The Sidra begins with an interesting comment. This is Noah's story, his
history. Few biblical heroes receive such recognition. Abraham's story isn't
presented to us in that way. No other hero is presented to us in such form.
We therefore must ask why was Noah so presented to us, the readers. Noah,
the text tells us, was a tzadik, a righteous, a perfect person in his
generation. As if to say, in comparison to his contemporaries, he was
exceptional. Our folklore relates Noah realized the shortcomings of his
generation, its denial of the Seven Noahide Laws. He refused to sink into
their mire.In his younger days, he attempted to missionize among his
contemporaries, urging them to change their ways and accept the "Seven
Noahide" principles. As he aged, he saw the futility of his teachings.
No one listened to him, and he resigned himself to a lonely existence.
Noah's children lived in Tandem. In their father's presence, they aped his
ways and his thoughts. Once outside of the parental domicile, they tried to
be hail fellows well met. This grieved Noah, for he wondered if his own
children accepted his teachings.
From the text, it would seem Ham, the father of Canaan, didn't walk in
his father's way. Noah in the end curses or denounces his son and his
descendent, Canaan and says he will be a slave to his brothers, Shem and
Japhet. According to Biblical history, Shem is the progenitor of the
Semitic tribes and Japhet of the Euro-Mediterranean group, while Ham is the
progenitor of the African continent. Some have seen in this curse the seeds
of later prejudices.
But above all, we must bear in mind the blessing awarded Noah and his
family — the survivors of the great Flood. They were assured, so long as
the earth endures, a seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and
winter, day or night shall not cease.
For Noah and his descendants, we have the following admonition. "Whoever
sheds the blood of man by man, by human means, shall his blood be shed.
For in His image did God make man. They are told to be fertile and
replenish the earth's populations. This has remained a mainstay of Biblical
thinking. One human is responsible for another. "Shedding of blood," our
Sages taught, is nott only capital acts but also the denigration of a human
being, destroying his or her reputation and forgetting none of us are
without shortcomings.