Okay, this week is Parshat Noach, and we're going to a little bit go through the archives and look at something that we've looked at in the past, but it was quite a number of years ago, and it bears refreshing. Towards the end, really the last story we hear about Noach, and I want to make a parent aesthetic statement about that, you know, in the Tanakh, we rarely have an explicit judgment about anyone being good or bad. We never hear Avram Sadiq, right? We know that Tashim says, "I know that he'll teach his children to do de'er-hajam," etc. We don't hear an explicit judgment passed on people often, and one of the ways that we can sort of gather the Tanakh's assessment of who they are is by hearing the last story about them. For instance, Avram dies to save Atova buried by both of his children, one of whom was a strange Trump. It's a beautiful scene. Sarah's death brings about the purchase of land in Eric's canon, it's beautiful things. This is the last story of Noach, and it really doesn't speak very highly of Noach, and perhaps it's Tanakh's subtle way of passing judgment on Noach, which is one of the sides of that famous Midrash, Biddorotab, at the beginning of this Parshah, that the Vini Parshah at Noach, Tami Mayabidorotab, that if he were in a good generation, he wouldn't be thought of as very significant, but relative to the best of his generation, he was okay. In any case, here's the story. Va'yubneh Noach, this happens after they leave the Teva. Va'yubneh Noach, it's him and the Teva, Shem Va'zam Va'yaf, Va'zam Huavihanan. Now right away, we're just going to read through first, but right away, our attention is caught, because why do you want to tell me that Ha'am's son is named Kanan? In other words, normally, we identify someone with a patron in. We already know that there's a Noach's kids, there's no need to add any other information, unless you want to tell me who's older or something like that. We don't not hold that here, because Yaf't is evidently the oldest, but Shem Va'yaf'yaf Tha'zam Huavihanan, we're told Tha'zam is the father of them named Kanan. What's even weirder is that Kanan is not even Ha'am's first born son, he's his youngest son, his fourth son, as we see later in the table of the nation. So it's a very strange interpolation. So Shai'al ibn al-Nohach, Ume'al al-Naf-Sah-Hola-Aritz. Now those two Sukhim alone tell me really all I need to know right here, which is, this is where humanity sprang from, Shai'am Khaman Yaf't from everywhere and spread out. But we hear a story, but Yach'al Noah, which likely means Noah started out, Isha'adama, because he starts out by planting, Va'yitah karim, and he plants a vineyard. Now one thing that we often are not given in the narrative is time span. And sometimes things will happen over the course of years, and they're in one Pasuk, and we don't sense the passage of time. So keep an eye on the ball here. Va'yayest min ha'yayin, Va'yishkar, Noah drinks from the wine, which wine, the wine from the vineyard, he planted, and he gets drunk. Now how long passed between Pasukhaf, Pasukhafalaf? This is germane to what we're going to be doing. How long do you think passed? Four years? Okay, four years. Now we have to assume, of course, that Noah knew something about making wine, and about a long-to-take process, but he was successful because he made wine that was alcoholic. But this is, you've got to plant the karim, then you've got to wait a while for the grapes to grow, and even without issues of orla, but you still have to wait until the grapes are mature, and that probably takes a couple of years. And then you've got to trample them, and let them ferment, and all that whole process, we're having at least four years. All right, so keep that in mind. Va'yayest min ha'yayin, Va'yishkar, he drinks from the wine, and he gets drunk. Va'yitgal b'togh, oh, hello. Va'yitgal is a short way of saying b'yitgal'a. He was revealed inside of his tent. What does that mean? It seems like he's lying there, sleeping, drunk, and naked. Va'yayar, ha'am avi-khanan, et evada viv, again, ha'am is presented as ha'am the father of khanan, and our antennae should go up. It's a very strange thing to say, and ha'am, who is the father of khanan, sees et evada viv. He sees his father's nakedness. So it means his father is fully disrobed, or at least disrobed word counts, and ha'am comes in and sees it. Now what do we want ha'am to do at this point if ha'am walked in? First of all, maybe ha'am shouldn't have walked in at all. Okay, but ha'am walked in. Ha'am sees his father in this state. What do we want him to do? I assume we would want him to cover his father up, or maybe enlist his brother's help to come cover