Q&A: Rainbow
Rainbow
Question
What does the Rabbi understand regarding the story of the covenant of the rainbow in Genesis? Until Noah, did rays of light that met water not refract? Was some new law of nature created there especially for the covenant? And does the appearance of a rainbow today have any religious significance?
Answer
I don’t know. It is possible that just as the key to rain is entrusted to the Holy One, so too the key to the rainbow. In any case, nowadays it seems to me that it does not have much significance, since as I have explained here several times, in my view in our generations the Holy One is not involved in what happens in the world.
Discussion on Answer
For the rainbow to be seen, the rays of the sun have to penetrate through holes and breaks in the clouds. One could say that before the covenant, when rain fell there was no break and the clouds covered the whole sky, so a flood was possible. The break in the clouds prevents the possibility of a flood.
So nowadays there is no need to recite the blessing over a rainbow, or is that a blessing in vain?
I don’t see why not. You recite the blessing over the rainbow, and by doing so express gratitude that the Holy One created the world and that its laws govern it.
See Nachmanides there, who discusses this.