ויברך אלוקים, even though they had enjoyed G’d’s blessing already ever since the creation of mankind, the renewal of life on earth reassured them by their receiving a new blessing also. The blessing consisted primarily of the promise that they would once again be fruitful and multiply.

ויאמר להם, to the sons of Noach, indirectly, who communicated the blessing to his sons. [seeing that Noach did not have any children after the deluge, the blessing had not included him. Ed.] Alternately, we must assume that Noach’s sons had prophetic status so that G’d communicated with them directly.

ומוראכם, this formulation is parallel to the words וכבשוה, which also referred to dominance over other creatures on earth (Genesis 1,28).

וחתכם, the root of this word is חתת, and it appears in this sense in Job 6,21 or 41,25. The grammatical construction is similar to פת-פתים-פתכם.

בכל אשר תרמוש האדמה, in the first half of the verse the Torah employed the preposition על, i.e. על כל חית הארץ, whereas now it uses the prefix ב as preposition. Both prepositions are perfectly normal in classical Hebrew. It is as if the Torah had written בכל חיה שתרמוש על האדמה.

ובכל דגי הים, even though the fish do not share the same habitat as you, and are therefore presumed to have nothing to fear from you, G’d puts the fear of man in them also, regardless of their relative immunity from man. בידכם נתנו, the Torah adds these words to include reptiles, etc., be they large of small, whose movement on earth is very slow, seeing that they too move on the face of the globe. The reason why the Torah describes their movements as תרמוש in the feminine mode, is to remind us that each of these creatures possesses a נפש, a non-tangible life force, and this life-force called נפש is a feminine noun. The basic definition of “life” is the ability to move from one place to another.

כל רמש אשר הוא חי, the word אשר which follows the word רמש lacks the connecting letter ו. This is not something unique, seeing we find it in Chabakuk 3,11 שמש ירח, “sun and moon,” instead of שמש וירח, or in Exodus 1,1 ראובן שמעון, instead of ראובן ושמעון, and many other such examples. אשר הוא חי, these words refer to the fish. It is also possible to understand these words as if the letter ו had not been omitted at all, so that the word רמש would be a collective term for all living creatures (as in Genesis 1,21) so that the additional words אשר הוא חי, would compare living creatures now to vegetation in Genesis 1,30 when G’d permitted only ירק עשב, the higher ranking plants as food for the human species. The fruit of the trees in the Garden of Eden were also included in the term ירק עשב, seeing that man had been permitted to eat any plant that grew out of the earth. I explained the meaning of those words on Genesis 1,11

אך בשר, even though I have permitted you all moving (living) creatures as food, you must not eat those animals while they are still alive, i.e. as long as the flesh and the blood are part of one whole you must not eat such tissue. First you have to slaughter the animal. It would be too cruel to simply cut living tissue from an animal and consume it while the animal it has been taken from is suffering pain. It appears reasonable to assume that Noach was permitted to use the animals as his food, seeing that but for his feeding these animals for a whole year in the ark they would have long since died, so that in effect they owed their lives to him. Basically, all the animals had been created to serve man’s needs, whether as beasts of burden, etc., or as food.

אך את דמכם לנפשותיכם, even though I have permitted the blood of animals, i.e. you may kill animals, I have not permitted the animals to kill you, seeing that I have given them into your control, and not vice versa.

לנפשותיכם, the meaning of this word is that if an animal kills a human being it becomes guilty of death itself, unless I use the animal to exact retribution form wicked people, as in the case of the bears who killed the youngsters who had mocked the prophet Elisha (Kings II 20,23, or Kings I 13, entire chapter). [the fact that the lion had not touched the corpse of the man he had killed, showed that the lion had acted as G’d’s messenger, had not acted from impulse in order to still its hunger. Ed] Also in the תוכחה in Leviticus 26,22 G’d specifically announces that He would use the free roaming beasts as His agents to wreak vengeance of the Jewish people who had sinned deliberately and for a long period of time. Our sages (Bereshit Rabbah 34,13) explain the words דמכם לנפשותיכם, as a warning not to commit suicide (especially to people who thereby expect to escape G’d’s retribution) The message is that the person who killed himself will be held accountable in the hereafter. They said further that the word אך at the beginning of the verse excludes such apparent suicides as Chananyah, Mishael, and Azaryah, being prepared to become martyrs to demonstrate their faith in the G’d in heaven

