Commento su Genesi 6:10

SHEM, HAM, AND JAPHETH. It appears to me that Japheth was the oldest, as it is said, the brother of Japheth the elder,²⁰Genesis 10:21. and so in counting their generations, Scripture mentions the children of Japheth first.²¹Ibid., 10:2. Ham was the youngest of all, as it is said, And [Noah] knew what his youngest son had done unto him.²²Ibid., 9:24. Here, however, Scripture mentions Shem first because of his superiority and then Ham, for they were born in that order. Thus Japheth is left at the end. But Scripture did not want to say, “Shem and Japheth and Ham,” because in that case all of them would have been mentioned out of the order of their birth, and Japheth had no outstanding quality to merit that the order of birth be dispensed with on his account. Shem, however, is mentioned here first because of his superiority even though in the account of the generations he is last.²⁰Genesis 10:21. Similarly, [we find the verses]: The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael;²³I Chronicles 1:28. Here too Isaac is mentioned first because of his superiority although Ishmael was older. And I gave to Isaac Jacob and Esau.²⁴Joshua 24:4. This also is similar to the above case.

ויולד נח, as soon as he began to rebuke his fellowmen he was granted children

ויולד נח שלשה בנים. Noach fathered three sons. Why did the Torah have to repeat here that Noach fathered three sons when we have been told this already in 5,32? The mention of the number "three" seems quite superfluous in view of the fact that the Torah tells us the name of each son. Surely we can count up to three! Why did Noach's name have to be repeated? No one else is the subject here! The word בנים, sons, also seems superfluous. All the Torah had to write was: "Noach fathered Shem, Cham, and Yephet." Why did the Torah add the word את in front of each of the names?

ויולד נח, why does the Torah mention this now when it had already told us about his three sons in 5,32? The Torah wanted us to know that these sons were born after Noach had already been certified by the Torah as “walking with G’d.” Mention of these sons here indicates that he raised his sons to believe in G’d and to walk in His ways, also. Had his sons not been good people they would not have been saved at the time of the deluge, even though their father was a righteous person. We have already cited Ezekiel 14,20 in which we were told that Noach’s merits did not suffice to save others beyond himself and his wife.

את שם, את חם,ואת יפת, “Sem, Cham and Yaphet.” Yaphet was the oldest. We know this because the Torah writes יפת הגדול, (Genesis 10,21) The reason why here the Torah mentions Sem first is because he was the spiritually outstanding one of Noach’s sons, whereas Cham was the spiritually most inferior, and he is mentioned immediately after Sem, as he followed him in the order of their birth. Had the Torah listed them in the order: Sem, Yaphet, Cham, not even one of them would have been mentioned in the order of their births. Yaphet did not possess a special distinction which would have justified changing the order of their names on that account.

את שם, את חם, ואת יפת, “Shem, Cham and Yaphet.” Yaphet appears to have been the eldest of the three brothers seeing that in 10,21 the Torah refers to אחי יפת הגדול, ”brother of the senior, Yaphet.” Cham appears to have been the youngest seeing the Torah writes in 9,24 וידע את אשר עשה לו בנו הקטן, “and he became aware of what his younger son had done to him.” The reason the Torah mentions Shem first was because he was the most outstanding of Noach’s children. This is why Yaphet had to be mentioned only after Shem

Noa war schon 500 Jahre alt, als er Kinder erzeugte. Alle seine Vorfahren und Zeitgenossen standen viel früher als Familienväter da. Die Vermutung liegt sehr nahe, dass Noa bisher gefürchtet hatte, Kinder zu bekommen, sich nicht zutraute, in solcher Zeit ein reines Haus zu gründen und brave und sittenreine Kinder zu erziehen. Erst 20 Jahre nachdem das Ende verkündet war, nachdem er sich 500 Jahre geübt hatte, vereinzelt und allein mit Gott zu wandeln, sich selbst ehelos und familienlos aus der allgemeinen Verderbnis zu retten, wagte er, Vater von Kindern zu werden, und die Wiederholung des Namens Noa dürfte lehren, dass auch dieser Schritt von ihm nur in dem Bewusstsein seiner Bestimmung, "Noach" zu werden, geschehen.

