Noach walked with God which was the source of his moral strength and his honesty. (See previous post.) In his naming of his sons, we see all of these attributes separately. This was Noach’s hope and direction for mankind:
שם – Name – Intellect and the potential for spiritual side of man to develop (we utilize our intellect by naming things. The same root letters means “there”, giving things their proper place). שם is the thinker. His task was to “walk with God” as his father Noach did. This would elevate thinking to spirituality.
חם – Heat – The sensual side of man. The task of חם was to exercise moral will (informed by an awareness of God), just as his father Noach did as indicated by his being a תמים.
יפת – Beauty – The aesthetic side of man. The task of יפת was to be guided by the ideal of goodness, and not by the ideal of beauty. To be a צדיק as was his father. (As explained in the previous post, moral purity sets the stage for honesty and goodness. GS)
- While a sense of aesthetics moves society to have common decency and to rise above coarse behavior, this is very subjective. Every society will have different standards (which are rooted in their consensus for how to achieve their common interests. צדקות goodness, however, means not looking at things from the perspective of one’s self interest but living by a higher standard of concern that everyone around should get what is their due. This can only be attained by a sense of morality GS)
(Contrast all of the above to what became of Kayin’s line which was a society of industry and culture without godliness. Lemech lamented how nothing was achieved in such a society. See 4:23-24. Here we are taught how God-consciousness is to permeate and uplift all aspects of life. GS)
Beraishis 6:10
pages 176-178
