OCTOBER 22 • 2020 | 31
SPIRIT
Why Canaan?
T
he name Canaan
appears for the first
time in this story of the
degradation of Noah.
Canaan was not one of
his sons, but his grandson, a
son of Ham. The truth is that
mentioning Canaan
here seems totally out
of place and superflu-
ous. Noah becomes
drunk; his son Ham
does nothing to hide
his father’
s shame but
serves as talebearer,
reporting his father’
s
nakedness to his broth-
ers outside. Shem and
Japheth cover their
father to protect their
father’
s honor. Ham is
the villain; Shem and
Japheth are the heroes. Why
mention Canaan?
More to the point, Canaan
is a super-charged name;
after all, the Land of Canaan
is the Land of Israel, which
will ultimately be taken over
by Abraham and his progeny,
descendants of Shem. There
must be a special significance
to the mention of Canaan pre-
cisely at this biblical juncture,
just before the text records the
descendants of Noah and the
nations they generate.
In order to further under-
stand the biblical text and its
significance today, we must
take a look at the next time
the Land of Canaan appears
in the Bible, right at the end
of our Torah portion: “
And
Terah took his son Abram …
and they departed with them
… to set out for the Land of
Canaan; they arrived at Haran
and settled there.
”
It is curious that the text
tells us Abram’
s father meant
to go to the Land of Canaan
but never really arrived.
At the opening of the next
Torah portion, God appears
to Abram, commanding him
to “go away from your land,
your relatives and your father’
s
house [in Haran] to the land
that I will show you [the
Land of Canaan].
”
The Ramban suggests
that in mentioning
Canaan, the Bible is
setting the stage for an
Abrahamic takeover
of the Canaan, soon
to become the Land of
Abraham — Israel.
Canaan is pictured as
a special location, with
specific ethical require-
ments. Only those who
truly aspire to ethical
monotheism will be worthy of
making Canaan (Israel) their
eternal homeland. Canaan, the
grandson of Noah, forfeited
his right because, instead of
following in his grandfather’
s
paths of righteousness, he
chose to destroy his grand-
father’
s ability to pass these
values on to succeeding
generations. (Commentators
suggest Canaan castrated his
grandfather.) Abraham, unlike
Noah, succeeded in parenting
a grandson — Jacob-Israel —
dedicated to righteousness.
Herein may well be a
warning: The descendants of
Abraham will be privileged to
live in Israel only for as long as
they subscribe to such an eth-
ical lifestyle. Their return will
always be dependent on the
ethical quality of the daily lives
they lead.
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is chancellor
of Ohr Torah Stone and chief rabbi of
Efrat, Israel.
TORAH PORTION
Rabbi
Shlomo
Riskin
Parshat
Noach:
Genesis 6:9-
11:32; Isaiah
54:1-55:5.
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