The Hidden Blessing
“And Cham, the father of Cana’an, saw the
nakedness of his father and related it to his two brothers outside.and Shem and
Yefes took the garment.and covered the nakedness of their father.” (Berisheis/Genesis
9:22-23) Noach (Noah), whom the Torah tells us was a righteous individual, had
been treated disgracefully by one of his sons and respectfully by his other
two. The Torah’s record of the reaction of this righteous individual to this
incident is unusual. First he cursed the descendants of his grandson Cana’an
that they should be slaves to the descendants of Shem and Yefes, and then he
blessed the descendants of Shem and Yefes.
One would expect such
an individual to be more forgiving, particularly toward his own grandchild. He
did not reprimand him to improve his behavior, he simply cursed him. Why?
Further, Noach’s reaction seems to be an impulsive result of anger. If G-d
deemed Cham’s actions worthy of punishment, He is certainly capable of doing that
without Noach’s curse. What is the significance of Noach’s curse, that the
Torah recorded it? Finally, why did Noach connect his curse of Canaan to the
blessings of Shem and Yefes, and once he did connect them, why did he not offer
the blessing first?
Rabbi Shimshon Raphael
Hirsch (1) explains that the name Cham – Hebrew for “hot” – is indicative of
his nature. Cana’an, Cham’s son, was an individual who, in the heat of the
moment, would lose his self-control as well as respect for anything or anyone spiritually
elevated, including his grandfather’s honor. Knowing Cana’an’s nature, he
understood his descendants would likely possess these same traits. For such
people, leadership and even freedom can be very destructive. Chasam Sofer (2)
explains that Noach’s curse did not come from anger. He was interested in
fixing that which Canaan (and Cham) had done wrong. Therefore, Noach “cursed”
Canaan’s descendants to be slaves because that would ultimately be in their own
best interest. By being subservient to the G-d- fearing descendants of Shem,
the descendants of Canaan might be influenced positively and improve
themselves. At least they would be limited in the amount of destruction they
could cause themselves and the rest of the world. The blessings of the other
sons were meant to help them be true role models, secondary help for Cana’an’s
service-bound descendants.
We often wonder why we are not the recipients of wealth,
power, or other blessings that we would like, curious why we must face the
challenges and choices we confront daily. We forget that these “blessings” may
indeed be curses, with many tests and responsibilities that we are ill equipped
to face and are not in our best interest. Whatever our current situation
presents us, it is a custom-tailored opportunity from G-d, that He has sent us
to utilize to feed our spiritual growth and forge our G-d consciousness. What
we, with our finite minds and blinded perspective, may view as a curse, He has
afforded us as one of our greatest blessings.
Have a Good Shabbos!
(1) 1808-1888; Rabbi
of Frankfurt-am-Main and leader of the pre-war German-Jewish Orthodox community
(2) Rabbi Moshe Sofer
of Pressburg; 1762-1839; acknowledged leader of Hungarian Jewry of the time
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Wine and Window Washers
The world is devastated, every
last vestige of civilization washed away by the Great Flood. There are no
people, no buildings, no roads, no crops, no cultivated land, only a great
wooden ark perched incongruously on a mountaintop.
The door to the ark slowly swings
open, and Noah steps out onto dry land for the first time in forty days. He
looks about him at the endless expanse of ruination, and he realizes he must
begin the work of reconstruction immediately. What does he do? The Torah
relates, “And Noah, man of the earth, demeaned himself and planted a vineyard;
he drank of the wine and became drunk.” One thing led to another. Noah’s son
Ham took advantage of his father’s inebriated condition and acted disgracefully
toward him, thereby giving rise to the curse of Ham and his son Canaan.
The point of this entire episode
is clearly to give the historical background for the depravity that would
characterize Canaanite society, the nemesis of the Jewish people, for thousands
of years. Why then wasn’t it sufficient to tell us simply that Noah became
drunk? Why does the Torah find it necessary to tell us that he obtained wine
for his cups by planting a vineyard? And what if he had had a barrel stored
away on the ark? Would the situation have been any different?
Furthermore, the
Torah seems to imply that Noah debased himself by the very act of planting a
vineyard, even before he drank the wine and became drunk? Why did planting a
vineyard debase him?