his father up, or maybe if he's not the oldest, to come ask the oldest brother, what do we do? What does he do? By a gave the shne'ak of bahudzi goes out and tells his brothers. So far as ha'am is concerned, qam is on the up and up. He sees a distressing situation, and he goes and tells his brothers. Now by qaq shaym by evada dasimla, by asim wa al shaym shaym shaym. So shaym in the evada, the two brothers he told us to, take a garment, and they put it on their shoulders, by a qaq or anit, and they walk into the room backwards. Which means, by the way, they evidently believed qaq shaym, that father was naked. qaq shaym does not participate in this bit of protecting noah's honor. So we got a little bit of a sense that qaq shaym is not okay here, but nothing egregious. And they walk in backwards, by a qaq shaym, they cover up their father's nakedness. So they, you picture, I mean, we all grow up with this picture. They walk in backwards, and they kind of make sure that they got the right spot, and they drop the garment, and now father's covered. qaq shaym wa al shaym wa al shaym, they keep their face backwards. qaq shaym wa al shaym wa al shaym wa al shaym wa al shaym, they keep their face backwards. qaq shaym wa al shaym wa al shaym wa al shaym wa al shaym wa al shaym wa al shaym wa al shaym. Again, it stresses the idea, they did not see our vataviyam. Why, I have to say that twice, good question. Now vayikats noahmiyayno, noah wakes up from his wine, vayyaydait a sharasalobirahmakatan. And he knows what his young son, or the youngest son, did to him. Now do you understand the problem in the text? Because if all that qam did was to see that father was naked, and then went out and told his brothers, and noah wakes up, and he's got a cover over him, what is it that he knows happened? If you're asleep, and somebody peeks into your room, let's say you're on a, on a shabbat tone, or let's say you're in a dormitory kind of thing, a member of the day is staying in a hostel, and somebody comes into your room in the middle of the night, and the next day, you're going to come and say, "What were you doing? You're not going to know." They just peek in. They saw you there. They might say to you, "Hey, I didn't know you used a mask for, you know, the void snoring, then okay, what were you doing in my room?" But how do you know they were in the room? Very strange. But yo mare arokanan, now things get really weird. Noah, his first reaction is to curse somebody, which itself is, why is anybody being cursed or what did anybody do? And who does he curse? You would expect them to curse, kham, instead, who does he curse? Kanan. Now, that may help alleviate a little bit of our anxiety. White keeps saying kham wabi khanan, kham did something, and khanan gets cursed, khanan gets blamed a little unclear, but we get a sense that there's a connection. And what's his curse? He will be a slave, a slave forever, a super slave, whatever you call it, to his brothers, which means by the way, who is khanan going to be a slave to, according to that curse? He's going to be a slave to put and mitzreim, in other words, kham's other sons, for your brothers, the people who you share a father. So kham says, so noah says khanan will be a slave to his brothers. His brothers means put and mitzreim and kush, right? All right. And then he says vayom ar baruch adonayyalohi shaym, he blesses Hashem, who is the God of shame, vihi khanan evadlamo, and khanan will be his slave. Well, time out, who is khanan serving, serving his brothers, or serving his uncle? Now, you could say he's going to serve everybody, but that's, even for that, that's overkill. And then the effort's not left out, yaf de luimli yafad. It's a beautiful play on the words. Yaf de luimli yafad. Yaf de luimli yafad. Yaf de luimli yafad. Yaf de luimli yafad. Yaf de luimli yafad. Yaf de luimli yafad. Yaf de luimli yafad. Yaf de luimli yafad. Yaf de luimli yafad. Yaf de luimli yafad. Yaf de luimli yafad. Yaf de luimli yafad. Yaf de luimli yafad. Yaf de luimli yafad. Yaf de luimli yafad. Yaf de luimli yafad. Yaf de luimli yafad. Yaf de luimli yafad. Yaf de luimli yafad. Yaf de luimli yafad. Yaf de luimli yafad. Yaf de luimli yafad. Yaf de luimli yafad. Yaf de luimli yafad. Yaf de luimli yafad. leads to Migdal B'avel and then Toldot Noach, the proper Toldot Noach that ends with Avram. That's the end of the parasha. This story is confusing. Before we address the confusions that I pointed out, the confusing passages and reactions and words that I pointed out, let's just take a look at the structure of this parasha because the structure is actually quite elegant. If you take a look at it, there are tubes of K'im in the beginning