Noah נח – Closing Your Eyes to the Bad

After the great flood, Noah begins to behave as a man of the soil and plants a vineyard. He then makes wine, gets drunk, and lays naked in his tent. His son Ham cheerfully sees him in this unsavory position and tells his two brothers about it. Shem is not entertained and with Yafet takes a blanket to cover Noah and carefully avoids looking at what is obscene. When Noah awakens he knows what has transpired. He curses the progeny of Ham saying they will be the lowest of servants and blesses the Shem saying he is a man of G-d.

Rembrandt - Noah's Ark

Rashi comments on the word ויחל. Its simple understanding is to begin, however it is also similar to the word to profane. Noah is reckoned as a tsadik but, never the less had a crude streak in him. Therefore he acted in a profane way. Concerning the righteous it is written in the book of Ecclesiastics (7:3), "For there is no righteous man on earth who does good and sins not". The idea is that even the best of men have human frailties and moments of weakness.

The general religious point of view is that one "should not try to see another in their time of his disgrace" (Ethics of Our Fathers 4:19). It is even worse to take pleasure from another person's sorry situation. It is written in the Gemara that when asked by his student to what he credited his long life, Rabbi Nechunya ben Hakana replied that he never sought self aggrandizement through the degradation of a colleague, never went to bed cursing a friend, and was willing to make concessions concerning money (Megila 28a). Maimonides is more strict and states that one who regularly seeks aggrandizement through the degradation of others has no place in the world to come (the laws of Repentance 3:14).

Often the attitude of the Tenach is only to destroy evil once it once it becomes large and widespread as it says in Psalm 92:8, "When the wicked flower like weeds and all wrong doers sprout, it is only so they can be destroyed forever". There is an aspect of that in the story of the Tower of Babel. There is an opinion in Bereshis Raba (38:6) that all human society was at war against heaven. To give expression to this idea they built a huge tower and placed an idol with a sword in his hand at the top. Because of this the holy One, may He be blessed, terminated the project. Similarly King David prays to that he can escape "from the malevolent, who are Your sword", (Psalm 17:13).

The ideal seems to be expressed in Psalm 141:5 where King David prays that he should be struck by a tsadik in the spirit of kindness and rebuked, that he should always have a good head, because he is concerned that the wicked will cause him to stumble. Rashi comments that Shem's reward was that his descendents would have the mitzvah of a talis and tsitsis. This is hinted in the reaction of Noah in that he decreed that his descendents, which laugh at another's humiliation, will sink to the lowest of places. However those that attempt to alleviate shame will be clothed in religion with reminders of G-d's will.

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Discussion about how one should not take pleasure from the disgrace of another

Ay-shet Chayil  אישת חיל A Woman of Valor sang at 6:59