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Gabriel Conroy's avatar

Re: the rainbow:

My gloss is a little different from yours. The rainbow comes after the rainfall and therefore after God has decided not to use this particular storm to destroy creation. It's a reminder, and maybe a reminder to Himself, but not a reminder "not to do something he's promised not to do" but a reminder to Himself, perhaps, that he has opted to honor his covenant.

I wasn't raised in the Jewish tradition, so my comment may be off in several respects. And to be honest, I haven't really thought about that story since I was a child.

At any rate, I appreciate this blog post, like I appreciate most of your posts. Thanks for writing it.

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North's avatar

A Jewish friend of mine once told me that the Jewish people have a rabbinic story that, roughly paraphrased goes:

When Noah came out of the ark and saw the devastation that the flood had wreaked he said "Oh my God what have you done?" and God replied "Don't start with me, Noah, you were supposed to talk me out of it."

And this has always colored my understanding of the Jewish tradition of a people who have a relationship with (and sometimes an argumentative one especially) with God. It has also given me a much deeper understanding of the idea of Noah being considered -merely- "righteous in his generation" with, say, Job standing as a counter example.

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