Rainbow in the Cloud

Parshas Noach

After the Mabul , the “Great Flood”, which nearly destroyed the entire world - as we read in this week’s Torah portion (see Genesis 6:9-9:17) – G-d made a ‘covenant’ with Noah and his family (and all of mankind) that He would never again destroy His world, no matter how badly Man sins.

G-d thus declared, “This is the sign of the covenant that I give between Me and you, and every living being that is with you, to generations forever: I have set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. And it shall happen, when I place a cloud over the earth, and the bow will be seen in the cloud, I will remember My covenant between Me and you and every living being among all flesh, and the water shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud, and I will look upon it to remember the everlasting covenant between G-d and every living being, among all flesh that is on earth” (Genesis 9:12-17).

Now there are some commentators like Ibn Ezra who understand the biblical text above to mean that up until this point rainbows never existed. He explains that the rainbow is caused by the rays of the sun against the clouds; after the Flood, G-d caused atmospheric changes so a bow would be produced. Before this, the bow had never been seen.

However, most commentators disagree. For example, Nachmanides writes that the use of the first person, “My bow”, and the past tense, “I have set”, in the above text indicate that the bow was previously in existence. The verse is therefore to be interpreted: “The bow which I have set in the clouds since the beginning of creation – as a natural phenomenon resulting from the sun’s rays refracting upon the moisture-laden air, similar to the rainbow visible in a container of water standing in the sun – shall henceforth serve as a sign of the covenant between Me and you.”

There are many reasons offered by the great Bible commentators as to what it is about a rainbow that G-d chose it as a sign of the covenant of peace between Him and man never again to destroy the world. Here are a few of them:

Nachmanides quotes the early commentators who explain the rainbow’s symbolic meaning of peace as follows: G-d did not make the rainbow with its ends pointing upwards and the arched part of the bow pointing downwards, whereby it would appear as if they are shooting from Heaven with it. Rather, He made the bow in the opposite manner indicating that they would not shoot with it from Heaven. For so is the manner of warriors to invert their bow in their hands in this way when they wish to declare their peaceful intentions toward their opponents. Moreover, on this “bow” there is no string on which to place an arrow – and a bow that cannot shoot is also a symbol of peace.

According to Bereishis Zuta, the rainbow was chosen as the sign of the covenant because it is composed of fire (the sun’s rays) and water (the clouds) in harmonious fusion. This is symbolic that G-d, Who thus makes peace between opposites above, will similarly make peace on earth, and the earth will never again be overrun by a flood.

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch explains that the rainbow symbolizes a bond between earth and heaven because it appears as an arc connecting earth with heaven … In the midst of an overcast, foreboding sky, it comes as light; it is thus a reminder that even when G-d appears to be wrathful, His grace and mercy are still present.

Of course there is even a blessing to be made when one sees a rainbow. As the Halachah (Jewish law) is formulated in Shulchan Aruch (O.C. 229:1): One who sees a rainbow in the sky recites the following blessing:

Baruch atah Ado-nai, Elo-heinu melech ha'olam, zocher ha'bris, ne'eman bivriso, v'kayam b'ma'amaro.

Blessed are You, L-ord our G d, King of the universe, Who remembers His covenant, is faithful in His covenant, and upholds His word.

In a sense, the rainbow that appears in the sky as a sign of the covenant between G-d and mankind is paradoxical.

On the one hand, when we see a rainbow in the sky we should be happy because the rainbow is our “guarantee” that G-d will never again destroy the world in which we live. On the other hand, it means that in our generation we have been repeating the sins of the generation of the Great Flood (lewdness, moral corruption, theft, etc.) and rightfully deserve to be destroyed by G-d were it not for the covenant that He made with mankind. Yikes!

Indeed, Rashi and Mizrachi write that only in morally defective, undeserving generations was the rainbow needed for necessary reassurance that G-d would not destroy them. However, it was not required in perfectly righteous generations. For example, rainbows were not seen during the periods of Hezekiah, King of Judah, and of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.

It goes so far that the Chafetz Chaim, in his Mishnah Berurah (O.C. 229:1), quotes the Chayei Adam who says that one should not tell his friend about a rainbow that he saw as it’s similar to “spreading bad news”!

Hmm …something to think about next time we see a rainbow in the cloud.

http://www.torchweb.org/torah_detail.php?id=588

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