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.
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Rembrandt - Noah's Ark |
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.
To view on YouTube click:
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
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