After the flood, the pasuk says, “I have set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth... 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.” [Bereishis 9:13-16].
The Torah herein states that after the flood, G-d made a promise that He would never again destroy the world through a flood. Apparently, the Almighty needed a reminder that He made such a promise. Therefore, He created the phenomenon of a rainbow. Whenever He gets very angry at the world and is tempted to destroy it again with another flood, He has — as it were — this “string around His finger”. He looks at the rainbow and reminds Himself of His promise.
This simple reading of the pasukim is both patently ridiculous and heretical. G-d does not need reminders or strings around His finger, as it were. What is the true meaning of these pasukim?
Rashi and the Seforno explain what this really means. The Almighty is doing the world a tremendous favor. He uses the rainbow to send a message to humanity that He is once again very angry at the world. The Almighty does not need a rainbow in the sky as a reminder. We need a reminder. We look at the rainbow and we are supposed to take note that it is a time of Anger before the Almighty. At such times, we should think that the Almighty is so angry at the world that were it not for His Promise, He would again destroy the world. Therefore, we should hasten to repent and do Teshuva.
The Seforno writes that when the righteous see the rainbow and are therefore motivated to pray and repent, they stand in the breech so that they may appease the Almighty’s Anger and temptation to destroy humanity.
The Ramban cites a passage from Tractate Chagiga [16a] that one should not stare at a rainbow and one who does so, it is fitting that he not have come into this world. What is the meaning of this Gemara? The rainbow is a beautiful thing. What is wrong with looking at it? In the “Confession of Rav Amram Gaon” one of the items for which we “confess our sins” on Yom Kippur is that “we stared at a rainbow”. What is the problem with looking at a rainbow?
Rav Simcha Zissel – in his writings – says a very interesting thing. When we see a rainbow, our reaction is “beautiful”. We admire the colors, the shape, the impact, and so forth. We admire the rainbow and are inspired by it.
Consider the audacity of this typical reaction. G-d is Angry. He is placing a rainbow in the sky as a message to us to get serious, to repent, and beseech His Mercy. What is our reaction? “Beautiful!” This is the great chutzpah of staring admiringly at a rainbow.
Rav Simcha Zissel compares the situation to a father who was terribly angry with his child and who raised his hand to strike him. The father is livid and his expression manifests extreme dissatisfaction to his child. The kid looks up and is amused or entertained by his father’s facial expression. Such a reaction will anger the father even more. That is the situation with our reaction of admiration and pleasure at the rainbow’s beauty.
Rav Simcha Zissel takes issue with a comment of the Mishneh Berura who quotes in the name of Chayei Adam that one who sees a rainbow should not tell this to his friend. Rav Simcha Zissel says he does not understand the logic in this. If one sees a rainbow, he argues, that should inspire us to repent and to get others to repent as well. On the contrary, one should alert as many people as possible to the presence of the rainbow so that they too will be able to take proper spiritual action.
The Gemara [Brachos 59a] says that the purpose of thunder is to put the fear of G-d into people’s hearts. When the Chofetz Chaim used to hear thunder, besides making the appropriate blessing, he used to say, “What does Father want?”
A rainbow should generate an even more dramatic action on our part. In our lifetime, we have seen many more dramatic “klaps” in terms of historical occurrences than both thunder and rainbows put together. Under these circumstances, it is our responsibility to emulate the Chofetz Chaim and say: “What does Father want from us?”
