Friday 8 October 2010

P. Noah, the Rainbow Covenant

There are several approaches to the OT Brit found in the Keshet in Parshat Noah

1. The more "magicallly" inclined will read this that Hashem Created the Rainbow to signify the Covenant. That this was a brand new Creature...

2. The more "rationally" minded will posit that rainbows long pre-existed Noah. Only Now, Hashem was investing that Rainbow with new meaning, new significance by means of the covenant.

As per Hashqafah #2 we create Holy artifacts by sanctifying them. EG a mundane piece of Gold is endowed with holiness WHEN dedicated to the Sanctuary or the like

Thus, the role of humankind is not only to "complete" the existing creation, but to endow the mundane with sanctity

Shalom
RRW

4 comments:

Bob Miller said...

This contrast between "magic" and "rationality" in this context is absurd. We need to explore the Oral Torah to get a sense of what our Mesorah is on this matter. Rabbis, of all people, should not forgo this exploration.

Magic is man's attempt to manipulate the Divine. No sign of that here whatsoever.

If any genuine act of creation is to be redefined as "magic" and thereby found to be unpalatable to the "rationalist", do we similarly downgrade every creative act in Parashas Bereishis?

Bob Miller said...

By the way, I don't know where the preponderance of Jewish sources would lead us on this specific rainbow question.

Rabbi Ben Hecht said...

Taking this to a further level, associated with this issue is the very nature of God's involvement in the fundamentals of scientific reality post-Creation. If God created a rainbow after the Flood, it would seem to imply that God intervened to change to basic laws of physics in order to bring about the rainbow. If God, however, did not change these basic laws, it must have been that the rainbow did pre-exist the Flood and only afterwards did God ascribe it witht he significance as a mark of this new covenant with Noach. (There is actually a third alternative found in sources that maintains that the laws of physics did not change but that prior to the Flood the weather patterns were as such that a rainbow never appreared. Subsequent to the Flood, God manipulated the weather patterns to bring about the possibility of rainbows -- not a qualitative change in nature but what one may term a more quantitative change.)

The basic point being that this issue is actually a pretty significant one.

Rabbi Ben Hecht

Bob Miller said...

It's significant, but we need to place enough reliance on our own sources, if they address this, and not go in with some philosophical predisposition.