which are B'nei Noach. B'nei Noach. Now, you B'nei Noach is going to be the first time you have to be the first time you have. You have to be the first time you have to be the first time you have to be the first time. Look at the last tube of K'im. Noach lived this long and Noach ends up after this long after the thing and it's not long he lives. Again, Toldot Noach, it's a wrap-up of his life. The first tube of the last tube of K'im are perfectly matched. What about the next pasuc, pasuc haf? It is Noach planting a vineyard. And that is a brachah, the brachah of growth after the maboule. It is a brachah. Wine is always associated with brachote and it's also a kalala because he gets drunk. What happens in the Bet section on the bottom, brachot and qalot? He blesses shame. He blesses the f-ed and he curses Kanan all the way through. What happens in the third section? He gets drunk. What happens in the third section from the end? He wakes up from his drunk. And in the middle is the story of Han. So I just want to show you that the structure of this story is elegant. It's clearly a chasmus. It starts and ends with the same idea and the builds towards the middle and the middle is what we would expect, which is K'am's activities and the brothers' activities. K'am's activity, Va'yar and Va'yagade and the brothers' activities, which is to take the garment walking backwards and cover it up and not see their father's nakedness. But we have a much bigger problem here, which is what happened? Why is K'am referred to as Avi Kanan? Why is Kanan the one who was cursed instead of K'am? Lots of difficulties in this parashah. How does Noah know anything happened? So we're going to start with the first question. The last question, the Gamaran, Masakhat Sanhedrin, Rashi quotes both of these, has Mahogluk and Ravan Shmuel. Which is by the way, by the time that they got to recording this, they forgot who said which, Rahu or Shmuel. But Ukhana Mar sar sog, Ukhana Mar revolve. Meaning, what it is is it that K'am did? Because their father had the same thing I mentioned earlier. What is there for Noah to know? And why is it so egregious that the doer gets a terrible curse, or his son? After all, if all that happened was K'am walked in, saw his father naked, and didn't cover him and walked out and told his brothers, "Okay, you could say, 'K'am, you don't get the, you don't get the Shmuel. You don't get it. Heilik pashoot." Whatever. You don't get a big inheritance. You're going to get Africa. I don't know. But, but, but to curse him like that, because of him. So therefore, Rahu and Shmuel agree that something far more egregious happened that earned him the curse, and also that would be there for Noah to know. If somebody walks in your room and sees you sleeping, walks out, you're not going to know about it. If somebody walks into your room and castrates you, you're going to know about it. And, and if he solemnizes you, which itself is a phrase that has to be revisited, but if he forces himself financially, that's what revolve means, then it's going to be something that, that you're going to, that you're going to know about, and would be bad enough that would cause a curse. All right. By the way, what would be the thinking here? So Rashi talks about this, I don't know right here, but the Rashi talks about it. Why would Qum castrate his father? And Rashi ties that in with why Noah curses Qunan, is a really beautiful piece. He says Qum's motivation was simply financial. Right now, the world is divided into three parts. I don't want to share it with anybody else. I don't want a father to have more kids, and therefore he castrates them. And Noah wakes up, and what's his response, "You castrated me so that I wouldn't have a fourth son who would serve me when I'm older, therefore your fourth son will serve his brothers." It's a nice turnaround, right? Good. Revo is something that we're going to come back to in a minute, but why would Qum force himself sexually on his drunk father? So this takes us to stories that we know explicitly in Tanach, where forcing oneself sexually on someone, of course, is not about sex, about power. And when it's the head of the clan, then it is a statement of taking over. And Qum perhaps says, "Look, father went through all this stuff. Now look at him. He's drunk and naked. He doesn't deserve to be in charge. I'm taking charge." Which it might explain what we gave the snarqah baqootz meant. Qum went outside and told his brother, "Guess what? I'm in charge of the clan now, because I took daddy. Maybe." All right. But when you look at the text, there is a nuance in the text that is going to take us in a different direction. By the way, I don't