ויולד נח שלשה בנים, “Noach fathered three sons;” the Torah repeated this, having told us this already in 5,32, as it wanted to tell us that Noach was righteous in the generations prior to the deluge and after the deluge.

In view of our explanation that the Torah considered Noach's good deeds his principal descendants, and that it was on that account that Noach had found favour in the eyes of G'd, our verse is necessary. Had the Torah failed to repeat the information contained in 5,32, we would not have considered his three sons as a positive accomplishment on Noach's part. The Torah does not report anything positive or negative about these sons. We would have thought these three sons as unfit either on account of their own poor characters or because Noach had not fathered them in order to fulfil G'd's commandment. The Torah therefore lists the birth of these three sons immediately after the list of Noach's good deeds so as to include them in that list. I have found in the Midrash that Noach foresaw that his sons would anger G'd and as a result he decided there was no point in siring children during the first five hundred years of his life. At that point G'd commanded Noach to marry and to have children. He had children in order to keep alive the human species. I believe that this Midrash interpreted the words את האלוקים התהלך נח to mean that Noach thought he was approaching death; therefore he sired children before it was too late. Another meaning of these words could be that Noach realised he would soon be judged by the attribute of Justice for failing to have sired children. This is why he hastened to get married and to sire children to rectify his sin of omission. Another reason for Noach's tardiness in marrying and raising a family (according to several Midrashim) is that G'd commanded Noach to build the ark when he was 480 years old. The deluge would occur in another 120 years. In those days children were not held accountable for their sins until they were one hundred years old. Noach wanted to insure that when the deluge came his children deserved to be saved because they had not reached the age when G'd held them responsible for their deeds. Hence he waited until he was 500 years old before he sired any children (Compare Bereshit Rabbah 26,2 based on Isaiah 65,20). Accordingly, Noach's eldest son would be under 100 years old at the beginning of the deluge.

שלשה בנים drei Söhne: die Stammväter der neuen Menschheit werden also dreiteilig eingeführt. Wenn bei näherer Betrachtung diese Namen eine verschiedene Charakteristik dieser Menschen-Stammväter verraten, so liegt darin der hohe Trost: wie verschieden auch die einzelnen Menschenstämme geartet erscheinen, so hat diese Verschiedenheit schon vor der Sündflut bestanden, sie war also von Gott mit hinüber gerettet, es muß also mit in dem Plane Gottes liegen, das Ziel der Menschheit trotz aller Verschiedenheit der Nationalitäten, ja vielleicht durch Zusammenwirken aller verschiedenen Nationalitäten, herbeizuführen — es wurden gleich ein שם, ein חם, ein יפת mit in die Arche gerettet.

The reason Noach's name is mentioned once more a) is to demonstrate again that he brought a new-found מנוחה rest or satisfaction to life on earth, b) to remind us that were it not for their father, these sons would not have been saved. Surely there were many youngsters below the age of one hundred at the time the deluge started and none of those were spared. I refer the reader to my comment on the words: "I have seen you to be a righteous person in this generation (7,1)." The three times את which appeared at first glance as superfluous refer to the wives of Noach's sons who were also saved only on account of Noach. If the sons of Noach per se did not warrant saving, why did G'd consider it necessary to repeat the report of the three sons that were born to Noach prior to the deluge?

Betrachten wir diese Namen, die uns schon in den Söhnen des איש צריק תמים drei verschiedene Richtungen entgegen führen:

We have to fall back on Sanhedrin 69 where the Talmud proves that the list of Noach's sons presented by the Torah is not according to their seniority but is based on the sons' relative intelligence. Shem is mentioned first as he was the most intelligent. If this were not so he could not have been described as one hundred years old when he sired Arpachshad two years after the deluge (11,10). If the Torah had not mentioned the extra word בנים, but had merely given their names, we would have concluded that the list of their names was according to the order of their births.

