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Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chayyim 229:1 says:

הרואה הקשת אומר בא"י אמ"ה זוכר הברית נאמן בבריתו וקיים במאמרו. ואסור להסתכל בו ביותר:

One who sees the rainbow says, "Blessed are you, God our Lord, king of the world, who remembers the covenant, who is faithful to his covenant, and who fulfills his word." And it is forbidden to look upon it further.

This article describes different types of rainbows. I am assuming that the bracha applies only to rainbows that are in the sky and not ones caused by, e.g. Niagra Falls' mist, refraction of sunlight on soap bubbles, etc. (If I'm incorrect, please state why.)

However, not all rainbows seen in the sky are caused by falling rain, where one sees an "arch" (with a big pot of gold at the end ;-) Rainbows are often caused by refraction from cirrus clouds, which are mainly ice crystals. They are also common at night surrounding the halo around the moon.

Would seeing such rainbows require saying the bracha?

DanF
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  • You could add white rainbows to your question. And also human-caused real rainbows (by spraying water into the air e.g. using a hydrofoil boat). – Adám Apr 14 '15 at 16:40
  • @NBZ - The list is endless - I could also add the tie-died rainbow "spider" that my niece was wearing a few days ago (how 70's is that?) In my question, I have assumed that the rainbow must be only in the sky, unless someone proves otherwise. – DanF Apr 14 '15 at 16:42
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    http://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/13467/759 http://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/29208/759 together they may be a dupe – Double AA Apr 14 '15 at 16:43
  • http://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/19934082#19934082 – Double AA Apr 14 '15 at 16:48
  • Is the translation of ביותר as "further" your own? I think it means "excessively". – msh210 Apr 15 '15 at 19:33
  • @msh210 - text and translation is from sefaria.org. I'm not sure why Shulchan Aruch uses ביותר instead of just יותר, here, as I think the latter word was intended. If you dsicover an alternate definition, please edit. – DanF Apr 15 '15 at 20:04
  • Isn't Sefaria's translation a wiki? I suspect this one is an error. I have no English SA. – msh210 Apr 16 '15 at 01:15
  • @msh210 - In principle, yes. However, I think the Tanac"h one they say is JPS or JTS (don't recall which, offhand.) It, too, has errors. – DanF Apr 16 '15 at 13:58

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