May God make Yafet expand his influence, and may he live under the protection of Shem. Canaan will be his slave, too.”6
28 After the great flood, Noah lived another 350 years.
29 Noah reached the age of 950 years, and then he died.
1. v. 2: This description of human-animal relations causes me to believe that the “large amphibians” previously mentioned, if they can be identified as dinosaurs, no longer existed by this time.
2. v. 4: This verse may also be rendered, “But don’t eat any animal that is still alive.” The intent of this mitzvah (commandment) is to forbid eating a live animal, and additionally to insure that a slaughtered animal is not eaten raw (as blood would still be in the meat). Both of these interpretations or translations are true to the Hebrew text and are parts of our kosher dietary laws.
3. v. 6: This mitzvah means that whoever murders a fellow human will be liable to capital punishment. The Hebrew word tselem (image) has significant meaning in the Torah. We can see the great value of human life when we understand this word. 1.26 notes that man was made in God’s tselem. See my note to 1.26.
4. v. 21: The word that is translated “to undress” may also mean that Noah behaved drunkenly and was discovered in this state inside his tent. Thus his actions were “uncovered.”
5. v. 22: Thus, either Ham saw Noah naked or behaving like a drunkard. We can ask why Noah may have chosen to get intoxicated. An interesting opinion is offered by Rabbi Steinhardt: “Noah is the first survivor (of the flood). When he came out of the ark he saw that every single person he knew except for his immediate family had been killed. He saw all the destruction and he despaired. He saw (that) every house and every tree and everything that was familiar to him were wiped out” (taken from http://www.bnai-torah.org/clientuploads/sermons/Rabbi_Steinhardt_Parsha_Noah_5768_2 .pdf). Then Steinhardt expresses another opinion, that of a colleague: “Rabbi Daniel Gordis, offers . . . (his) explanation. . . . (Noah) got drunk because he couldn’t handle the success. . . . He actually had saved the world and he was the focus of the universe….He did great things. He was on an incredible high and when he came off the ark. He now had to involve himself in the mundane. . . . That was very, very difficult for him. Rabbi Gordis refers to it as the “Noah Syndrome” (taken from http://www.bnai-torah .org/clientuploads/sermons/Rabbi_Steinhardt_Parsha_Noah_5768_2.pdf).
As a biographical note, Rabbi Gordis was vice president at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles and the dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies there before immigrating to Israel. He now serves as the Senior Vice President of the Shalem Center in Israel.
6. v. 27 makes a pun of Yafet’s name, since the Hebrew word for “expand” is from the same root. Yafet is portrayed as one who “expands” his territory and influence, while Shem (Hebrew for “name” and “good reputation”) retained his good reputation in this blessing by his father. The name Ham (Hebrew for “hot,” maybe “hot-headed,” if it refers to Ham’s temperament), may denote his derogatory or degrading words to his brothers about their father. Another tradition ties the name Yafet to the Hebrew word for “beauty” (yafeh).
Chapter 10
1 These are the family histories of Shem, Ham, and Yafet. After the flood occurred, they fathered sons and daughters.
2 Yafet’s sons were named Gomer, Magog, Madai, Yavan, Tuval, Mesheq, and Tiras.1
3 Gomer’s sons were named Ashkenaz, Rifat, and Togarmah.
4 Yavan’s sons were named Elisha, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim.
5 Their clans settled in island-nations, each in its respective area. Each clan developed its own language, specific to its given nation.
6 Ham’s sons were named Cush, Mitzrayim, Put, and Canaan.
7 Cush’s sons were named Sava, Havilah, Savtah, Ra’amah, and Savteka. Ra’amah’s sons were Sheva and Dedan.
8 Cush also fathered Nimrod. He was a very prominent, famous man on earth.2
9 He was a hunter of prowess in God’s presence. Because of this, the saying, “Like Nimrod, the great hunter in God’s presence,” was popular.
10 This was the time of the beginning of his kingdom, which included the areas of Bavel, Erek, Akad, and Kalanah, in the land of Shinar.3
11 Ashur came from this land, and he built Nineveh, Rehovot, Ir, and Kallah;
12 as well as Resen, which laid between Nineveh and Kallah. It was a big city.
13 And Mitzrayim fathered Ludim, Anamim, Lehavim, and Naftuchim;
14 as well as Kasluchim (from whom the Philistines descended), and Kaftorim;
15 Canaan fathered his first-born, Sidon, and then Chet;4
16 as well as Hayvusi, Ha’emori, and Hagirgasi,5
17 and Hachivi, Ha’arqi, and Hasini, 6
18 then Ha’arvadi, Hatsmari, Hachamati, and Acher. These Canaanite clans also spread out to settle other areas.
19 Consequently, the Canaanite clans had their borders from Sidon in Bo’akah to Gerarah up to Gaza in Bo’akah, then toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Adamah, and Zevo’im, up to Lasha.
20 These are Ham’s descendants, including their clans and languages, by their geographic areas.
21 As well, Shem, the elder brother of Yafet, fathered children. He is the patriarch of the clans of Ever.7
22 The sons of Shem were named Elam, Ashur, Arpakshad, Lud, and Aram.
23 The sons of Aram were Utz, Chul, Geter, and Mash.
24 And Arpakshad fathered Shelach, who fathered Ever.
25 Ever had two sons whom he fathered. The name of the one was Peleg, because during his time the earth was split apart. His brother was Yaqtan.8
26 Yaqtan fathered Almodad, Shalef, Chatzarmavet, and Yarach,
27 as well as Hadoram, Uzal, and Diqlah,
28 Oval, Avima’el, and Sheva;
29 Ofir, Chavilah, and Yovav. They were all the sons of Yoqtan.
30 Their territory stretched
