Question
Genesis 7:11 In the second (Iyar) month, the seventeenth day of the month the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up,and the "windows" of heaven were opened. Genesis 8:4 And the (Noah's) ark "rested" in the seventh (Tishrei) month on the seventeenth day of the month upon the mountains of Ararat. In these Torah passages heaven's windows opened in the month of Iyar (healing time) and the flood mabbul~ Mem~Bet~Vav~Lamed began. The ark also "rested" in the seventh month [Tishrei "head" of the year ushering in the High Holidays, Rosh Hashanah, the Ten Days of Repentance, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Simchat Torah]. Both of these extraordinary events occurred on the seventeenth day of the month. Will you connect the dots for me? Why Iyar seventeen? Why Tishrei seventeen? Does number seventeen have spiritual significance? Thanks, for all your invaluable insight.

Question
It seems that there might be some connection between the 40 days and 40 nights of the Flood followed by the rainbow and the 40 days and 40 nights that Moses spent on Sinai followed by the golden calf. Do you know of any such connection made by any of the Rabbis of earlier times? Thank you for a most absorbing and interesting series of Q & A's!