“A window shalt thou make to the ark” (Gen. vi. 16).  Rabbi Amma says, “It was a real window.”  Rabbi Levi, on the other hand, maintained that it was a precious stone, and that during the twelve months Noah was in the ark he had no need of the light of the sun by day nor of the moon by night because of that stone, which he had kept suspended, and he knew that it was day when it was dim, and night when it sparkled.

Bereshith Rabbah, chap. 31.

The transparency, ascribed to the ark, has given rise to various conjectures.  The idea of Rabbi Levi, that it was a precious stone, has the sanction of the Targum of Jonathan; which volunteers the additional information that the gem was found in the river Pison.

Noah was deficient in faith, for he did not enter the ark till the water was up to his ankles.

Ibid., chap. 32.

“And he sent forth a raven” (Gen. viii. 7).  The raven remonstrated, remarking, “From all the cattle, beasts, and fowls thou sendest none but me.”  “What need has the world for thee?” retorted Noah; “thou art good neither for food nor for sacrifice.”  Rabbi Eliezer says God ordered Noah to receive the raven, as the world would one day be in need of him.  “When?” asked Noah.  “When the waters are dried up from off the earth, there will in a time to come arise a certain righteous man who shall dry up the world, and then I shall want it.”  This explains what is written (1 Kings xvii. 6), “And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning.”

Ibid., chap. 33.

At the time God said to the serpent, “Upon thy belly thou shalt go” (Gen. iii. 14), the ministering angels descended and lopped off his hands and his feet.  Then his voice was heard from one end of the world to the other.

Bereshith Midrash Rabbah, chap. 20.

When God said to the serpent, “And upon thy belly thou shalt go” (Gen. iii. 14), the serpent replied, “Lord of the universe! if this be Thy will, then I shall be as a fish of the sea without feet.”  But when God said to him, “And dust shalt thou eat,” he replied, “If fish eat dust, then I also will eat it.”  Then God seized hold of the serpent and tore his tongue in two, and said, “O thou wicked one! thou hast commenced (to sin) with thy evil tongue; thus I will proclaim it to all that come into the world that it was thy tongue that caused thee all this.”

Letters of Rabbi Akiva.

“And Noah only remained” (Gen. vii. 23), except Og, king of Bashan, who sat on a beam of the ladders (which projected from the ark), and swore to Noah and his sons that he would be their slave forever.  Noah made a hole in the ark through which he handed to Og his daily food.  Thus he also remained, as it is said (Deut. iii. 11), “For only Og, king of Bashan, remained.”

Pirke d’Rab.  Eliezer, chap. 23.

“Unto Adam and his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins” (Gen. iii. 21), viz, to cover their nakedness; but with what?  With fringes and phylacteries, “Coats of skins,” viz, the leathern straps of the phylacteries; “and they sewed fig-leaves” (Gen. iii. 7), viz, fringes; “and made themselves aprons,” this means the proclaiming of the Shema, “Hear, O Israel,” etc.