Following the flood, Noach is commanded to leave the ark. He blesses Noach, and exhorts him and his children to repopulate the world. God makes a covenant that He will not destroy the land and its population again through a flood. He sets up the rainbow a sign of this covenant.

בראשית ט

(יב) וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֗ים זֹ֤את אֽוֹת־הַבְּרִית֙ אֲשֶׁר־אֲנִ֣י נֹתֵ֗ן בֵּינִי֙ וּבֵ֣ינֵיכֶ֔ם וּבֵ֛ין כׇּל־נֶ֥פֶשׁ חַיָּ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר אִתְּכֶ֑ם לְדֹרֹ֖ת עוֹלָֽם׃ (יג) אֶת־קַשְׁתִּ֕י נָתַ֖תִּי בֶּֽעָנָ֑ן וְהָֽיְתָה֙ לְא֣וֹת בְּרִ֔ית בֵּינִ֖י וּבֵ֥ין הָאָֽרֶץ׃

Beresheit 9

(12) God said, "This is the sign of the covenant that I am setting between Me and you and all living creatures with you, for everlasting generations. (13) I have set my bow in the cloud and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.

The Ibn Ezra among others is about how exactly God designated the rainbow as a sign:

אבן עזרא פירוש ראשון בראשית ט:יג

את קשתי – הנה נתתי קשתי עתה בענן. ואין פירושו כאשר אמר הגאון: כי בתחלה היתה.

Ibn Ezra - First Commentary Bereshit 9:13

My bow – Behold, I now set a bow in the clouds. Saadiah Gaon's interpretation that the rainbow was previously in existence is incorrect.

The Ibn Ezra concludes, directly contrasting his opinion with that of Saadia Gaon, that the rainbow was a new physical phenomenon created at that moment. The Ramban disagrees:

רמב"ן בראשית ט:יב

המשמע מן האות הזה שלא היה קשת בענן ממעשה בראשית, ועתה ברא י"י חדשה לעשות קשת בשמים ביום ענן…על כרחנו נאמין לדברי היונים שמלהט השמש באויר הלח יהיה הקשת בתולדת, כי בכלי מים לפני השמש יראה כמראה הקשת, וכאשר נסתכל עוד בלשון הכתוב נבין כן כי [אמר: את קשתי נתתי בענן ו]לא אמר: אני נותן בענן, כאשר אמר: זאת אות הברית אשר אני נותן. ומלת קשתי תורה שהיתה לו הקשת תחלה, ולכך נפרש הכתוב: הקשת אשר נתתי בענן מיום הבראה, תהיה מן היום הזה והלאה לאות ברית ביני וביניכם, שכל זמן שאראנה אזכור כי ברית שלום ביני וביניכם…(ובין שתתחדש הקשת עתה, בין שהיתה מעולם בטבע, הטעם באות שבה אחד הוא.)

It would appear from this sign that the rainbow in the cloud was not part of creation and that now G-d created a new thing by making a rainbow in the heavens on a cloudy day…We must perforce believe the words of the Greek [philosophers who maintain] that the rainbow is a natural result of the heat of the sun falling upon damp air for even in a vessel containing water which stands in the sun there is the appearance of the rainbow. When contemplating the language of Scripture we will understand that it is so, for He said, I have set My bow in the cloud, [the use of the past tense indicating that He had already set it so from the beginning and it is not a new creation]. He did not say, "I set in the cloud," even as He said, This is the sign of the covenant which I make. Moreover, the word kashti (My bow) — [in the possessive form] — indicates that He possessed the bow previously. Therefore, we shall explain the verse thus: "The rainbow which I have set in the clouds from the day of creation will be from this day on a sign of covenant between Me and you; whenever I will see it I will remember that there is a covenant of peace between Me and you.”…Thus, whether the bow was a newly established phenomenon or one that always existed in nature, the significance thereof as a sign is the same.

The Ramban notes that a plain reading of the verse indicates that God created a rainbow in the clouds for the first time at this moment. But he goes on and explains that in light of our scientific understanding of rainbows, that a rainbow is made when light passes through water, a constant property of physics, that the rainbow is part of the fabric of the original creation. The Ramban then returns to a careful reading of our verse and notes that it doesn’t say “I am placing” a rainbow in the cloud, but rather “I placed” in passed tense. God didn’t create the rainbow for the first time during the period of Noach, but he did identify as a sign from that point forward to reflect this covenant between man and God.

This is a beautiful example of the interplay between Torah and science. The Ramban rejected one possible interpretation of Torah based on science, and went back to see a more accurate reading of the original verse based on the scientific understanding of the natural phenomenon. Scientific understanding assisted in the accurate interpretation of the Torah.

Rav Soloveitchik and Rav Hirsch discuss both Torah and Science as avenues to knowledge of God:

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik

This psalm (Tehilim 19) has two distinct themes, and there is no immediately apparent transition from the first to the second. The first part describes the cosmos, with emphasis upon the sun, since for our world, our solar system, the sun is the central focus. Then, in the middle of the psalm, the theme changes to Torah and mitzvot. King David is saying that God’s glory manifests itself in two media. First, the cosmos with it its endless energy, the dynamics of the universe, the velocity of life; and second, the medium of the Torah, the moral law, the Jewish law; it, too, tells the story of God’s glory. (The Koren Mesorat HaRav Siddur, p.445; Abraham’s Journey, p.144)

Rav Samson Raphael Hirsh - Commentary on the Siddur - Tehilim 19

The book of nature from which [we] derive [our] knowledge of God, and the Torah, from which [we] learn how to worship Him…the realization that there must be a God could come to anyone who thoughtfully contemplates nature…however…[this] does not…answer the question what man should do with his freedom of will and action. (Hirsch Siddur p.56)

Rav Soloveitchik and Rav Hirsch explain that we have two distinct pathways to the knowledge of God. Nature can indeed teach us about God. But only Torah can tell us how to live life. The food chain might reflect the infinite wisdom of the Creator, but it doesn’t tell us about how we should treat our fellow. We rely on the Torah to tell us how to relate to God and how to live meaningful lives inline with how we were designed by our Creator.

References

Hirsch R. S. R. (1997). סדור תפלות ישראל = the hirsch siddur ; the order of prayers for the whole year. Feldheim Feldheim.

Ibn Ezra, E., Strickman, H. N., & Silver, A. M. (1996). Ibn Ezra's commentary on the Pentateuch: Perush ha-Torah : Genesis (Beresheit). New York: Menorah Publishing Company, Inc. Retrieved from: https://mg.alhatorah.org/Full/Bereshit/9.11#e0n6

Nahmanides & C.B. Chavel (1999). Commentary on the Torah. New York: Shilo. https://mg.alhatorah.org/Full/Bereshit/9.12#e0n6

Rosenberg, A. (1980). A new English translation of the Hebrew Bible text and Rashi, with a commentary digest. New York: Judaica Press. Retrieved from: https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/

Soloveitchik J. B. (2011). Koren Mesorat HaRav Siddur. Koren.

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