want to take any credit for this, the essential insight into understanding this, which I am convinced is shot. It's one of those things. Once you hear it, you can't hear it any other way. I got from an article that was referenced in a friend of mine, Shira, he had a footnote. He mentioned it. He said, "They raised this possibility. I don't agree with it. He gave it a given to you." But you might be interested. I read it, and I was blown away, and so I'm sharing with you. See, it's a footnote of there. You can access it if you can't get it. Let me know, and I'll send it to you. You take a look at the spelling, the orthography of the word "oh-hello." It's in orange. You see it there? "Oh-hello" is spelled with the "hey" at the end, which is a legitimate thing. By the way, one of the most common mistakes, I think, the most common mistake made by Ballet's vila. Shabbat morning, the guy is doubting most of it, when he puts it safe for Torah away. What does he say? "Ouvonu-kah-yomar." Because there's a "hey" there, and if he paid attention, it would say it says, "Ouvonu-kah-yomar." It's masculine, it's referring to the Aaron. "Ouvonu-kah-yomar." So here, "o-hello." It's not totally unheard of to have a "holam" be followed by "hey," but it's still a little strange. And look at the Midrash, and the Midrash is common on it. "Be-toh-ho-ho-ho." "O-halo-k-tye," "Be-toh-ho-ho-halo-shil-ish-toh," meaning whose tent was Noah really in? He wasn't in his own tent, he was in his wife's tent. "Ouvonu-kah-yomar" is the name of Noah, and it's the name of Noah, and it's the name of Noah. Shamashvitatouvin-Pazir-Zorovid-Pazet. Has a whole different story of what's going on here. Said that Noah was attacked by a lion, and the lion basically made him not fully functional sexually. And so what happened, now he comes into his wife's tent, evidently he has to have a drink because it's so upsetting and so anxiety, driving so much anxiety for him to try to have sex, and it doesn't work. And his semen is all over the place and he becomes degraded by it. And that's what Hamsees may be. But again, there's still the same oddities. Prime oddity of course being, why is Ham introduced as Abi Kanan, and why is Kanan cursed the way he is? Who is Kanan a slave of? His uncle's or his brothers. So let's take a look at it and remember that even though we're reading Safar-Brahshit, Safar-Brahshit was written at the same time as the rest of the Torah, and it was written in the same language as Safar-Brahikra. Now, in Torah, how do we say to have relations? What's the phrase used or the word used to have relations? - If it's a forbidden relation, then it's (speaking in foreign language) or (speaking in foreign language) And if it's, if it's, it is (speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) Right? In some case at least (speaking in foreign language) We always use euphemisms. That's the Ramam's famous line about La Shona Kodesh. The reason Torah's language is La Shona Kodesh is no explicit words for either sexual or illuminatory functions. But what you write, Pinchas, is that when I talk about forbidden relations, it's (speaking in foreign language) Now, let's take a look at our (speaking in foreign language) First of all, the (speaking in foreign language) which is already hinting to us about (speaking in foreign language) But (speaking in foreign language) could mean if that were the end of the story, it's okay, it became, it became uncovered. That's a literal meaning. But now (speaking in foreign language) What does that mean? So in (speaking in foreign language) That would mean, and take a look at it here on page two. Is (speaking in foreign language) That's what Pinchas was talking about. All right? But it would mean that (speaking in foreign language) had relations with his father, right? And that supports the position of revolve. Is that what it means? Probably not. It probably means something else. Please take a look at it again, (speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) The introduction to the (speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) That's the introduction. Now, let's get to it. (speaking in foreign language) So man shall not approach his kin, consinguinity, (speaking in foreign language) That's the phrase. Okay, now (speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) What is (speaking in foreign language) Because remember, we're not talking about literally uncovering, we're talking about euphemistically uncovering, having sex. (speaking in foreign language) What is the prohibition of (speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) The mother, right? Problem is, look at the second half of the (speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) Meaning, who is the subject, the object really, of the two phrases, (speaking in foreign language) and (speaking in foreign language) It's (speaking in foreign language) Which means what's your mother called? Your mother's called (speaking in foreign language) And now look at the next (speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) Your father marries another woman, your stepmother. You're not allowed because (speaking in foreign language) Which means, from the perspective of (speaking in foreign language) from the perspective of Torah's legislation. (speaking in foreign language) A man is his wife. Meaning for a man to have relations with another man's wife is to uncover that man's nakedness. It's right there on the text, right? (speaking in foreign language) And notice in (speaking in foreign language) You have some of an explanation for it. (speaking in foreign language) This is in the (speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) He cursed his man who lies with his father's wife, (speaking in foreign language) He has uncovered the fold, as it were, or the garment of his father. In other words, his mother's intimacy is his father's intimacy and he's violated his father by taking one with whom his father's intimate, whether it's his own mother, or his mother, or just that mother. Now let's go back and read the parasha and everything will become clear. Let's start from the beginning. (speaking in foreign language) Again, park that, we're gonna get to it. The first (speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) And now remember, a few years. We'll call it seven years, just for the heck of it. And it's a good brashy number. (speaking in foreign language) Noach, now, gets drunk from that wine that he planted all those years ago. (speaking in foreign language) He becomes revealed in whose tent. Remember the (speaking in foreign language) His wife's tent. What does that mean? That means he and his wife are lying there, having relations, or whatever. What happens? (speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) He took his own mother. (speaking in foreign language) We saw it in Vayikra. He took his own mother. He had relations with his mother. Why would he do that? I mean, it's gross, it's disgusting. Why would he do it? - Oedipus, Oedipus. - Well, no, I don't think it's Oedipus. I think it's something else. - This is Ruben and Bilhah. This is Abshalom and Pilakshay David. This is power. I'm taking over. We have it in Tanakh. To sleep with the king's wife is to essentially take over. Why did Shlomo have Adoniyal killed? 'Cause Adoniyal requested he wanted Abishaga's wife. Okay, I'm not king, fine, but I want Abishaga's wife. What did Shlomo understand was really going on? Abishaga had been David's last wife, or consort. He's trying to take over by taking the king's wife. And so why does he go and tell his brothers? He goes and tells his brothers, I'm in charge now. I took over. What do the brothers do? They come in and they cover father up, and ostensibly they cover mother up also. And now, by Yikets no Akmihinou, no Akh wakes up. And now, remember, we were allowed to put years in the middle of Pasuc with the wine? And now we find out what his son had done to him. How does he find that out? 'Cause his wife's pregnant. And he knows it's not him. And he knows evidently the chairman, the outfit behaved honorably, so there's only one person who did this. He knows what happened. So what does he do? Vayuma Arur Kanan, who's Kanan? The kid in utero. The kid in utero. I'm cursing him, 'cause who is he? He's a mom's here. He's the first mom's here. And because of that, he's an evada vadim. Who is he gonna be an evada, too? His brothers. Who are Kanan's brothers? So I'll tell you a little story. When I was much younger, I used to enjoy, Joel, you probably listened to this also, a weekly radio show, remember radio? A weekly radio show called The Dr. Demento Show. - Huh? - And he had great novelty records, and he had a song that I just thought was very cute, called I'm My Own Grandpa. And it was recorded by these two country hicks, it sounds like something out of the Ozarks, but if you listen to it, it's a brilliant take on all sorts of very detailed and twisted relationships. I don't mean twisted in the psychological sense. And I thought it was cute. The first time that I was in the cycle of teaching Dafyomi, I got an email from some organization that was sent to all the Magide Shire that had a link to a YouTube video of that song. With the original song. And a map, like a Yavomot map of it. (laughing) Don't talk Yavomot, it was perfect. And so, let's think about