The commentators
explain that a person is a complex mass of interests, biases and drives that
often obscure the true nature of his soul, very often even from himself. Going
off in all directions, some good and some not so good, pursuing this, that and
the other, he presents a confusing, multi-hued image. Which of those
manifestations represent the real identity that lies within? It is difficult to
determine. But there are some defining moments when he does not find it
necessary to posture for other people and he is able to focus completely on his
own interest. It is moments like these that the true nature of his essence
becomes manifest.
Noah spent forty
tempestuous days in the close confines of the ark, and now for the first time,
he once again sets foot on terra firma. As he looks around at the vast
wasteland, where is his head? What thoughts and issues occupy his mind? What is
the first thing he does? He plants a vineyard. So that is his true nature! That
is what lies closest to his heart. And so by the very act of planting a
vineyard Noah had already debased himself, long before he actually became
drunk. And this debasement of his inner core, this lack of self-respect,
triggered the awful disrespect of his son Ham.
A young man once came
to a great sage and asked to become his disciple. “Please step into the
synagogue for a moment,” said the sage.
A few moments later, the young man returned.
“What did you see there?” asked the sage.
“I saw a foul-smelling window washer,” he replied.
“I see,” said the sage. “I’m afraid I cannot accept you.”
“But why?” the young man protested. “Is it my fault that the
fellow hasn’t had a bath in a month.”
“My dear young friend,” said the sage, “a high-minded man
would have seen the beautiful ark, the holy books piled on the tables, the
flickering eternal flame. Only a mean-spirited person would focus immediately
on the foul smells emanating from the window washer.”
In our own lives, we are constantly dealing with the
complexities and ambiguities of contemporary society. Very little is clearly
black and white, and we often find ourselves making all sorts of compromises
and accommodations. But we should always ask ourselves what we are deep inside.
Where are our minds? Where are our hearts? As long as we are essentially
spiritual and altruistic, as long as the values and ideals of the Torah are the
focus of our lives, we will always find ourselves uplifted and enriched,
regardless of the environment in which we find ourselves.
Bounce Back
The opening sections of
the Torah with which we are currently engaged in studying, deal with one of the
central problems of human existence and that is the ability to cope with
tragedy, disappointment and frustration. The adjustment of human beings to
being driven out of the Garden of Eden is really the entire story of human
civilization and of its very bleak moments.
This week we read of
the difficulty of Noach and his descendants to cope with the tragedy that they
witnessed when the great flood destroyed the Mesopotamian human civilization.
There were different reactions to what they had witnessed and experienced.
Noach himself forsook much of his spiritual greatness and accomplishment to
become a person of the earth, traumatized by the experiences of the past.
The English expression
for this type of attitude is that one attempts to drown his sorrows away. As is
recorded for us in this week’s Torah reading, this attitude and behavior leads
to disaster and complete family dysfunction. The opportunity for resilience,
and family and national rebuilding is lost and squandered.
There is a strong
inclination within each of us to be overwhelmed by challenging circumstances
and tragedies. It is not easy to put one’s life back together after witnessing
an event such as the great flood. Yet, this is exactly what the rabbis pointed
out to us as the major difference between Noach and Abraham. Tested ten times,
Abraham’s resilience never wanes, and he continues to look forward towards
accomplishment.
This week’s Torah
reading indicates another reaction to tragedy with rebellion and an abandonment
of principles, beliefs and faith. The generations after the flood, in their
anger and despondency over the punishment that Heaven meted out to human kind,
rebelled against G-d and morality by building of the tower of Babel. They knew
of G-d and they knew of the flood, but they rebelled as a sign of their
displeasure with what human kind suffered at the hands of Heaven.
It is historically accurate to say that after great wars and
tragedies, decades of decadence and immorality suffuse human society. It is
this rebellion against what experience should have taught them that leads to
further disaster. It is a different symptom of the same malady, the lack of
resilience which often engulfs entire societies and, as history has proven,
eventually leads to their demise and disappearance.
This description of human behavior as outlined above, is of
enormous instruction to us in our time. We are still the generation reminiscent
of the sword raised to destroy the Jewish people and endanger the existence of
the Jewish national state. Only by our resilience and tenacity in following the
lead of our father Abraham are we guaranteed to have overcome the challenges
that face us.
Shabbat shalom
Rabbi Berel Wein
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