One of the many things that everyone knows that isn't, in fact, true is that the Flood lasted for 40 days and 40 nights. Actually, it was the rain that lasted for 40 days and 40 nights; the Flood itself lasted much longer.

The Torah says that Noah and the animals were on the ark for a year and 10 days. According to a midrash, during that time Noah and his family barely slept — each of the animals had to be fed at its proper time, some during the day and some during the night. And with the noise and smells of all those people and animals crowded into a tiny space, Noah and his family probably couldn't wait until they could safely leave the ark and walk on dry land.

After they had been on the ark almost eight months, the water finally receded enough so that they could see the tops of mountains. Forty days later, Noah sent out a raven, but it returned, unable to find a place to land. Next, Noah sent out a dove, but it too returned. He waited seven days and sent out the dove again. This time it returned with an olive branch in its beak, so that Noah knew that the water had receded to the level of the treetops and that the end of their journey was in sight.

We, of course, know the dove with an olive branch as a symbol of peace. However, this symbol is probably rooted in early Christian art. In the Torah, God gives Noah another sign of peace, a symbol to show that God's anger has abated and that He will not bring another flood — that, of course, is the rainbow.

The rabbis of the Talmud (Eruvin 18b) see a very different message in the dove's return with the olive branch: The dove said to the Holy Blessed One, Master of the Universe, let my sustenance be as bitter as this olive leaf just so it comes from You, rather than sweet as honey but coming from creatures of flesh and blood.

The dove's message was that independence and freedom, no matter how difficult, is better than the most comfortable dependence. Let me be free to make my own choices and bear their consequences, say the rabbis, even if those consequences are painful. Let me be a grown-up rather than a child.

Sometimes it's hard to be a grown-up because you have to make hard choices; sometimes, there's no win-win solution; sometimes, no matter what you do, someone will be hurt. But that's what it means to be fully human.

In Bereshit, we read that God created human beings in his image — that is, He created us with a moral faculty, the ability to recognize good and evil and to choose between them. And in Pirkei Avot we learn Rabbi Akiva's teaching: "Beloved are human beings for they were created in the image of God, exceedingly beloved because it has been made known to them that they are created in God's image." We know that we are made in God's image and so we know we have been given the freedom and the responsibility to choose between good and evil. Life is filled with events and circumstances we can't control, but we can and must control how we play the hand we have been dealt.

The dove brought Noah a sprig with an olive leaf to teach him, and us, that even though it is sometimes hard, we must embrace that freedom. There is more to life than being comfortable. Even the most bitter independence is preferable to dependence, for how else can we be true to the image of God that is within each and every one of us?