מיד כל חיה אדרשנו, the offending animal which killed a human being will itself be killed by another animal. Even though the principle of reward and punishment is not generally applicable to any species other than the human species, seeing that only man possesses intelligence so that he can be held responsible for his sins, when animals attack human beings G’d did restrict their instincts, and holds them responsible for not respecting the צלם אלוקים, the divine image in which man has been created. Chabakuk 2,17 phrases this principle as ושד בהמות יחיתן, “the destruction of beasts will overwhelm you.” Moreover, when speaking of retribution, we read in Kings I 13,28 ולא שבר את החמור, “nor had it mauled the ass.” [this proved that when the lion had killed the man of G’d, it had acted as an instrument of G’d’s justice. Ed]

ומיד האדם, if man kills man, G’d reserves the right to exact retribution from him either in this life or in the hereafter.

שפך..באדם ישפך, God says: I, personally, will demand satisfaction on behalf of the slain person if there are no witnesses who can testify against the murderer, so that a human tribunal will execute the guilty person. This is the meaning of the extra word באדם; i.e., by means of the judges.

כי בצלם אלוקים עשה את האדם, for he has been set apart from all other creatures, so much so that God made עשה, him in His image by endowing him with an intellect. This is why humans are also held responsible for killing fellow humans, as they, no less than the animals, destroy a creature that had been made in God’s own image. If man had been forbidden to kill inferior creatures for food until given special permission to do so now after the deluge, how much more sacrosanct is the life of a human being who was created in God’s image? Remember that it required special permission by God for Adam and Eve to use even the plants as food for themselves, although the plants are inferior even to the animals. Keeping all this in mind, it is clear that in order for any creature to be allowed to destroy a human being, a special directive from God ordering this was required. And likewise did God command to spill the blood of a man for his sin, as He commanded in the Torah of Moses. And that is when they are fit for the death penalty according to their sin, every sinner according to what is fitting for him, since he already destroyed his [divine] image by transgressing God's commandments. One who transgresses does not possess a divine image or an intellect. The intellect is that which makes a slave obey his master, [seeing that he would suffer if he did not; therefore when a human being disobeys his master [God], he displays a lack of intellect, i.e., can no longer demand to be treated like a human being].

ואתם פרו ורבו, why does the Torah repeat this, seeing we have been told this already in verse 1 of this chapter? Seeing the Torah had spoken of bloodshed, a sin resulting in depopulating the earth, it was important to emphasise that it is man’s task to populate the earth, not the reverse. In fact, this is now not only a blessing but a positive commandment. The expression שרצו means that mankind should strive to produce offspring in large numbers, something that happened with the Israelites after they came to Egypt. We have evidence of this in Exodus 1,7 where the proliferation of

ויאמר אל נח ואל בניו, either Noach’s sons were also prophets, or G’d spoke to Noach to tell his sons, as we had discussed already in connection with verse 1. The reason for the word אתו, with him, was to ensure that the sons would know that the blessing applied both to them and to their offspring.

ואני הנני מקים, the letter ו before the word אניintroduces an addition to the previous words ואתם פרו ורבו, meaning if you will do your part in trying to populate the earth, I for My part promise to keep My covenant with you, making sure that life on earth will not again be drastically disrupted. G’d can be relied upon to keep His promises and assurances, as distinct from man, as has been pointed out already by Bileam in Numbers 23, 19.

ואת כל הנפש אשר אתכם, the ones which had been in the ark with you; this is spelled out shortly by the words מכל יוצאי התבה, “I will make a covenant with all the species of creatures that came out of the ark. None of these species will again become subject to extinction.” G’d said further: לכל חית הארץ, in order to make the meaning of what had been written before perfectly clear. In Bereshit Rabbah it is pointed out that these words include all the subsequent generations of these animals, just as the subsequent generations of Noach’s sons and their wives were included in the blessing as we know from the words ואת זרעכם אחריכם, “and your offspring after you.”

והקימותי, earlier the formulation had been הנני מקים. At that time G’d had not mentioned the substance of the covenant. Now the Torah spells out what G’d had had in mind with the line (in verse 9) ואני הנני מקים את בריתי. The promise not to wipe out כל בשר is parallel to the promise not to flood the entire universe with water again. In both instances G’d reserves the right to flood part of the earth or to destroy part of mankind. The promise does include the assurance that rain of the dimensions and duration experienced during the deluge will not occur again, ever. The words לשחת את הארץ are an illustration of what would happen if G’d would bring on another deluge.

