noach: birthright
sholem aleichem,
i love learning things from the “boring” parts of torah:
וַיּ֥וֹלֶד נֹ֖חַ שְׁלֹשָׁ֣ה בָנִ֑ים אֶת־שֵׁ֖ם אֶת־חָ֥ם וְאֶת־יָֽפֶת
noach begot three sons: shem, kham, and yafes.
if you’ve been reading along with the parsha cycle, you might say “wait, didn’t we read this verse already”?
and indeed, in last week’s parsha we learned that
וַיּ֣וֹלֶד נֹ֔חַ אֶת־שֵׁ֖ם אֶת־חָ֥ם וְאֶת־יָֽפֶת
noach begot shem, kham, and yafes.
both of these verses happen in the middle of a long line of so-called “begats”, beginning with the first human adam and ending with avraham avinu.
with the exception of noach’s children, they all follow roughly the same format. here are a few examples:
when shes had lived 105 years, he begot enosh. after the birth of enosh, shes lived 807 years and begot sons and daughters.
when enosh had lived 90 years, he begot kenan. After the birth of kenan, enosh lived 815 years and begot sons and daughters.
when kenan had lived 70 years, he begot mahalalel. After the birth of mahalalel, kenan lived 840 years and begot sons and daughters.
these start in bereishis 5:3. they run until bereishis 5:31, where they take a break for about six chapters to tell the stories of noach, the flood, and the tower of babel. they begin again in bereishis 11:10, telling the descent from shem through terach, avraham’s father.
there are three key features of each generation in these verses:
the oldest child is the only one named
the oldest child is listed first, separate from other “sons and daughters” (here’s a great intersex / trans reading of this)
the oldest child is the direct ancestor of avraham, and through him am yisrael
noach breaks the two features of this pattern, listing three named children together:
noach begot shem, kham, and yafes
according to the ramban, noach also breaks the third feature: shem, the first listed, is the direct ancestor of avraham. but the ramban says that yefes is the oldest and kham is the youngest:
הַנִּרְאֶה אֵלַי כִּי יֶפֶת הוּא הַגָּדוֹל, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (בראשית י':כ"א) אֲחִי יֶפֶת הַגָּדוֹל
וְחָם הוּא הַקָּטָן בְּכֻלָּם, כַּאֲשֶׁר אָמַר (שם ט כד) וַיֵּדַע אֵת אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה לוֹ בְּנוֹ הַקָּטָן
it appears to me that yefes was the elder, as is stated [in bereishis 10:21] “brother of yefes hagadol [the older]”
and kham? he is the youngest of all of them, as it says [in bereishis 9:24] “noach knew what his son [kham] hakatan [the younger] had done to him”
pretty ironclad!
but rashi doesn’t think “hakatan” means “younger” in the latter case:
בנו הקטן. הַפָּסוּל וְהַבָּזוּי
“his son hakatan” - [hakatan means] the unfit and despised one
(ouch. what did kham do to rashi…)
and if “hakatan” can be understood metaphorically, so too “hagadol” could be understood metaphorically: the greatest, the most eminent.
in fact, the verse the ramban quotes with “hagadol” is pretty ambiguous. even if we assume “hagadol” and “hakatan” refer to ages, it is commonly understood in two different ways:
וּלְשֵׁ֥ם יֻלַּ֖ד גַּם־ה֑וּא אֲבִי֙ כׇּל־בְּנֵי־עֵ֔בֶר אֲחִ֖י יֶ֥פֶת הַגָּדֽוֹל
(1 - shem is oldest) and to shem also children were born, ancestor of all the children of ever and brother hagadol (the older brother) of yefes
(2 - yefes is oldest) and to shem also children were born, ancestor of all the children of ever, and brother of yefes hagadol (yefes the older)
so, at the moment we have a few options:
if hagadol and hakatan mean oldest and youngest:
(1) yefes is eldest, kham is youngest
(2) shem is eldest, kham is youngest
if hagadol and hakatan are used metaphorically
maybe shem is eldest: he is listed first, like the other eldest children in the begats, and he is the “most eminent” as the ancestor of avraham avinu.