it. Who is, who is Kanan's brothers? The answer is not both, he has two sets of brothers. (indistinct) But he's also got Shemin Yefet because they share a father, they share a mother. So what does, no, I'll say, Kanan, the result of this, and maybe he doesn't say Kanan at the time, maybe he says, "Hakiella Dazette." And when he's born and say, "Kanan," he's gonna be in heaven. Who's gonna be in heaven too to his brothers? Who are his brothers, Shemin Yefet? And suddenly we understand why Khamwavi Kanan shows up here at the beginning. Khamwavi Kanan, Kham is the one who's sinned, and the result of that is that Kanan, who's his son, is going to be the one who really gets the bad treatment here, because he's the result of that sin. And then suddenly everything falls into place. - But isn't Kanan the fourth kid? - Yes, yes. - Remember, Khamwavi and his wife were already on the Tevah. - What? - Right? So remember, we have a few years going on here. So even if you say that none of the, Noah had no grandchildren, let's say on the Tevah, it seems like that, right? Was he and his wife, his three sons, their wives, Noah, there's no kids mentioned. So well, soon there's no kids, that's fine. But there's a gap of years in here between when the mob rule is over, and this event happens, in which Khamwavi has kids with his wife, and now, the last kid is born with a different wife, which is, no, his father's wife, his mom. It's gross, it's disgusting, but I think that it's the straightest way to read it. Now, the wild thing happened to me, 'cause when I read this article, it's like convinced, and I've given this year a number of times, and everybody has the same reaction to say, "I can't read the Pasha differently anymore." It's the only way I could see the Pasha. It's so clear to the shot. But I had some people who actually bothered because nobody, with the right credentials, had said it. And then somebody showed me that in Heidenheim's Taurata alluqim, that's exactly how he reads the Pasha. It's brilliant. He says, "What's Le Rote Aravat?" He says, "Le Rote Aravat Aviv." He just says it in like two lines, this whole sheer. And suddenly, it makes sense. He doesn't actually make that comment about Khannan in the Mamsirut, but he makes that comment about what it is that Khannan did. And what's critical in methodology is, once we're allowing ourselves to see this story, and you have to, see this story is not taking place in five minutes, but taking place over the course of many years, which you have to, going from the planting of the grapes to the getting drunk from the wine, then you have room to do the same thing in Pasu Khafdallin, when you say, "Noah woke up." And much later on, found out what his son had done to him, because much later on, he sees that his wife's pregnant. And that leads to his cursing, and on the other hand, blessing the sons, whose reaction to this was not to suddenly show obeisance to Khannan who had taken Noah's wife, but rather to protect Noah and his wife, their own mom's dignity, and to cover them up. So, a different take on the story. One that again, I find compelling, but everybody's wrong thing. - It is indeed hard to look at it now, in any other way. Could you go back to the Psukim and Vaikra and explain again what's the difference from the Erevatamik and Erevatamikha? - Sure. The Psuk Zion, you're talking about the Red Psukim, right? - Right. - So the Psuk Zion is talking about your mother. Now your mother is Erevatamikha, because the fact you're in the world means your father and your mother had relations. That was to make them that, right? - So Psukhasvashalim person has relationships with his mother. - And he has. - So if Psukhasvashalim person has relations with his mother, then he's Magala Erevat, both to his mother and his father. - Right, right. He only gets killed once, don't worry, but yeah. - Whereas there's a double violation going on, which is he violated his relationship with his mother and he violated his relationship with his father. The second Psuk is a stepmother, Eishitavikha. And what's the violation of Eishitavikha? Just like Eishitavikha, you're violating. The relationship you have is with your father that's being violated because she's intimate with your father. Just like the relationship with your brother and his brother's wife is Eishitavikha, you're violating your intimacy with your brother. God comes to him when he was your brother by doing that. Now in the first case, you've got a double whammy because not only are you violating your father's intimacy with his wife, but she's your mom. And so there's another violation there, just like your own sister. Okay, does that clarify? - Yes, thank you.
