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Noah, the tiller of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk, and he uncovered himself within his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a cloth, placed it against both their backs and, walking backward, they covered their father’s nakedness; their faces were turned the other way, so that they did not see their father’s nakedness. When Noah woke up from his wine and learned what his youngest son had done to him, he said, “Cursed be Canaan; The lowest of slaves Shall he be to his brothers.” (Genesis 9:20-25)
This passage presents some difficulties for interpretation. If Ham was the one who behaved badly, why is it his son Canaan who bears the brunt of the punishment? We were told earlier that Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth (Genesis 9:18); if Ham is the youngest son, why—in every list of Noah’s children—is Japhet listed after Shem?
Moreover, Noah curses Canaan to be a slave to his brothers, but his brothers, Cush, Mizraim, and Put (Genesis 10:6) haven’t been introduced into the narrative, and don’t feature in the rest of Noah’s pronouncement:
And he said, “Blessed be the ETERNAL, The God of Shem; Let Canaan be a slave to them. May God enlarge Japheth, And let him dwell in the tents of Shem; And let Canaan be a slave to them.” (Genesis 9:26-27)
And why was Ham’s crime, seeing his father’s nakedness and telling his two brothers (Genesis 9:22) so severely punished?
Chizkuni focuses his attention on the verb vayaged:
“He told his two brothers of this.” Since the Torah did not use the word: vayomer, “he said,” for Ham telling his brothers, but vayaged, “he elaborated on this,” it is clear that he emphasized that his father had embarrassed himself. (Chizkuni, Genesis 9:22)
While the path to the lesson may be convoluted, Chizkuni’s conclusion is clear: accidents may happen, and we may find ourselves seeing things that we shouldn’t. Chizkuni illustrates his point with an explanation of a comment by Rabbi Yaakov bar Zivdi in Bereshit Rabbah 36:5:
The reason why a Canaanite slave is released immediately when his owner has ruined a tooth of his or an eye of his (Exodus 21:26), is because the eye is used to see things that should not be seen, and the tooth (mouth) is used to tell what should not be told. (Chizkuni, Genesis 9:22)
The crime wasn’t the seeing, but the sharing. In a society where we are often advised, “if you see something, say something,” we need to remember that there are exceptions: not everything we see should be shared.
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