ויאמר אלוקים, to both Noach and his sons, that the visible sign that they need not worry about experiencing another deluge when He had occasion to make rain fall on earth, is the rainbow, which will serve as such a sign of the covenant for all future generations.

את קשתי נתתי בענן, the reason why G’d speaks of “My” rainbow, instead of “the rainbow,” is because He had now made it the visible reminder of the covenant between Himself and mankind, just as He had said ביני ובין הארץ, “between Me and the earth,” or as the prophet Ezekiel refers to this in Ezekiel 1,28 כמראה הקשת, “as the manifestation of the rainbow.” The prophet considered the vision he had seen in that chapter as comparable to the spectacle of the rainbow, i.e. something of which he stood in awe. Concerning this the question is raised in Bereshit Rabbah 35,3 that the word קשתי means מוקש לי, “an hidden obstacle for Me, a stumbling block for Me., [If I understand this correctly, the problem is if the rainbow as a reminder is supposed to frighten man into conducting himself properly so that no deluge will be necessary, or if he is to think only of the promise that there will not be another flood, just as now after the rain the sunlight appears in many different colours, something beautiful and certainly encouraging. Ed] Nowadays, the emphasis is only on the promise, as we have never experienced a deluge, unlike the sons of Noach for whom each time a rainbow appeared it reminded them of the horrible ordeal from which they had been saved.

נתתי, is in the future mode, as for instance when Avraham speaks of money in payment for the cave of Machpelah in Genesis 23,13, when he says “נתתי כסף השדה, “I have given the money for the field,” when the deal had not even been completed yet, and certainly no payment had been made. It is best to explain the formulation here as did Rav Saadyah gaon, when he said that G’d, in speaking of what had thus far been exclusively “My” rainbow, He would from this time on share with mankind, also reinforcing the rays of the sun as a blessing for man and the crops in the field. Every time rain would cease, and the rainbow would appear in the sky or on the horizon, man would be reminded of G’d’s promise not to bring on another deluge. The word נתתי in a distant past mode, actually emphasises that the phenomenon of the rainbow had existed already since the six days of creation. During the days of the deluge the rainbow had not appeared, first because the rains had been incessant, and at any rate, there was no one to appreciate it. Now, G’d promises that there would be a regular appearance of the rainbow after every rainfall. In Pessachim 54 the rainbow is listed as one of the phenomena created at dusk immediately before the original Sabbath, seeing there has not been anything new created after the 6 days of creation. The references to the rainbow have been repeated only in order to impress upon people’s minds that it is a powerful sign of G’d’s covenant.

והיה בענני ענן, I will place clouds for a variety of reasons.

בענני, this word, though without the dagesh in the letter נ is in the conjugation kal. It is not at all unusual that it appears without the dagesh. The reason why G’d repeats the word ענןhaving already said that He speaks of having provided clouds, is to underline the importance of that activity, just as the line מרקר קיר, “tumult and din” in Isaiah 22,5 or ותשרש שרשיה in Psalms 80,10 “and uprooted its roots.”

ונראתה, it will be seen by people.

וזכרתי, the Torah again uses a formulation we as human are familiar with, although, as pointed out repeatedly, G’d does not need to remember, never having forgotten. The same formulation is found in Leviticus 26,42, and in numerous other verses throughout the Torah. They are inaccurate approximations, so that we can understand G’d’s reaction in terms familiar to us.

ולא יהי עוד המים, the meaning is similar to the formulation in Leviticus 11,38 כי יותן מים על זרע, “when water falls on plants (seed), etc.”

The meaning of the word למבול, is that there will not be so much rain that anyone will have reason to fear another deluge.

והיתה הקשת בענן, it will be there as a sign, וראיתיהו לזכור, a figure of speech, as already commented upon by us elsewhere. Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra writes that actually, the rainbow is not a passing phenomenon but is in the clouds or sky at all times but at times is visible only to G’d.

בין אלוקים, as if the Torah had written this in the first person, i.e. ביני as earlier in verse 12. This formulation of G’d speaking of Himself in the third person is also found in Exodus 24,1 ואל משה אמר עלה אל ה', “and to Moses He had said: “ascend to G’d, etc.” The word אלוקים is used as G’d’s attribute when He wants to be perceived as judge and leader. It is usually found when the generation concerning whom this attribute is used was found wanting, was disobedient.

