Community Torah Corner, October 20, 2023

Searching for the Rainbow

As I left school one day this week, I looked up to find a rainbow just beginning to disappear into the clouds over Route 280. "How timely," I thought, given that the rainbow’s origin story is found in this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Noach. I silently prayed that it might be a sign for us all - through the grief and anger, through the worry and the naked fear that so many of us are feeling about Israel these days. Then, like many of us, I started to think. Too much. 

I looked back at the parashah to see where God first described to Noach all about the destruction that would be unleashed upon the world. “For My part, I am about to bring the Flood—waters upon the earth—to destroy all flesh under the sky in which there is breath of life; everything on earth shall perish:  But I will establish My covenant with you, and you shall enter the ark, with your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives.” (Gen. 6:17-18).

While it is certainly notable that God failed first to mention that the ark that Noach would be using to save himself and his family would also be a giant, floating, foul-smelling animal refuge, I am more interested in the intent of the covenant. In the midst of devastating loss, God promises a covenant with Noach, at first implying that just Noach would be saved. After the flood, God explains that the reminder of that covenant will be the rainbow, explaining in verse 9:14-15: “When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds I will remember My covenant between Me and you and every living creature among all flesh, so that the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.” At the end of the flood, God essentially expands the covenant to all of us. 

Yet, so many questions still arise for me.

Did Noach ask for this covenant? Perhaps this is a naive question for the same Torah in which Avraham neither asked to leave his home country nor (almost) sacrifice his child, where Moshe hesitated at being called to lead, and where Jonah just plain ran the other way! It feels as though God’s covenants are a little one-sided. Here too, I wonder if Noach wanted to be part of the last survivors of the old world, and what kind of trauma would await him in the aftermath.

Who actually needed this colorful reminder? Noach lived through horrible destruction and survived. Surely that would obviate the need for the beautiful rainbow? If the rainbow still serves as a reminder for us today (more than for Noach), are we meant to remember the devastation along with the promise that the world will never again be destroyed? Is this sign both threat and promise?

What did God mean when saying, “I will remember My covenant between Me and you and every living creature among all flesh?” If I was sure that Noach would remember what happened, surely God would! If God needs to remember that sometimes humans sin, and that God will nevertheless choose not to destroy us - somehow I feel even more ambivalent. Rashi even suggests that not every generation actually needed this reminder. For example, there were so few failures of faith in the world during Hizkiyahu and Shimon bar Yohai’s generations that God didn’t even need the reminder. I am happy for those generations, but I will point out that this week as I continued my drive home, I even saw a second rainbow - so I am guessing that the perfect record has been broken in our era. 

What about the majority of the time when we do not see a rainbow? If the rainbow means God will remember, and if there were even a couple of generations that had NO rainbows (according to Rashi), then should we worry when we see nothing? This is certainly a concern because the rainbow is a rare enough occasion to warrant it being posted on all of our social media feeds! Can we then get God to remember us when we are feeling desperate and without hope? 

12th century Spanish commentator and philosopher Abraham Ibn Ezra comes to the rescue on this last question.  He explains that when Gen. 9:16 suggests that when the bow will be in the clouds, one should really read it as the Hebrew suggests: “וְהָיְתָ֥ה הַקֶּ֖שֶׁת בֶּֽעָנָ֑ן.” Meaning, the bow IS in the clouds, albeit hidden sometimes. Even when we do not see the rainbow, and even if we have moments when we feel that God has forgotten us, we must know that God CAN and DOES see the covenant with us and will remember us. 

And so I will drive on my way, keeping my eyes on the road - of course, but also keeping my head on the rainbow that IS there, just above all of our heads. May this Shabbat be one of peace for us all.  Shabbat Shalom.