but there is a fourth option, where hagadol and hakatan are used metaphorically but shem is in fact the youngest.
this argument relies on drawing an analogy with yitzchak and yaakov: both are younger sons, both are the direct ancestors of am yisrael, and both are listed before their brothers in “begat”-ish verses in the tanakh:
(divrei hayamim 1:28): the sons of avraham: yitzchak and yishmael
(yehoshua 24:4): i gave to yitzchak yaakov and esav
as further evidence, there are some compelling parallels between kham and esav.
kham is the ancestor of canaan, traditional enemies of am yisrael, just as esav is the ancestor of edom, also enemies of am yisrael. and kham’s name means “hot”, just as esav is often understood as hot-blooded (translation by R’ Shraga Silverstein, transliterations standardized):
esav was ruddy and hairy, attesting to his hot-blooded, passionate nature; whereas yaakov was smooth-skinned, attesting to his good, even-tempered nature. and their character traits paralleled their natures.
kham is even the source of noach’s curse of canaan, causing the future subjugation of canaan to am yisrael. let’s bring in that context for the verse we’ve already seen about kham (translation by JPS, transliterations standardized):
kham, the father of canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside.
but shem and yefes 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 noach 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.”and he said,
“blessed be haShem,
the god of shem;
let canaan be a slave to them.
all this leaves us with three possibilities for shem:
shem is eldest (based on one interpretation of hagadol as age, or metaphorically by comparison with the other begats)
shem is middle (based on the other interpretation of hagadol as age)
shem is youngest (the parallels with yaakov and yitzchak)
at this point, dear reader, i was ready to give up.
but there is one verse that provides an actual age for shem, giving us an obi-wan kenobi for determining which of these possibilities is correct:
אֵ֚לֶּה תּוֹלְדֹ֣ת שֵׁ֔ם שֵׁ֚ם בֶּן־מְאַ֣ת שָׁנָ֔ה וַיּ֖וֹלֶד אֶת־אַרְפַּכְשָׁ֑ד שְׁנָתַ֖יִם אַחַ֥ר הַמַּבּֽוּל
these are the generations of shem: shem was 100 years old and begot arpachshad two years after the deluge
okay! two years after the deluge. let’s see if we can work backward to figure out when shem was born.
there are two verses that tell us roughly when the deluge occurred in noach’s life:
(bereishis 7:6) וְנֹ֕חַ בֶּן־שֵׁ֥שׁ מֵא֖וֹת שָׁנָ֑ה וְהַמַּבּ֣וּל הָיָ֔ה מַ֖יִם עַל־הָאָֽרֶץ
noach was 600 years old when the flood was waters on the earth
(bereishis 7:11) בִּשְׁנַ֨ת שֵׁשׁ־מֵא֤וֹת שָׁנָה֙ לְחַיֵּי־נֹ֔חַ בַּחֹ֙דֶשׁ֙ הַשֵּׁנִ֔י בְּשִׁבְעָֽה־עָשָׂ֥ר י֖וֹם לַחֹ֑דֶשׁ בַּיּ֣וֹם הַזֶּ֗ה נִבְקְעוּ֙ כׇּֽל־מַעְיְנֹת֙ תְּה֣וֹם רַבָּ֔ה וַאֲרֻבֹּ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם נִפְתָּֽחוּ
in the 600th year of the life of noach, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of that month: on that day all the fountains of the great deep broke through and the windows of the heavens opened
rashi understands these verses to mean the same thing: that noach was 600 when the flood began.
but there is another possible interpretation: the flood was “waters on the earth” (and therefore ongoing) when noach was 600, but first began in his 600th year (when he was 599). ibn ezra references this possibility in his summary of timeline arguments among chazal and meforshim.
for now, let’s keep both options in mind.
continuing to work backwards: we’re also given noach’s age when he had children:
וַֽיְהִי־נֹ֕חַ בֶּן־חֲמֵ֥שׁ מֵא֖וֹת שָׁנָ֑ה וַיּ֣וֹלֶד נֹ֔חַ אֶת־שֵׁ֖ם אֶת־חָ֥ם וְאֶת־יָֽפֶת
noach was 500 years old, and he begot shem, kham, and yafes.
