Rabba Eliezer says Adam was skilled in all manner of crafts. What proof is there of this? It is said (Isa. xliv. 11), "And the artisans, they are of Adam."
"And the Lord said, I will destroy man" (Gen. vi. 7). Rabbi Levi, in the name of Rabbi Yochanan, says that even millstones were destroyed. Rabbi Yuda, in the name of Rabbi Yochanan, declares even the very dust of Adam was destroyed. Rabbi Yuda, in the name of Rabbi Shimon, insists that even the (resurrection) bone of the spine, from which God will one day cause man to sprout forth again, was destroyed.
Concerning the bone, the _os coccygis_, there is an interesting story in Midrash Kohelet (fol. 114, 3), which may be appropriately inserted here. Hadrian (whose bones may they be ground, and his name blotted out) once asked Rabbi Joshua ben Chanania, "From what shall the human frame be reconstructed when it rises again?" "From Luz in the backbone," was the answer. "Prove this to me," said Hadrian. Then the Rabbi took Luz, a small bone of the spine, and immersed it in water, but it was not softened; he put it into the fire, but it was not consumed; he put it into a mill, but it could not be pounded; he placed it upon an anvil and struck it with a hammer, but the anvil split and the hammer was broken. (See also Zohar in "Genesis," 206, etc. etc.)
"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.
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.
"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."