THERE is so much imagery in this weeks Torah portion, Noah. There is the ark, and the endless pairs of animals marching into it. There is the special tzohar, the window in the ark. There is the dove and her unsettled journey, looking for a place to rest, and to call home. There is the first rhythm of natures four seasons. Then in a more unsavory story, there is wine. And, of course, most striking of all, the rainbow.
Even before we learn or know anything textual about the symbol of the rainbow, intuitively the rainbow brings hope and joy. Each time it appears and we see its beauty we are astonished anew. Just seeing the bands and brilliance of those colors!
And the shape. That rising arc raises something optimistic and hopeful within us. It is not for nothing that there is the image of the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. A golden image of personal salvation just waiting to make everything OK. And doesnt it optically always seem like one end of the rainbow is at one end of the world, connecting to the other side of the world, all while rising to heaven?
Am I the only one who still retains that girlhood image of a rainbow?
Nachmanides observes that the rainbow is the shape of an inverted bow, a symbol of a truce, of peace. To my eye, the rainbow indeed always looked like a bridge, a resplendent connector between two sides.
Of course, what the rainbow really is, is crystalline water droplets with the light of the sun refracted through them, and voila! Rainbow!
IN the world before the flood, the worlds existence depended on the moral behavior of the people. The reason G-d gives Noah for his decision to destroy the world is because of the rampant corruption that has taken hold.
In the world after the flood, the world becomes a place of unconditional existence. Come what may, we have the brit keshet, the covenant of the rainbow, to reassure and soothe us of our fear of annihilation.
G-d makes a promise to us, a covenant of eternity, and every time we see that rainbow stretched across the sky it is G-d keeping His word to us, despite it all. The appearance of the rainbow becomes a moment of renewed hope. When things are meteorologically stormy, shaky and thunderous, when the world suddenly seems to have gone dark, the beauty of our unbroken bond with G-d emerges.
Although on some level deep in our collective human subconscious we might harbor existential fears about nuclear weapons, for the most part we take it for granted that the world will just be there when we wake up. That a sunrise will greet us in the morning and a sunset will put us to bed in the evening.
We take this for granted because we live with the promise of the eternity of this world wired into our subconscious, and are artistically reminded of it with every bejeweled rainbow that comes our way.
Copyright © 2011 by the Intermountain Jewish News