ויאמר אלוקים, G’d repeated His blessings a third time in order to reassure him beyond doubt. According to Bereshit Rabbah 38 our paragraph contains 6 covenants which were meant to correspond to the six days of the creation. If you were to question that actually there are 7, the answer is that the first one was needed in its own right, and cannot be used to relate to other matters. [what are meant by “6 covenants,” are the 6 (respectively 7) separate utterances reported by G’d in this paragraph, utterances which could have been considerably condensed by the use of longer sentences and conjunctive letters. Ed.]

ויהיו בני נח, a reminder that when Noach’s sons came out of the ark they did not have any offspring as yet. They begat offspring only afterwards, and from their children mankind as we know it is descended.

וחם הוא אבי כנען, this is mentioned as background to the story of Noach and the, wine.

שלשה...נפצה, the root of the word is נפץ, an intransitive verb appearing also in Samuel I 13,11 כי נפץ העם מעלי, “the people were leaving me.” The word is used in this sense also in respect of the people dispersing over the earth on the occasion of the tower of Babylon and its collapse.

ויחל נח איש האדמה, we had already pointed out in 5,29 that Noach was a farmer and excelled in this vocation. Now, after the deluge, he acquired additional expertise in combining different strains of grapes and making wine out of the grapes. Up until this time people had used grapes only as a fruit to eat, and had not learned how to make intoxicating wine. When the Torah writes ויחל ויטע, this means that he began by planting grapes and ended by making wine. The expression ויחל is usually associated with the first stage תחלה, in a process requiring several stages. Alternately, the word ויחל is used in the same sense as in Samuel I 14,35 החל לבנות מזבח, “it was the first altar which he (Saul) established” Or, the meaning of the word ויחל may be similar to Joshua 3,7 אחל גדלך, “I will establish your greatness.” and similar to Genesis 10,8 הוא החל להיות גבור, “he was the first to become a hero, a warrior.” Or, the word simply means “he began with this work of farming, as part of which he planted a vineyard.” The line may simply mean that Noach began to plant a vineyard, [in which case we gain the impression that this was his major concern at this time. Ed.] What leads to all these explanations is the repetition of two verbs in close succession ויחל ...ויטע, without the Torah telling us what Noach had done. We have such a construction in Genesis 28,10 ויצא יעקב מבאר שבע וילך חרנה, “Yaakov left Beer Shevah heading towards Charan,” where we are also forced to understand the second verb וילך as meaning ללכת, to go. This story has to be understood as portraying two separate subjects. First we have to remember that Canaan, Cham’s son and his offspring were a cursed tribe, cursed by Noach, that is. We observe throughout the Book of Genesis how careful our ancestors were not to intermarry with members of such a cursed part of mankind. Avraham not only went out of his way to forbid Eliezer to take a wife from such people for his son Yitzchok (Genesis 24,3) but Yitzchok and Rivkah both warned Yaakov against such liaisons (Genesis 28,1). The Torah introduces a story showing how Canaan was even worse than his father Cham, so that the Torah makes a point of calling Cham “the father of Canaan,” [although he was the youngest of his four sons. (10,6) G’d had foreseen already that the offspring of Canaan would be totally corrupt, depraved. This is why He had encouraged Noach to curse his own grandson. (compare our comment on verse 8 on the wording of G’d’s address to Noach) Seeing that Noach was a prophet, his curse came true. Another aspect of this story is to warn anyone drinking wine not to overindulge, as this will impair the functioning of his brain, that which separates him from the animals. Solomon in Proverbs 23,2 is extremely critical of people who drink to excess. Also the prophets, (Isaiah 5,22; 28,1, and Amos 6,6) are very outspoken about the detrimental effects of drinking too much intoxicating wine. If the first human being ever to drink wine, i.e. Noach, became so drunk that he was unaware that he had disrobed himself, this serves as a warning to all of his descendants to be very careful in the manner in which the treat such intoxicating drink.

וישת מן היין וישכר, he drank without setting himself a limit until in the end he became drunk and disgraced himself.

ויתגל, by himself, unaided.

