{"id":62423,"date":"2019-10-30T14:38:06","date_gmt":"2019-10-30T19:38:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=62423"},"modified":"2019-10-30T14:38:06","modified_gmt":"2019-10-30T19:38:06","slug":"the-ark-and-the-arc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/the-ark-and-the-arc\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ark and the Arc"},"content":{"rendered":"

On October 29, 1972, I attended a dazzling afternoon concert at Carnegie Hall. As I headed for home on the 59th Street Bridge, traffic came to a standstill. I suspected a car accident was to blame. But the conspicuous absence of angry car horns \u2014 not to mention the reverent expressions on my fellow commuters\u2019 faces \u2014 suggested otherwise. And that\u2019s when I saw it: a vivid double rainbow traversing the bridge.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the almost half-century that has since transpired, neither the concert nor the rainbow has faded from my memory. What I wish would disappear is a brief interchange I shared with my father in their aftermath.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA perfect ending to a perfect day!\u201d I had enthused.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNot exactly,\u201d my father replied, a smile both gentle and sad on his face. A Talmudic scholar, he explained that a rainbow is a sign of God\u2019s anger with humankind.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was baffled. How could something so beautiful indicate Divine displeasure?\u00a0Two weeks earlier, synagogue services around the globe had featured the saga of Noah and the ark, culminating in God\u2019s covenant that He would never again send a flood to destroy His world. The symbol of that covenant? The rainbow:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u00a0have placed my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember My covenant between Me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.\u201d\u00a0<\/i>(Genesis 9:13-15)<\/span><\/p>\n

I began exploring rabbinic sources upon which my father had based his sobering news.<\/span> Rashi commented that only in the lifetimes of two saintly individuals <\/span>(King <\/span>Chizkiyahu and Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai<\/span>)<\/span>, a rainbow never appeared; their righteousness had made the rainbow\u2019s message unnecessary. <\/span>The Chayei Adam ruled that one shouldn\u2019t tell a friend one has seen a rainbow because it\u2019s wrong to slander humanity. <\/span>Sforno summed it up perfectly: The rainbow warns us that the only thing stopping God from unleashing another life-decimating flood is His pledge not to.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eventually, I grasped why\u00a0rainbow sightings saddened our Sages, millennia after Noah\u2019s lifetime. <\/span>But right after describing God\u2019s rainbow covenant, presumably bestowed before the flood\u2019s survivors could have sinned, the Bible relates how Noah disintegrated,\u00a0descending into a drunken stupor.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For years, I couldn\u2019t fathom why that very first rainbow precipitated Noah\u2019s demise. One would think that this symbol of God\u2019s reassurance would have filled him with tranquility.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps the answer to this paradox lies in the two symbols that serve as parentheses to Noah\u2019s life: the ark and the arc.<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout the 120 years in which he meticulously built his ark, secure in the knowledge that his family would be spared annihilation, Noah did nothing to convince the world\u2019s corrupt inhabitants to mend their ways. It occurred to me that the seven Noahide laws include six prohibitions, such as don\u2019t kill, but make only one mention of the proactive: to establish laws. Nowhere is there a call to live a life of kindness, of love. True, Noah followed every Divine command but not once did he beg God to rescind His decree.<\/span><\/p>\n

Particularly telling is<\/span> the ark\u2019s finishing touch: the tzohar. Commentaries differ on the word\u2019s meaning. Some say it was a window; others, a sparkling jewel. All agree that it was a source of light. As for me, I think that Noah opted for a jewel to illuminate the ark\u2019s interior. A window on the world would have punctured his floating cocoon.<\/span><\/p>\n

I can imagine Noah\u2019s anguish when his journey ended. Fixating on the ark for over a century, he suddenly was confronted by a new symbol: an arc. Perhaps it felt like an accusation, as if God were saying, \u201cRejecting evil is not enough. A self-contained ark is not enough. If My world\u2019s occupants are to endure, the rainbow\u2019s arc \u2014 expansive and embrace-like \u2014 is what they need to imitate.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Nowadays, whenever I spot a rainbow, I recite the Rabbis\u2019 blessing (\u201cBlessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, Who remembers the covenant, is trustworthy in His covenant, and keeps His word\u201d) and add this coda: Lord, if \u2014 like Noah \u2014 I enclose myself in an ark of self-interest, help me remember that it is never too late to emulate Your heavenly arc\u2019s open-armed embrace. Help me remember that Your arc is my ark\u2019s antidote.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chava Willig Levy is a New York-based writer, editor, advocate and lecturer who zips around in a motorized wheelchair and communicates about the quality and meaning of life. Her memoir,\u00a0<\/i>A Life Not with Standing<\/i><\/span><\/a>, was published in 2013.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On October 29, 1972, I attended a dazzling afternoon concert at Carnegie Hall. As I headed for home on the 59th Street Bridge, traffic came to a standstill. I suspected a car accident was to blame. But the conspicuous absence of angry car horns \u2014 not to mention the reverent expressions on my fellow commuters\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":62424,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Ark and the Arc - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/the-ark-and-the-arc\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Ark and the Arc - OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On October 29, 1972, I attended a dazzling afternoon concert at Carnegie Hall. 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