the earth’s plates move over long periods.

Torah sources have also prompted discussion about the history of the earth’s lands. The Zohar Chadash states: “One actual land emerged from the waters, and from it the seven lands developed.” The Zohar Chadash describes the emergence of one land from the waters and the development of seven lands.

Some later writers have connected this passage with the continents as we know them today. That identification, however, is an interpretation rather than an explicit statement of the Zohar. The Torah itself tells us that, at Creation, Hashem gathered the waters so that the dry land would appear: “Let the waters beneath the heavens gather into one place, and let the dry land appear” (Bereishit 1:9).

Later, the Torah records the name Peleg, explaining: “For in his days the earth was divided” (Bereishit 10:25).

These passages have prompted discussion among Torah scholars about the history of the earth and the separation of its lands. We should be careful not to claim that a particular scientific theory is proven by a source that does not explicitly describe it. Still, these sources invite us to reflect on the tremendous changes the earth has undergone and on how much there is yet to understand about the world Hashem created.

Predators and the Tower of Bavel

The Flood changed more than the physical environment. According to the Ramban, the relationship between human beings and animals changed as well.

The Torah records that after the Flood, Hashem permitted Noach and his descendants to eat meat: “Every moving creature that lives shall be yours for food” (Bereishit 9:3).

The Ramban explains that before this point, human beings had been permitted to eat vegetation but not animals. The permission to eat meat marked a new stage in humanity’s relationship with the animal world. The world after the Flood was therefore different in its natural conditions and in the relationship between humanity and other living creatures. The Mabul marked a turning point in the history of the world, with consequences that, according to the commentators, extended well beyond the generation that experienced it.

When we consider the remains of ancient creatures, the changing natural order, and the history of the earth’s lands, we are reminded that the world Hashem created is vast and complex. Torah sources offer profound perspectives on its history, while scientific discoveries continue to uncover details of the natural world. We need not claim that every discovery is explicitly described in the Torah to appreciate that learning about the world can deepen our sense of wonder at Hashem’s creation.