I have always been fascinated with the rainbow. And my fascination has grown even stronger once I learned more about its esoteric meaning.
A few weeks ago, I was enjoying some time with my children and all of the sudden out of nowhere there appeared the most magnificent rainbow conjoined in the sky with the sunset.
Quickly, I called to my children to witness this moment. Luckily I had a camera device on hand to capture the picture above. I admit I don’t see rainbows that often, perhaps I am too busy to notice, but when I do see them I believe they mark important events.
I have always been fascinated with the rainbow. And my fascination has grown even stronger once I learned more about its esoteric meaning. The first time the Torah mentions a rainbow is after the famous flood of Noah (you can click here to learn more about this).
The rainbow was used as a sign for a future covenant, never again to flood mankind. The chief educational editor of our website Rabbi Tzvi Freeman, is the author of 365 meditations, "Bringing Heaven Down to Earth: Meditations and Everyday Wisdom from the Teachings of the Rebbe, Menachem Schneerson”
Here is his meditation on the rainbow and commentary on the Torah:
134. The Rainbow
Our world is a world where a rainbow could be.
At first, there was a world that only received and returned no dividends. Its inhabitants took no ownership. They lived with their Creator’s benevolence, they did what they did with no need for excuses, and eventually died as they died. And that was it.
With the Flood, this world was re-created. The earth was cleansed, the atmosphere purified. It became a world that could take the sunshine that poured in from above and refract it into many colors.
It became a world where a created being could be born, take the soul, body, share of the world and all the sustenance its Maker gave to it, use that, do something with that -and then return it, saying, “See what I have done with that which you gave me!”
And so, G-d vowed to never destroy the world again. For, if the inhabitants would go wrong, they might always turn around and clean up their own mess.
To me, the rainbow is like a prism comprising variation and unity all at once. The many colors of the rainbow are the constituent spectral colors of the same one unifying light. The rainbow is a metaphor for people distinguished by color, race and creed, yet ever unified by the One force that unites us.
In Hebrew this force is represented by four Hebrew letters, י - ה -ו -ה . These letters are the letters used when writing the past ( היה ) the present ( הוה ) future ( יה׳ ). The main book of the Kabbalah, the Zohar, states: "...at the time the rainbow appears then they are revealed. The beaming colors of the rainbow represent the shining of the attributes Chesed (kindness), Gevura (boundaries) and Tiferet (harmony/beauty) into the world. And at that time [when the rainbow appears], "The time of song has arrived," Perhaps we must think of the rainbow beyond the scope of that which we see in the sky.
Imagine the many variations of people, each with different backgrounds, remaining in their "constituent color" yet unified in perfect harmony. Now that would be the ultimate rainbow!