Commentaire sur La Genèse 9:13

את קשתי נתתי בענן, I have arranged that the rainbow become a natural phenomenon.

את קשתי נתתי בענן, the reason why G’d speaks of “My” rainbow, instead of “the rainbow,” is because He had now made it the visible reminder of the covenant between Himself and mankind, just as He had said ביני ובין הארץ, “between Me and the earth,” or as the prophet Ezekiel refers to this in Ezekiel 1,28 כמראה הקשת, “as the manifestation of the rainbow.” The prophet considered the vision he had seen in that chapter as comparable to the spectacle of the rainbow, i.e. something of which he stood in awe. Concerning this the question is raised in Bereshit Rabbah 35,3 that the word קשתי means מוקש לי, “an hidden obstacle for Me, a stumbling block for Me., [If I understand this correctly, the problem is if the rainbow as a reminder is supposed to frighten man into conducting himself properly so that no deluge will be necessary, or if he is to think only of the promise that there will not be another flood, just as now after the rain the sunlight appears in many different colours, something beautiful and certainly encouraging. Ed] Nowadays, the emphasis is only on the promise, as we have never experienced a deluge, unlike the sons of Noach for whom each time a rainbow appeared it reminded them of the horrible ordeal from which they had been saved.

את קשתי נתתי בענן. Es ist nicht notwendig anzunehmen, es habe bis dahin keinen Regenbogen gegeben, und dies mit den nach der Sündflut eingetretenen atmosphärischen Veränderungen in Verbindung zu setzen. Wie Gott Abraham den Sternhimmel zeigte und sprach: כה יהיה זרעך, wie er Moses und Ahron den Neumond zeigte, und mit den Worten החדש הזה לכם diese längst vorhanden gewesene Himmelserscheinung zu einem Wahrzeichen geistiger und sittlicher Verjüngung für Israel weihte, wie ebenso die vorhandenen Jahreszeiten für Israel zu Denkmälern geschichtlicher und belehrender Erinnerung wurden: so kann auch der Regenbogen eine schon längst bekannte Himmelserscheinung gewesen und nun von Gott zum Zeichen seines Menschenweltbündnisses bestimmt worden sein. Das נתתי kann daher ganz buchstäblich sein: Meinen Bogen, ich habe ihn längst schon in die Wolken gegeben, fortan soll er zum Bundeszeichen zwischen mir und euch dienen.

את קשתי, My rainbow, etc;” the rainbow is considered as a very significant visible sign directly from the celestial regions. If we needed proof for this, the reader isreferred to Ezekiel 1,28: 'כן מראה דמות כבוד ה.........כמראה הקשת,“just as the appearance of the rainbow.....so is theappearance of the semblance of the glory of Hashem.”If it were My intention to destroy you when the rains intensified in quality and quantity, I would not first show you a semblance of My glory, just as it is not the custom of a mortal king to show himself amongst his subjects when he is angry at them. A different approach to this subject of the rainbow: just as the rainbow does not change its consistency although it reflects both water and fire and provides a greater variety of light than any other phenomenon at the same time, and water and fire do not act as mutually destructive as they do in nature normally, so its very appearance is a reassurance that rain will never again be the precursor to the destruction of the human race. A third interpretation: normally a hunter when aiming the bow (and arrow) aims it inclined upwards, or at least horizontally; the fact that this bow is inclined downwards is proof that it is not the bow used by an antagonist bent on destroying his foe. [For a further study on the significance of the rainbow, and the changes it reflects in cosmic conditions after the deluge, the reader is referred to the commentary byRabbi Elie Munk, in his “The call of the Torah,” Feldheim Publishing. Ed.]

והיתה לאות ברית, there is a dual function to the rainbow; it is true that the scientists have already tired of trying to explain the phenomenon of the various colours of the second rainbow, something which appears in the opposite order of the colours in the original rainbow, [according to the encyclopedia Britannica, there are primary and secondary rainbows, the secondary rainbow having a colour pattern in a reverse order of that known as the primary rainbow. Our author may understand that which has baffled scientists in his time, as a hint of the dual nature of the rainbow, i.e. as a warning, or a promise respectively. Ed.] According to the view of the sages in Ketuvot 77 the very appearance of the rainbow is a reminder that the generation in which it appears is a guilty generation. It is reported there that two generations were fortunate enough that in their time no rainbow was ever observed. This was interpreted as a sign that the people of that generation did not need the phenomenon of the rainbow to alert them to become penitents. Their religious leaders did an outstanding job in prevailing on the people to be Torah-observant. [according to the של'ה, it is not reasonable to assume that there were periods when the laws of nature were suspended and there was no rainbow; rather if the Jewish people during certain periods were very deserving, had lots of merits, so that they did not need to be reminded of the deluge, the rain descended at night when no rainbow would become visible even if they had not been a deserving generation. Ed.]

נתתי, is in the future mode, as for instance when Avraham speaks of money in payment for the cave of Machpelah in Genesis 23,13, when he says “נתתי כסף השדה, “I have given the money for the field,” when the deal had not even been completed yet, and certainly no payment had been made. It is best to explain the formulation here as did Rav Saadyah gaon, when he said that G’d, in speaking of what had thus far been exclusively “My” rainbow, He would from this time on share with mankind, also reinforcing the rays of the sun as a blessing for man and the crops in the field. Every time rain would cease, and the rainbow would appear in the sky or on the horizon, man would be reminded of G’d’s promise not to bring on another deluge. The word נתתי in a distant past mode, actually emphasises that the phenomenon of the rainbow had existed already since the six days of creation. During the days of the deluge the rainbow had not appeared, first because the rains had been incessant, and at any rate, there was no one to appreciate it. Now, G’d promises that there would be a regular appearance of the rainbow after every rainfall. In Pessachim 54 the rainbow is listed as one of the phenomena created at dusk immediately before the original Sabbath, seeing there has not been anything new created after the 6 days of creation. The references to the rainbow have been repeated only in order to impress upon people’s minds that it is a powerful sign of G’d’s covenant.