GEN742 (Continued from [[LEV731]] Leviticus 19:18 yourself SEFER 50-1). One must make sure to protect another person’s dignity in every possible way.  The Torah deliberately recounted to us the story of Noach, telling us how he became drunk and then exposed, and how his sons Shem and Yefes covered their father in order to save him from embarrassment.  The Torah also records the berachah that Noach subsequently gave Shem and Yefes, and describes how it was eventually fulfilled, to show us the importance of this quality of doing one’s utmost to save another person from humiliation, just as he would do for himself.  SEFER 51

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GEN743 Be particularly careful not to dishonor your parents, even when one of them has done something wrong.  Protect your parent’s dignity, as Noah’s two sons did.   Jewish law notes several instances in which guests and hosts must exercise case not to embarrass one another.  For example: Don’t ask a guest intellectually demanding questions unless you have reasons to believe that he will know how to answer them; otherwise you will cause him embarrassment (Sefer Chasidim 312).  [Author’s note:  Attempting polite conversation, I once asked a fellow dinner guest what kind of work he did.  Our host immediately interceded and changed the subject.  Only later did I learn that the guest was indigent and had been invited to dinner as an act of chesed.  From that incident I learned to be more circumspect about personal questions. This might equally apply to questions about marital status, children, residence location, personal history, etc.].  TELVOL1:290

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GEN745 Many people, when they are angry, say things they don’t – in their rational moments – want to see happen.  When Noah’s son Ham showed him a gross lack of respect, Noah didn’t even bother to curse Ham, but he cursed Ham’s son, Canaan, that he should become a slave to his brothers.  Is it likely that when Noah recovered from his initial outburst of rage, he truly wished to see this fate befall his own grandson?  TELVOL 1:252

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GEN746 The Biblical verse is from the end of the Noah story and is a kind of original racial theory.  The text is Noah’s blessing and curse, expressing his fury at his son’s illicit sexual behavior.  He asserts the priority of Shem and Japheth against Canaan.  The Israelites will descend from Shem (Semites), while the to-be-conquered Canaanites will be from Canaan, who is the son of Ham (the brother of Shem and Japheth).  The Biblical text, therefore, asserts the welcome of Japheth within the Israelites, and the exclusion of the Canaanites.  WESOR 299-300

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GEN747 See [[GEN96]] Genesis 1:26 likeness COHON 207-8

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GEN748 Man’s need to use animals must be a legitimate and not a frivolous one.  Thus, hunting for sport is not considered legitimate Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De’ah 23:4 and is not only discouraged in the Talmud, but is also prohibited in Jewish law. Avodah Zarah 18b. In fact, the two people depicted in the Torah as hunters, both Nimrod [this verse] and Esau, are clearly characterized as evil.  Yet, in another place, the Torah seems to permit hunting, using the word yatzud Leviticus 17:13, the Hebrew term for hunting.  Upon further investigation, however, it is clear hat the Torah’s permission to hunt is referring only to the capture of kosher meat for eating.  The method the Torah speaks about, although similar to the general terms for hunting, signifies in this case trapping with nets to capture the food, thereby minimizing pain to the animal.  Mishnah, Betzah 3:1-2 AMEMEI 9-10

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GEN749 Long before there was a Jewish people, the importance of individually was stressed in the Torah, according to the Seforno commentary (on Genesis 11:6).  In the story of the Tower of Babel, the Torah, in [this verse], twice mentions the “oneness” of the people. Most commentaries explain this as a positive characteristic, unity, as possibly the one redeeming value that prevented them from being destroyed like the generation of Noah. (See Rashi commentary on Genesis 11:9).  Seforno, however, explains the Torah’s use of this phrase as highlighting their sin.  Their very “oneness,” says Seforno, shows that they were part of a dictatorship society where they were unable to explore ideas as individuals.  This was the sin of that society – the prevention of individual thinking.  Without individual thought, they could not possibly come to properly understand the notion of God.  In their fitting punishment, then, the separation of the people into many languages and cultures, God is telling the people of the world that they must view life as individuals and not immediately conform to the ideas of others.  AMEMEI 122

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GEN750 It was taught: “The men of the generation of the Tower of Babel rebelled only out of satiety, as it is written: ‘And they sat there,’ ‘sitting’ connoting eating and drinking, as it is written Exodus 32:6: ‘And the people sat down to eat and drink, and they arose to disport themselves’” Sifrei, Ekev. TEMIMAH-GEN 52

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GEN751 Even after the world has been destroyed due to the sin of greed, ten generations later, the generation of the Tower of Babel had not changed their essential values.  Using a newly invented building material called brick, they built a massive tower to create a name for themselves and challenge God.  The Midrash says that the chief value of that civilization was worldly goods, and the most important among these goods was their precious bricks.  Thus, when a person fell off the tower and died while building this seven-mile skyscraper, no one paid attention or cared.  But if one brick fell and was lost, they stopped building, sat down, and wept.  Midrash, Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 24.  … Today, it is the greed of companies – i.e., their desire for profit above all other considerations – that endangers lives and sometimes kills people, which is no different from the Tower of Babel generation’s practices.  AMJV 337-8

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GEN752 Some people believe that a person’s goal is to stay alive as long as possible and, if possible, to reach immortality.  While this has been an elusive goal for man from time immemorial, no one has been able to escape inevitable death in a physical sense.  Some have believed that if they can leave their names on a building, that is, have it called by their names, they will achieve immortality.  This was the goal, according to some commentators, of the generation who built a tower in order to challenge God.  They believed if they could erect this building, they “would make a name for themselves,” achieving immortality.  God not only foiled their plot by destroying the tower and dispersing the people, but He made sure that the immortality they sought and their memories would never be achieved.  Not one name of any of these individuals is recorded in the Torah.  But Judaism does tell us how indeed to achieve immortality in the spiritual sense.  AMEMEI 234

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