Why Noah Planted a Vineyard and Got Drunk

The Biblical Narrative In the year 1657 (2104 BCE), immediately following the Great Flood, Noah and his family, sole survivors of over 1,500 years of human history, exited the Ark with the task of regrouping, rebuilding and repopulating a desolate earth. The Torah describes the first event to occur after the Flood: And Noah began to be a master of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. And he drank of the wine and became drunk, and he uncovered himself within his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father's nakedness, and he told his two brothers outside. And Shem and Japheth took the garment, and they placed [it] on both of their shoulders, and they walked backwards, and they covered their father's nakedness, and their faces were turned backwards, so that they did not see their father's nakedness. And Noah awoke from his wine, and he knew what his small son had done to him. And he said, "Cursed be Canaan; he shall be a slave among slaves to his brethren." And he said, "Blessed be the L‑rd, the G‑d of Shem, and may Canaan be a slave to them. May G‑d expand Japheth, and may He dwell in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be a slave to them."1 Why Did He Do It? Why was Noah drinking so heavily? A man chosen by G‑d to be the father of all mankind, someone who was, in the Torah’s words, "a righteous man" and "perfect,”2 was taking to the bottle like some degenerate in a corner pub? We're talking about a man G‑d communicated with directly. We're talking about a man G‑d selected as the most eligible of all his peers to save humanity. A number of reasons are offered to justify Noah’s inebriation. The Seder Hadorot writes that, as a young man, Noah had once watched a goat munch on some grapes and then become giddy and cheerful.3 So perhaps Noah was looking for a little pick-me-up after bearing witness to the obliteration of civilization from the face of the earth. Another explanation offered is that Noah was after the cognitive powers that could be harnessed through alcohol, wanting to broaden his horizons in the study of Torah.4 Chassidic teachings take a different approach. Noah wasn't trying to imbibe spirits to lift his own. He also wasn't looking to drink in moderation to jump-start his brain. Noah's plan from the beginning was to go all in, to get completely under-the-table, stripped-down-to-the-flesh plastered. Having witnessed extreme depravity and immorality, and the destruction it left in its wake, Noah had come face to face with the consequences of sin. Noah got drunk (and subsequently disrobed) as an ambitious attempt to return the world to the innocent time before sin. He was trying to undo and reverse the negative effects of Adam and Eve's sin in the Garden of Eden. The World Before Sin Before there was sin, the universe was at peace. Nature and its Creator were completely in sync and the unity of G‑d was manifest in all of creation. The only consciousness that existed was the consciousness of G‑d, and one couldn't help but view every aspect of the world as a component of that reality. The only self-awareness that existed before sin was the awareness that one was an expression of the Divine. There was no possibility of viewing oneself as an independent, self-sufficient entity when G‑dliness was so revealed. One unifying consciousness fused all of creation together. Then came sin. The effects were quick in coming and shattered the clarity that had existed previously. Confusion and friction became the dominant realities. In place of the two innocent souls blissfully unaware of their own nakedness, two people stood with a newly acquired self-awareness that focused them in on their own existence and made them shrink away in shame. The harmony was gone. The unity was gone. The transcendence was gone. What was left was a multitude of independent creatures lacking the guiding and uniting force they once took for granted. Noah, in his attempt to fashion a society based on proper ideals, tried importing the pre-sin state of existence. By getting drunk, Noah thought he could get rid of the pervasive self-awareness and thereby resurrect a state of complete unity with the Divine. Noah’s mistake was that he thought all oblivion was created equal. What he didn't realize was that lack of self-awareness that doesn't come from subjugation to a higher power, but rather from excessive alcohol consumption, is merely confusion, and isn't in fact an enlightened spiritual state. One can't take shortcuts in achieving transcendence; it has to come from hard work and steady progress. So Noah wasn't just looking for a good time, and it wasn't just a passing idea. His actions were part of a grand plan to fashion society on the foundations of spiritual enlightenment. It just didn't play out the way he imagined. The Reaction On finding out about their father's intoxication, Noah's three sons had three different reactions, ranging from pious to deplorable. “And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father's nakedness, and he told his two brothers outside.”5 Seems innocent enough. But as Rashi is quick to inform us, "saw his father's nakedness" means that he either sodomized him or castrated him.6 Neither of those being your average son's reaction to finding his father sprawled