Why did God choose a rainbow?

By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal

Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal
Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal

SAN DIEGO — The story of Noah and the ark is one of my favorites.

After the flood, God decided that God would never destroy the world again by flooding because “yetzer lev ha-adam ra mi-ne’urav”-human beings, by their very nature, have an inclination to do evil. God realized that humans are imperfect creatures and cannot always be expected to do the right thing. They need to be taught, encouraged, and forgiven when they do wrong.

The Torah says that God put a rainbow in the sky as a symbol of God’s promise.

I came across two different explanations as to why the rainbow was chosen by God to symbolize God’s promise to humanity.

Rabbi Yehoshua of Kutne wrote that the symbolism of the rainbow lies in its shape. A rainbow is curved, forming a kind of cover on the earth below. This, says Rabbi Yehoshua, is to remind us that God wants human beings to restrict their free will; God wants us to limit our choices.

Human beings have free will. We can do whatever we want. Sometimes we do the right thing and sometimes we do the wrong thing.

God wants us to do the right thing. This is why God gave us mitzvot, commandments. Mitzvot restrict our choices. They keep us from doing whatever we want in order to guide us in paths of Godliness and goodness.

The rainbow thus reminds us that we need to “keep a lid” on our behavior and stop ourselves from doing those things which might bring harm to those around us, or to ourselves.

Rabbi Z. Hillel offered another explanation as to why God chose the rainbow as a symbol of God’s promise. Rabbi Hillel asked: “Why does the rainbow symbolize peace, unity, and a flourishing world?” He answered that the rainbow is an appropriate symbol of peace because it is made up of many different colors, and when you look at it, it is impossible to distinguish one color from the next. One color fades into another. Yet despite its multiple hues, a rainbow is a unified structure.

The rainbow reminds us that even though no two humans are alike, even though we have different skin colors and physical characteristics, we are still part of the same unified family of God. Like the colors of the rainbow, we are all different, and yet we are all God’s children.

God reminds us through the sign of the rainbow that God has a covenant with all humanity, and our obligation under this covenant is to help God create
a world of Shalom.

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Rabbi Rosenthal is spiritual leader of Tifereth Israel Synagogue in San Diego.  He may be contacted via leonard.rosenthal@sdjewishworld.com