The beauty of the rainbow
When you see a rainbow, what should you think? On the one hand, it is undoubtedly a beautiful sight. The appearance of a rainbow in a cloud is one of the things chosen for comparison to the appearance of the Kohen Gadol as he returned from his service in the Kodesh haKedoshim on Yom Kippur. That sounds very positive. On the other hand, the bracha recited upon seeing a rainbow refers to Hashem's remembering the brith and keeping his word. The promise was not to destroy the world again as he did during the mabul. We say that a rainbow does not appear in truly worthy generations because the rainbow as reminder of that promise would not be needed if the generation merited salvation on its own.
Of course, from a rationalist perspective, the rainbow is a purely natural phenomenon. You can see a rainbow of colors any time you apply a prism to white light, and the water droplets act as prisms to make the colors appear in the sky. So why should this natural cause and effect be characterized as having any moral significance? Are we not too sophisticated for such superstitious type thinking?
It's all a question of vision and perspective. How do you view the universe? Do you assume, as Hamlet's mother did, that all that is you see, or do you admit the possibility that all that is exists is not bounded by the limits of your vision? From a purely rationalist perspective, even, one would have to concede that we are incapable of seeing everything. On earth, there are objects that are far too small to be seen with the eye or even a standard microscope. There are bodies in space too far away for their light to travel to us. And there are even theories of dark matter in the universe that cannot be seen at all. If someone were to say about, say, quantum mechanics, "if I don't see it or don't grasp it, it simply cannot be," he would not be demonstrating how astute he that he is, in fact, narrow-minded and willfully ignorant. What of metaphysics?
Torah ohr: Torah is light. There are many ramifications for understanding how Torah is light, but I want to concentrate on the relationship of light to the rainbow. A rainbow reveals the spectrum of visible colors inherent in white light. It reveals a glimpse of what is normally hidden, though not all that is hidden. We still cannot see ultra-violet and infrared. When you see the clear light of sunlight, you may think you see all there is to the light. But applying a prism shows there is far more to the light than what the eye sees on its own. Even that does not tell the whole story.
The same can be said of Torah. We learn the basics as children, but there is far more depth and range of color, if you will, then what we glimpsed at first. "Hafoch ba vehafoch ba shekula ba" Pirkei Avos enjoins us to turn and return to the Torah over and over again, for everything is contained therein. Just as there are more colors contained within pure white light than we can ever see, there is more truth and wisdom within Torah than we can ever grasp even in a lifetime of learning. But if are willing to admit that our eyes do not suffice, and apply prisms and other instruments, we can at least begin to appreciate how much we have failed to see.
Lest this is too subtle a point, the way I see it, Chazal had a true appreciation for the range of Torah and they granted us prisms with which we can begin to see what is there but not immediately visible to the naked eye. However, if we disdain the prisms as mere children's toys that show us what is not inherently there, then we are denying the truth of what actually is. Even with the prisms, we won't see everything, but we will, at least, know that there is more to the light of Torah than meets the untrained eye.
So why should a rainbow signify that the generation is unworthy, particularly when it should be the natural result of a rainfall? I have said the bracha on thunder and lightning far more times than I have said the bracha on rainbows, which should be true for most people. I probably could stay on one hand counting the number of rainbows I've seen in my lifetime on my fingers. Given that they are a natural phenomenon, they seem pretty rare. Though the phenomenon can easily be explained scientifically, it still seems to require particular conditions to come to fruition. In fact, though we can predict eclipses, rainstorms, and even volcanic eruptions, I don't believe we can predict rainbows with any certainty. So there is an unpredictable quality about rainbows which could point to a type of hashgacha. Consequently, it is quite within the realm of possibility that Hashem only brings together the conditions for a rainbow when He feels one is warranted. The beautiful colors of the rainbow are always inherent in the pure light of Torah, but we sometimes need a reminder to appreciate that fact.
Of course, from a rationalist perspective, the rainbow is a purely natural phenomenon. You can see a rainbow of colors any time you apply a prism to white light, and the water droplets act as prisms to make the colors appear in the sky. So why should this natural cause and effect be characterized as having any moral significance? Are we not too sophisticated for such superstitious type thinking?
It's all a question of vision and perspective. How do you view the universe? Do you assume, as Hamlet's mother did, that all that is you see, or do you admit the possibility that all that is exists is not bounded by the limits of your vision? From a purely rationalist perspective, even, one would have to concede that we are incapable of seeing everything. On earth, there are objects that are far too small to be seen with the eye or even a standard microscope. There are bodies in space too far away for their light to travel to us. And there are even theories of dark matter in the universe that cannot be seen at all. If someone were to say about, say, quantum mechanics, "if I don't see it or don't grasp it, it simply cannot be," he would not be demonstrating how astute he that he is, in fact, narrow-minded and willfully ignorant. What of metaphysics?
Torah ohr: Torah is light. There are many ramifications for understanding how Torah is light, but I want to concentrate on the relationship of light to the rainbow. A rainbow reveals the spectrum of visible colors inherent in white light. It reveals a glimpse of what is normally hidden, though not all that is hidden. We still cannot see ultra-violet and infrared. When you see the clear light of sunlight, you may think you see all there is to the light. But applying a prism shows there is far more to the light than what the eye sees on its own. Even that does not tell the whole story.
The same can be said of Torah. We learn the basics as children, but there is far more depth and range of color, if you will, then what we glimpsed at first. "Hafoch ba vehafoch ba shekula ba" Pirkei Avos enjoins us to turn and return to the Torah over and over again, for everything is contained therein. Just as there are more colors contained within pure white light than we can ever see, there is more truth and wisdom within Torah than we can ever grasp even in a lifetime of learning. But if are willing to admit that our eyes do not suffice, and apply prisms and other instruments, we can at least begin to appreciate how much we have failed to see.
Lest this is too subtle a point, the way I see it, Chazal had a true appreciation for the range of Torah and they granted us prisms with which we can begin to see what is there but not immediately visible to the naked eye. However, if we disdain the prisms as mere children's toys that show us what is not inherently there, then we are denying the truth of what actually is. Even with the prisms, we won't see everything, but we will, at least, know that there is more to the light of Torah than meets the untrained eye.
So why should a rainbow signify that the generation is unworthy, particularly when it should be the natural result of a rainfall? I have said the bracha on thunder and lightning far more times than I have said the bracha on rainbows, which should be true for most people. I probably could stay on one hand counting the number of rainbows I've seen in my lifetime on my fingers. Given that they are a natural phenomenon, they seem pretty rare. Though the phenomenon can easily be explained scientifically, it still seems to require particular conditions to come to fruition. In fact, though we can predict eclipses, rainstorms, and even volcanic eruptions, I don't believe we can predict rainbows with any certainty. So there is an unpredictable quality about rainbows which could point to a type of hashgacha. Consequently, it is quite within the realm of possibility that Hashem only brings together the conditions for a rainbow when He feels one is warranted. The beautiful colors of the rainbow are always inherent in the pure light of Torah, but we sometimes need a reminder to appreciate that fact.
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