שֵם: Name, Begriff des Objekts. Die ganze Weisheit des Menschen bestand ja ursprünglich und besteht ja in Wahrheit auch heute noch darin, dass er den Dingen Namen zu geben, d. h. dass er ihren Begriff auszusprechen und ihnen damit ihren "geistigen Raum", ihr שָם, anzuweisen vermag. שֵם weist daher jedenfalls auf eine geistige Tätigkeit, auf ein Erkennen, Begriff- und Namengeben.

חָם, rad. חמם, verwandt mit אמם — .עמם ,המם ,אמם, in אֵם und אִם, bezeichnet, dass ein Wesen die Bedingung von etwas anderem in sich trägt. Daher אֵם: die Mutter, und אִם: die Kausalitätspartikel. Kommt das in dem einen unentwickelt Liegende in Bewegung, zur Entwicklung, so entsteht המם: die unruhige Bewegung, das Gähren. Diese Bewegung hat zwei Ausläufer, entweder: חמם, dass die Masse glühend wird, sich verzehrt, dann entsteht nichts neues; oder עמם, es tritt die Geburt ein, es entsteht ein Neues, ein Anderes neben dem einen. Jedenfalls bedeutet חם das Heisse, die aufgeregte sinnliche Bewegung.

יפת von יפת verwandt mit פתה, Grundbedeutung: offen stehen wie פתח. Davon פתי: der allen äußeren Eindrücken offen steht, sich von ihnen überwältigen lässt. מופת: eine Erscheinung, die den andern überwältigt, sein Inneres für etwas gewinnt. Verwandt auch mit יפה, das Schöne, Ansprechende. Jedenfalls, während שֵם den Begriff des Geistigen, חם das Glühende, Aufgeregte, die höchste Sinnlichkeit bedeutet, entspricht יֶפֶת dem Gemüt, der Phantasie, die für das Schöne empfänglich ist. Möglich sogar, dass יפת einfach von יפה stammt, wie צֶפֶת, Chron. II. 3, der Überzug der Säulenkrone, von צפה, דֶלֶת die Türe, von דלה, schöpfen, aufnehmen und ausgießen; die Türe ist das Ventil am Hause, durch das ihm sein Inhalt gegeben und genommen wird.

Wir haben also hier drei Seiten, die das ganze Seelenleben des Menschen ausmachen. Im gesunden Zustande ordnen sich alle drei einem höheren Prinzipe unter, und gelangen wie bei Noa in ׳התהלך את האלקי zur reinsten Potenz des Geistes, in תמים zur reinsten Potenz des Sinnlichen und in צדיק zur reinsten Gestaltung alles Wollens und Strebens. Getrennt wird שֵם: der Denkende, חָם: der Sinnliche und ניפת der dem Schönen Nachstrebende. שם soll dazu kommen: ׳:חם ,להתהלך את ד להיות תמים, und יפת statt von dem Ideal des Schönen, sich von dem Ideal des Guten leiten zu lassen und צדיק zu werden, während, wo die Richtung יפת vorherrschend hervortritt, die Sinnlichkeit allerdings vor Rohheit durch den Maßstab des "Anständigen" geschützt sein, allein der an die Lebenstätigkeit gelegte Maßstab immer nur ein subjektiver bleiben wird. Wir werden noch später in direkterer Weise auf diese charakteristische Grundverschiedenheit der neuen Völkerstämme zurückgeführt, und haben dies hier nur berührt, um hervorzuheben, wie diese künftig sich ausprägenden Nationalverschiedenheiten nicht als Entartung zu betrachten seien, sondern schon mit in die Arche hineingebracht wurden. Zeigt uns daher die Geschichte, geistig begabten oder gemütveredelten Völkern gegenüber, auch solche, bei denen glühende Sinnlichkeit vorherrschend erscheint, so darf uns dies nicht in der Überzeugung irre machen, dass alle die verschiedenen Menschenrassen für ein einziges hohes Menschenideal geschaffen sind und diesem Ziele entgegenreifen, jenem Ziele, dass: ומלאה הארץ דעה את ד׳ וגו׳