its possible this literally means all three were born when he was 500 (some kind of triplet or twin situation required). it’s also possible this means that at least one was born when noach was 500 and the verse is really just saying “he began to have children” at 500.
in any case, noach seems to have had at least his eldest child at 500. so here’s the timeline as i understand it:
noach is 500 when he has his oldest child
noach is either 599 or 600 when the deluge begins
the flood lasts a little over a year
so noach is either 600 or 601 when the deluge ends
two years after the deluge, shem is 100
this is all still painfully ambiguous:
what does “after the deluge” mean? after it began? after it ended? if the latter, is it after the rains ended or after the water totally receded?
what age is noach when the deluge begins? 600 or 599?
does noach have all three children when he is 500? or just two? or just one?
here is one possible timeline (this is rashi’s opinion):
noach has his oldest child when he is 500.
noach is 600 when the flood begins.
his oldest child is is either 99 or 100 when the flood begins (depending which month the child is born)
his oldest child is at least 101 or 102 "two years after the deluge”
therefore: shem is not the oldest child of noach
here is another possibility:
noach is 599 when the flood begins.
shem was born late enough in Noach’s 500s, so shem is 98 when the flood begins
shem is 98 + 2= 100 two years after the deluge begins
shem could be the oldest child of noach
so after all of this, all of these details, we’re still actually left with all three possibilities:
shem is youngest (first option)
shem is middlest (first and second option)
shem is eldest (second option)
i’m exhausted y’all.
so here’s a fourth possibility for ya: shem is all three of them.
remember! these are the features of the “begats” that are split in the middle by noach:
the oldest child is the only one named
the oldest child is mentioned first
the oldest child is mentioned on their own, in a separate statement from any others
the oldest child is the ancestor of avraham avinu
what if noach’s verse does not break this pattern at all? then when the torah states:
noach had lived 500 years, and noach begot shem, kham, and yefes
she is naming the oldest child, the ancestor of avraham avinu, on their own. she’s just using three names for the same person (not unheard of in tanakh!)
so why does the verse in our portion specifically refer to the three children of noach?
my friend, the torah does not give away her secrets except to those who love and engage with her. she says three children davka to draw our attention to the question: why did noach, of all these in our ancestral line, have three children named together in the same year?
she could have just told us that noach had one child. but she says three children so that we will go and investigate who is older and who is younger. and through the process of this investigation we will discover that our inherent biases — that the younger and more noble child is our ancestor! that the older and baser child is the ancestor of the canaanites we will kill and subjugate! — are completely false.
that when the torah says
שְׁלֹשָׁ֥ה אֵ֖לֶּה בְּנֵי־נֹ֑חַ וּמֵאֵ֖לֶּה נָֽפְצָ֥ה כׇל־הָאָֽרֶץ
these three are the children of noach, and from these the world shattered into pieces
the first “these” refers to shem-kham-yefes, the one child with many names.
but the second “these”, the “these” that shattered (that are shattering) the world? that’s us.
it is not the fault of our ancestors that we kill each other. there is no history that justifies this: the whole world branched out from a single source.
we are taught this not once but three times in the torah: the whole world is descended from adam, the whole world is descended from noach, the whole world is descended from shem-kham-yefes.
in the last case we are given three names for the common ancestor to teach us that our different names and our different appearances don’t mean we come from a different source. don’t mean we are truly, at any inherent level, any better or worse than each other.
shem-kham-yefes is the youngest and the oldest. this child with three names was the ancestor of one people made up of all of our peoples. it’s up to us if we shatter the world into pieces or not.
we’re so obsessed with birthright. with who is older and younger. but maybe we are all in our multitudes descendants of NAME AND HEAT AND OPENING the only child of REST. maybe we were all here first.
good shabbos,
ada
p.s. i didn’t have time to look into this, but it’s worth noting that the begats end with terach, avraham’s father, also having (apparently…) three children. i leave it to you to investigate what that means.
p.p.s. i’m teaching a course this december! if you’ve ever wondered if the Torah be understood in any language, or if Hebrew always take precedence, come learn Talmud with me!