on his bed in a drunken stupor. Ham lost no time in telling his brothers of their father's shameful state. Shem, the youngest of the three, sprang into action and grabbed a garment to cover their father. Japheth, following his younger brother's lead, also held onto the garment: Shem and Japheth took the garment, and they placed [it] on both of their shoulders, and they walked backwards, and they covered their father's nakedness, and their faces were turned backwards, so that they did not see their father's nakedness.7 Rashi explains that the seeming redundancy in the verse teaches us that Shem and Japheth made additional efforts to avoid seeing their father in a state of nakedness even for just a moment. And Noah awoke from his wine, and he knew what his small son had done to him. And he said, "Cursed be Canaan; he shall be a slave among slaves to his brethren." And he said, "Blessed be the L‑rd, the G‑d of Shem, and may Canaan be a slave to them. May G‑d expand Japheth, and may He dwell in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be a slave to them."8 There are a number of explanations offered as to why Canaan, Ham’s son, is the one to bear the brunt of Noah’s curse: 1) He was cursed because he was the one who initially informed his father, Ham, of the situation. (And not in the “Oh my word! Whatever are we to do about this?” kind of way. More like in the “Dad you gotta check out what I just found! You're gonna love this” kind of way.)9 2) Because Ham tried preventing Noah from having a fourth son, Noah cursed his fourth son.10 3) Noah didn't think it was appropriate to curse his son after G‑d himself had blessed his children.11 4) Ham actually learned his perverse ways from his son Canaan.12 Our rabbis teach, that both Shem and Japheth were rewarded for their actions, but in different measures. Shem, because he initiated, was rewarded in both body and soul by meriting to have his descendants receive the special mitzvah of tzitzit. Japheth, who merely went along with Shem’s actions, was rewarded in body by meriting the burial of his descendants during the war of Gog and Magog.13 Ham, who not only didn't assist his father but added injury to insult, was punished through his descendants when they were stripped naked and disgraced in the war with the King of Assyria.14 The Punishment Fits the Crime What's interesting to note is that all the rewards and punishments dished out as a result of this event are related to clothing. This is in keeping with the Torah’s general principle of "an eye for an eye," the idea that consequences are meted out measure for measure. If you're a good doctor, getting a taste of your own medicine isn't so bad. (But if you're a bad doctor...) Mirror, Mirror Chassidic teachings tell us that when one sees negativity in others, it's really a projection of the seer’s own negativity. However, is this true across the board? Is it not possible for a really good guy to happen upon a really bad guy? Is it not possible for a completely selfless person to interact with selfish people? (It's okay if you're picturing yourself right now.) The answer is yes, it is possible. The key to knowing if the negativity you see is a reflection of you is in the kind of reaction it is. When Ham saw his father's disgrace, the thought of helping him didn't cross his mind. Shem, on the other hand, saw the issue as one that needed to be rectified, and instantly got to work doing that. One's reaction to negativity is very telling. If, when coming across it, you react like an amateur food critic and just say "that's bad" and move on your way, then something's wrong. The negativity didn't bother you enough to attempt to get rid of it. It didn't rattle your proverbial cage. Negativity has to clash with everything you stand for. It has to shake you to your very core until you have no choice but to correct it. If it doesn't do that, then there's some of that negativity in you as well. For Shem, there was no buffering time. The second he heard of his father's compromised situation, he got to work fixing it. Finding out about the issue and finding a solution were one and the same for Shem. Because he was completely free of any of that negativity, he instantly rejected it and went about trying to change it. So when you come across evil in the world, you have a decision to make: do you want to be a part of it, or do you want to be a part of bringing it down? Footnotes 1.Genesis 9:20-27. 2.Genesis 6:9. 3.Seder Hadorot, p. 25. 4.Midrash Rabba 36:3; see Eitz Yosef. 5.Genesis 9:22. 6.See Rashi ad loc. See Talmud Sanhedrin 70a. See also Rashi to Genesis 9:25 where it is explained that Ham castrated Noah because he said, “Adam only had two children and they killed each other over inheriting the earth. My father has three children already and he's still looking for more?” 7.Genesis 9:23. 8.Genesis 9:24-27. 9.Rashi to 9:22. 10.Rashi to 9:25. See The Punishment Fits the Crime. What’s interesting is that Ham judged Noah for having so many children when he himself had more. 11.Kli Yakar 9:24. 12.Ibid. 13.See Ezekiel 39:11. For more about this war, see The War of Gog and Magog. 14.See Isaiah 20:4. In the year 3221, Sennaherib, king of Assyria, started an imperialistic campaign, conquered many nations and spread them across the world. For further reading: Sennaherib's Debacle.