בתוך אהלו, the letter ה at the end of אהלה, where we would expect the letter ו for the masculine ending “his,” is interpreted (and quoted by Rashi) as an allusion to the ten tribes who have been referred to as אהלה in Amos 6,6, and whose exile has been attributed to their excessive drinking of strong wine both in Isaiah 28,1 and Amos 6,6). From a grammatical perspective, the construction here is not really so unusual

וירא, by feasting his eyes on his father’s nudity, Cham showed that he was the father of Canaan, i.e. that his son already had inherited a genetic flaw. The additional impropriety he committed was that he told his brothers about it, instead of first covering his father’s nudity.

ויקח שם ויפת, this formulation is similar to ויבא משה ואהרון in Exodus 6,10, where it describes the promptness and dedication of Moses and Aaron. Here two of the brothers not only covered their father’s private parts, but made sure that he was completely covered.

ויקץ נח, drunkenness makes a person as insensitive to what goes on around him as does sleep. Therefore, the Torah describes his becoming sober as “waking up.”

ויקץ, the reason why this is spelled with a single letter י so that the letter י which is part of the root is missing, is because this was not a true “awakening:” from sleep. [The fact is that in all the Torah scrolls nowadays the word is spelled with two letters י, so that there is no need to justify a “missing” letter, seeing it is not missing. Ed.]

אשר עשה לו בנו הקטן, if we were to understand these words as referring to what Cham had done, we would have to understand the word הקטן as “the inferior one.” We have explained already on 5,32 as well as on 6,10 that Cham was not the youngest of Noach’s sons as he was never mentioned last in the list of Noach’s sons. If what he did was to only tell his brothers about his father’s nakedness instead of first covering up his private parts, why did Noach cause Canaan, Cham’s son, instead of Cham himself? He foresaw in prophetic vision that both Cham and his offspring would forever be evil people. Actually, he could not effectively curse Cham, as G’d had already blessed him. (compare verse 1 in our chapter) Our sages (Bereshit Rabbah 36,7) therefore say that “Cham saw and Canaan was cursed,” the reason being that once G’d has blessed someone, man cannot annul G’d’s blessing. Other sages are of the opinion that Canaan castrated Noach, and that the words בנו הקטן refer to Canaan, seeing that he was the youngest of Cham’s sons. There is nothing unusual in a grandson being referred to as a “son.”

ויאמר ארור כנען, he cursed Canaan by invoking his prophetic vision, so that his curse would take lasting effect. All he patriarchs were extremely careful not to marry women descended from these cursed tribes. Avraham had already warned Eliezer his servant, against taking a wife from these tribes for Yitzchok, and so had Yitzchok as well as Rivkah expressed their opposition to such liaisons.

עבד עבדים, even his brothers would be slaves too; but he, Canaan, would be a slave even to them.

ויאמר ברוך ה' אלוקי שם, Noach said this as a prophecy. He used the most holy attribute of G’d in conjunction with the regularly mentioned attribute of G’d when blessing in His name. The reason he did this was that he foresaw in his vision that the descendants of Shem would serve G’d in His capacity as the “Lord, the Eternal,” i.e. as Hashem. When we recite our major prayers we always combine mention of these two attributes of G’d; Noach foresaw this already. We encounter this combination in connection with the Jewish people, the descendants of Shem for the first time in Exodus 3,6. G’d has described Himself as being especially אלוקי ישראל, the G’d of Israel. (Exodus 5,1)

ויהי כנען עבד למו, Canaan is to be a servant to the descendants of Shem.

יפת אלוקים, this expression is appropriately translated as “may He expand,” the root of the word יפת being פתח, an opening. It is in the transitive mode, as for instance Isaiah 41,2 ומלכים ירד, from the root רדה “to rule.” Noach prays that Yaphet’s share of the earth will be enlarged. Even though Noach promises quantity to Yaphet, he reserves quality for Shem, saying that G’d will make His home in the portion of the earth allocated to Shem’s descendants. (see Exodus 29,45) Moses also specifically prays for a renewal of this blessing after the sin of the golden calf in Exodus 33,16) when he pleads for the Jewish people to enjoy this distinction.

ויהי כנען עבד למו, also to the descendants of Yaphet.

ויחי נח, the principal reason why the Torah lists the ages of these antediluvian people is only to enable us to count back to when human history started with the creation of Adam. All such basic historical data are provided both in the Torah and in the Books of the prophets.