Noah: invasion of privacy [chezek rei...

Noah: invasion of privacy [chezek reiyah]

 

 

 

The parsha and daf hayomi come together this week. 

 

One of the major stories in Noach  deals with the invasion of Noach's privacy.  וַיַּרְא, חָם אֲבִי כְנַעַן, אֵת, עֶרְוַת אָבִיו  Ham, the father of Canaan viewed the  ervah ( nakedness, genitals)  of his father.  On Yom Kippur we had read that this is forbidden to Israel( but  it is the custom of the aboriginal people of Canaan)  עֶרְוַת אָבִיךָ וְעֶרְוַת אִמְּךָ, לֹא תְגַלֵּה:  אִמְּךָ הִוא, לֹא תְגַלֶּה עֶרְוָתָהּ.}  (Vaykra 18:7) follows כְּמַעֲשֵׂה אֶרֶץ-מִצְרַיִם אֲשֶׁר יְשַׁבְתֶּם-בָּהּ, לֹא תַעֲשׂוּ; וּכְמַעֲשֵׂה אֶרֶץ-כְּנַעַן אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי מֵבִיא אֶתְכֶם שָׁמָּה, לֹא תַעֲשׂוּ, וּבְחֻקֹּתֵיהֶם, לֹא תֵלֵכוּ. ( Vayikra 18:3) 

 

The exact meaning of ervah is not clear.  I imagine it is related to airom, the nakedness of Adam and Hava [in turn related to arum, the cleverness of the serpent].   The ER  part is the name of the firstborn of judah ( who died beacause his  sexually related activities displeased Gd).  The word is also a homonym for erev, meaning either "mix "or "evening" ( the meanings are brought together by the 1970's "mixer" which also recalls the wine aspect).  

 

Does watching  harm the person who is watched? This would seem to be related to an issue that threads through Bava Bathra: Violation of privacy seems to be a tort. 

 

Ultimately, the gemarrah (BB 59a) relates this idea to the story of Bilam.   When Bilam sees  how the children of Israel arranged  their tents, he says Ma Tovu Oholecha Yaakov.  He sees that the tents are arranged such that no one can easily observe a neighbor.   The word Ohel is used in this story of Noach as well, in that Noach reveals himself in his Ohel (tent)  and the abberant spelling of the word Ohel  leads Hazal to relate Noach's Ohel to the tents of the Tribes of Israel seen by Bilam. 

 

 Ham sees Noach's drunken nakedness (ervah is whatever embarasses Noah) and he tells (literally) every person in the world.  That emasculates Noach ( cf rashi quoting Chazal that Canaan castrated Noah)  This permits the Tower by cancelling the power of Noah to object.

The tower may may have been set up for "observation"  More hezek reiyah ( the tort of looking).

 

None of this happens without the wine, the fruit of the tree of daath, the source of covering the nakedness, the source of embarassment. Ah, the human condition ... on drugs.