Parashat Noach - Fifth Aliyah
Read the biblical text and try to understand it on your own, before reading the commentary.
Noah survived the flood. But how can you raise a family and build a world after seeing an entire world destroyed?
The fifth aliyah concerns the promise that this destruction will not return, and the sign that accompanies it: the rainbow in the cloud. Behind the familiar sight lie questions about fear, trust and the ability to begin again.
Why does Noah need a covenant?
vahakimoti et briti itkhem velo yikaret kol basar od mimmei hamabul velo yihyeh od mabbul leshachet ha’aretz
Translation: I will establish My covenant with you: never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.
In the previous aliyah, Noah and his sons were blessed to be fruitful and multiply. Rashi explains that Noah was afraid to do so until God promised not to destroy the world again. The covenant strengthens the promise, and the sign gives it a visible expression. Rashi on Genesis 9:9
In his interpretation, the promise answers a real difficulty for Noah: why bring children into a world that might be destroyed again? Rescue allowed him to live; the covenant provides a foundation for the lives that will follow his.
Its scope extends beyond his family. The verses include his descendants and the animals that came out of the ark. The future promised here is shared by human beings and the creatures living alongside them. Genesis 9:9-10
Is this the first rainbow in the world?
et kashti natati be’anan vehayetah le’ot brit beini uvein ha’aretz
Translation: I have set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.
One could understand the rainbow as having been created now, after the flood. Ramban raises this possibility, but later in his commentary offers another reading: the rainbow is a natural phenomenon that has existed since creation, and is now designated as a sign of the covenant.
He also draws on observation of nature: something resembling a rainbow can be seen when a vessel of water is placed before the sun. Alongside this, he pays close attention to the verse’s wording: the setting of the bow is described in the past tense, while its role as a sign of the covenant is described as what follows. Ramban on Genesis 9:12
There is a surprising idea in this interpretation: a sign need not be something new or a departure from the natural order. A sight that already exists can acquire new meaning through a promise. The cloud and rainbow remain part of the familiar world, but from now on they recall a covenant between God and the living beings on earth.
Why a bow?
In the same commentary, Ramban gives an explanation for the sign’s shape. The rainbow recalls a bow used in war, yet it is not presented as a weapon shooting from heaven toward the earth. He compares its shape to warriors turning their bows when seeking peace, and adds that it has no string on which arrows could be set.
This is a symbolic reading of the shape: a sight resembling a weapon becomes a sign that the destruction will cease. Ramban on Genesis 9:12
A meaningful picture emerges. Clouds still appear, and rain can still fall. The covenant does not promise a world without danger or suffering; its explicit content is that there will not again be a flood destroying the earth and all flesh.
Noah is not required to erase what he saw in order to begin again. Alongside the memory of destruction, he is now given a reason to trust in the future.
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