We find the number 40 in several places in the Torah. There were 40 days and nights of rain during the Great Flood. Moses was on Mount Sinai for 40 days and 40 nights while receiving the Torah. The minimum amount of water required for a kosher mikveh (ritual bath) is 40 seah (liquid measures). The Torah prescribes 40 lashes for some serious crimes. In addition, our Sages teach that a fetus takes 40 days from conception to develop into human form.
Why is the number 40 significant, as you ask? The Maharal of Prague, Rabbi Yehuda Loewe (16th century), teaches a fundamental concept regarding this number. The number 40 always means cataclysmic change and new creation. The flood eradicated all trace of the terrible spiritual state that existed previously and created a new mankind. By receiving the Torah, the Jews were born as a new nation. One who is impure immerses in the mikveh and emerges as a “new person” who is pure. Lashes motivate the criminal to recreate himself spiritually and return to the ways of the Torah.
Our Sages teach that the world was created through ten Divine utterances. Mystically, each of these ten utterances manifests itself on four different levels, hence a total of forty. On Shabbat, we refrain from 39 categories of forbidden labor. The Talmud refers to these 39 as "forty minus one" because each one parallels one of the forty levels of creation, except for the highest level of creation - creation of something from absolute nothingness - which has no parallel in our physical world.
Regarding the current tragic flooding in Texas, allow me to express condolences, prayers and sincere wishes for a complete and speedy recovery to all who are affected by this horrific natural disaster. And let us hope that our own “flood” of love and kindness will one day soon engulf the globe, and that “the earth will be full of Godly knowledge, just as the waters cover the ocean.” (Isaiah 11:9)
