Noach: A Covenant and A Rainbow

Rabbi Avital Hochstein, "Noah: The First Covenant in Tanakh," https://www.hartman.org.il/noah-the-first-covenant-in-tanakh/

Perhaps every relationship needs this kind of covenant, one where an individual is aware of one’s own weaknesses and recognizes them. The content of the covenant is a statement regarding control over the potential destructive storm, a covenant that is a guarantee that the individual will set up boundaries to stop these potential storms. An individual needs to commit themselves, to bind themselves, to make strict, inviolable rules regarding their own behavior, no matter how frustrated or even justified their position, for the sake of lasting relationships.

In Parashat Noah, God shows us that being in relationship with other people requires deep knowledge of ourselves and our own weaknesses, and a strong commitment to controlling our own impulses and our own behavior. God does not try to change the nature of humanity, to change the “inclination of man to good.” Instead, God talks to [God's self], talks to humanity, puts restrictions on [God's self], and becomes able, thereby, to be bound to us.

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, "Godwrestling― Round 2: Ancient Wisdom, Future Paths" (Book)

Today we are responsible to make sure that the scorching of our planet by over- burning fossil fuels does not bring upon us both a Flood of water as our ice floes melt, raising sea levels on every coast, and a Flood of fire as heat sparks droughts and forces many species into death.

Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, "Covenant," https://www.hadar.org/torah-resource/covenant

In entering covenant, God self-limits, out of love, to allow humans their freedom and the chance to grow into full dignity. How? First God establishes the natural order as independent and irrevocable process, never to cease or to be disturbed (Genesis 8:22). The Talmud explains: "Olam ke-minhago noheg, the world follows its customs" (Avodah Zarah 54b). [...] In God's world, humans freely choose to do good or bad.

The divine self-limit means that humans must pick up the slack in creating life and preparing the world. Rather than confer a paradise by miracles, God binds God's self to depend on human actions to complete the world. By upholding the human role and making divinely desired outcomes dependent upon human behavior, God enables human freedom. People must participate in their own liberation or they remain imbued with a slave mentality. If paradise is simply bestowed, humans are likely to remain dependent, or even spoiled children, rather than repair their own world and become mature masters of their own fate.

Prof. Ronald Hendel, "The Rainbow in Ancient Context," https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-rainbow-in-ancient-context

In one Mesopotamian astronomical text (called Mul-Apin), the variable is the rainbow’s direction:

“If [the rainbow] is in the south: rain. If in the north: flood. If in the east: rain. If in the west: devastation.”

In the Greek Iliad, the rainbow is similarly viewed as an omen of devastation:

Like a lurid rainbow Zeus sends arching down to mortal men from the high skies, a sign of war or blizzard to freeze the summer’s warmth.

In all these cultures, the rainbow was a sign of the divine will. But because its meaning was not obvious, it generally required trained specialists – scholars steeped in omen lore – to decipher the divine message.

The rainbow in Genesis is a sign that reworks the conventional divinatory system. It doesn’t require a specialist to decipher, since God announces its meaning explicitly.

Ramban on Genesis 9:12:1

Now commentators have said concerning the meaning of this sign that [God] has not made the rainbow with its feet bent upward because it might have appeared that arrows were being shot from heaven, as in the verse, And [God] sent out arrows and scattered them on the earth. Instead [God] made it the opposite of this — [with the feet bent downward] — in order to show that they are not shooting at the earth from the heavens. It is indeed the way of warriors to invert the instruments of war which they hold in their hands when calling for peace from their opponents. Moreover, [with the feet of the bow being turned downward towards the earth, it can be seen] that the bow has no rope upon which to bend the arrows.

Rav Amnon Bazak, "Noah: The Rainbow,"

https://etzion.org.il/en/tanakh/torah/sefer-bereishit/parashat-noach/noach-rainbow

The word “kashti” (My bow) does not appear by itself in our parasha; in all three instances in which it is used, it appears along with the word “cloud” – and it is this combination that represents the sign of the covenant: “I have set My bow in the cloud, that it may be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. And it shall be, when I bring clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the cloud, that… the bow will be in the cloud, and I shall see it and remember the eternal covenant…” Hence, it is not the rainbow alone that is the sign of the covenant, but rather its appearance in the cloud. Clouds appear in Tanakh as a screen or covering – for instance, for God’s glory, for the covering over the Ark of the Covenant, and for the Mishkan. Setting the bow in the cloud therefore symbolizes the act of “covering” or “hiding” the bow, a sign of a ceasefire, like returning a sword to its scabbard. God covers one of [God's] weapons of war and promises not to use it any more. When clouds fill the sky and the rainbow appears, it is a sign that the bow is still “covered;” it will not be used against all flesh.