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There are many powerful and memorable images and moments in our Torah portion this week, Parashat Noach. We encounter an enormous boat, a multitude of humans and animals entering into this ark, and a calamity of rain and flooding unlike anything that we have ever experienced or can even imagine.
Yet after this scene of complete and total destruction, after the world as it was has been obliterated, we are introduced to one of the most gentle and comforting images that our Torah has to offer. There are several verses in the book of Genesis dedicated to the description and importance of the rainbow, our mutual reminder with God that humanity will never again be wiped out by the waters of a flood.
Chapter 9, verses 12 and 13 state the following, "And God said, 'This is the sign of the covenant that I give between me and you, and every living being that is with you, to generations forever. I have set my rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.'"
The rainbow is more than just a promise that the world will never again be destroyed by a flood. It is a reminder that, despite how vulnerable human beings and our planet may be, we should also take comfort in remembering that our world is filled with wonder, beauty, and a multitude of colors which may appear, as if by magic, in the sky.
There is magnificence all around us, just as there is danger as well. The rainbow after the storm reminds us that, even when confronted with suffering and destruction, we must hold on to the faith that justice and peace may soon follow. The rainbow, after all, is just around the horizon.
Shabbat Shalom.
Cantor Zachary Konigsberg
cantorzkonigsberg@gmail.com
917-696-0749
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