God's Promise of the Rainbow - What It Means

which represents the idea that promises I will never put a mabul ever again. I will never bring a flood to the whole entire world. The whole entire world to a part of the world they can't get a flood. You remember what happened in Thailand where 250 250,000 people Rahman Alan got killed by a tsunami. So there are floods in the world but not to the complete entire world and the breit. The way to remember it is of course we know the kesh what's known as the rainbow that beautiful phenomenon that we are familiar with that it's brought down in the when you see a beautiful rainbow don't look too long but when you do look at it there is a that one should say that one who remembers the will remember his promise that he will not return and bring another flood This is brought when we see a full rainbow not when you just see pieces of a rainbow in the suff that when you see a rainbow only should make the properly when you see the full proper rainbow because a sign of au surrendering the writes just like when a person throws up the white flag to surrender he points the gun towards himself. So too is pointing the bow which he was shooting arrows with towards himself and that's why it points up the kesh points up towards the shim towards hem to say I'm surrendering I'm giving in to what you to what you say and that's why it is a sim of peace but it's also a sim that really we deserved to have a that says you're not supposed to look too much at the rainbow You look at it, you make a bra and zoo. It always bother me such a beautiful phenomenon and you just can't look at it and why why is it such a sim that's considered not a positive thing. So actually the fair in our part says sometimes something that is negative is actually beautiful something we might be familiar with. We even say what does it mean when Hashem said this is very good the evil inclination that is that is also something very good. So sometimes we find that sometimes when something is not necessarily good but it has a beauty to it. The obvious question that needs to be asked is we all know that a rainbow is a natural phenomenon. We all know when the rays of the dancing lights that come from the sun go and peer through the drops of rain that are pouring from the sky, the drops serve as a prism. They tear it away from the white light that we see and it splits it into its true colors which those of us who from seventh grade or eighth grade in science class remember the famous Roy G. Bev red, orange, the one thing I remember by heart. red or red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, and violet. Blue, indigo, and violet. Of course, the biggest question on the board is what is indigo? I've never figured that one out. But anyways, those are the seven colors of the rainbow that we see it through the prism of the drops of the rain when it comes through. And if it's a natural phenomenon, then how could it be considered a sign, an omen to show something that Hashem is upset at us or that there should be a flood now? How could it be? It's a natural phenomenon. So Rashi in pure actually says that you should know it was not in nature until the door of Noah until after the flood there was no such thing as a rainbow was never shown for a thousand years. There was no such thing as a rainbow. I the Mishna in pure avoash by twilight on Friday was the rainbow. So he says big deal. It was created but it wasn't put into it was created in potential energy but not kinetic energy. It wasn't given out yet. One of the 10 things is also the mouth of the donkey of bum. That was also one of the 10 things and it didn't happen until the time of bum almost 2,000 years later. So no big deal. This also is an occurrence. Um this is also something that happened that happened. And it only took place a thousand years later even though it was put into the nature of the world. That is the chuva of rashi. All the rishim disagree. They hold that it was around all the time from the beginning of time. It was considered there. And therefore the ramban actually writes that yes it was around all the time but it's just an omen. It's a sign. It's just there to remind us. You ever go to New York and you see this lady pointing some torch up to the sky and holding I don't know what it is the 10 the to the ten commandments I have no idea she's holding something in her hands over there and apparently it mean to me when I see this I see it's absolutely meaningless the statue that's standing over there and then they inform you well that's the statue of liberty that's to tell you about being free democracy being a li liberalism all that stuff that's what it's all about okay no problem reminds me of democracy whenever I see it fine Whatever you say. And yakov with love. They were listening that a pile of rocks. What is a pile of rocks? I don't know, but it's there to remind me. This is a reminder from the covenant that is between us. So, Hashem said, I'm going to put this rainbow as a reminder that yes, sometimes you have to be incredibly careful. The in his in his dras says in Alf something much more straightforward. He says that ali in the natural world the power of a flood should happen because the power of water should sometimes go up. The p the power of water overpowers the power of fire and Hashem strengthens the sun and makes it stronger in order to keep it in place. And when that happens it appears a rainbow. So the rainbow is a sign that Hashem made the sun stronger and prevented the lower waters from coming up and hopefully causing a flood. This is the chuva of Rashi, the ra the ram. The most straightforward chuva I would say is the the great raosha is the one who paskins for al eshk in ola. The one who is nif at 38 years old but not before leaving tremendous amounts for him. And many one of them is the lavush who says a similar answer it is the lush p on the lush. So the ram and the lavush both say that it's true that it's natural for sure but it doesn't always happen. Not every time that it rains doesn't mean there has to be a rainbow. We see and during in his time period there was no rainbow ever. The Garra says during the time of everybody was sadikim there was no rainbow. How could there not be a rainbow? It didn't rain. Of course it rained but it rained at night time. ared at a time when it would not produce any type of rainbow image. And if you look it up, it's not just there. Even during the day, the only way that a rainbow can be produced is when the sun comes at an angle shooting through the drops of of the drops that are coming from the sky. And that could only be or during the early days of the early beginning of the day or towards the end of the day. But at high noon or in that area between 11 and 2:00, 11 to 2:00 or so, you will never see a rainbow because the sun when it's above you or around the above you area, it doesn't serve as a prism properly. It cannot go ahead and deflect the light through the rainbow through the drops of the rain. And that's why if this natural phenomenon definitely serves as an omen will bring rain. I will bring you rain. At good times, the best times that we d for is at night time when we're at home. It's a positive time at night time. And also you don't see a rainbow. The bad times is during the day. You got to get to work. You got to get out. You want to take a walk. Some people still take walks. And when you want that to happen, you don't want the rain to go ahead and pitter patter on top of you. It's more of a nuisance more than it is helpful. That is the difference between uh between the the two. And therefore, we see that sometimes it's okay. Of course, and I'm going to end with this. These days, the whole question doesn't start because when we see a rainbow flying on a flag, we all understand what it means that wants to bring a flood into the world. Because when people are waving the rainbow flag and they're acting and the rainbow representation of what they do, so that means it's time for a flood. That's why they chose the flag of a rainbow, the sign of a rainbow cuz they're coming to say, "I know, God. I'm supposed to be flooded. I know I'm supposed to be wiped out of here. I don't deserve to be around right now, but please remember your omen. Please remember there is a rainbow, and the rainbow is meant to stop the flood from wiping us out." I say that in just we see from here an important idea that the rainbow is here as a reminder and sometimes we need these small reminders here and there in our day-today life to remind us as the winter is coming to remember sometimes to take a look and remember that not everything is as easy as it comes and to go ahead and use it as a key as a vehicle to make a change as a reminder from Hashem that yes, it's time to do something different. So batalong.