בס”ד

Parashat Noach – What do you see when you see?

This week’s reading tells the story of Noach after the Flood. He got drunk and one of his sons, Cham, decided to disgrace him. The other two sons, upon hearing what happened to their father, covered him. A timeless lesson on seeing bad behavior on others.

Baed on Likutei Sichot, vol. 10, p. 24.

The Foundations of Seeing Good: A Lesson from Noah’s Sons

This week’s Torah reading is called Noah, named after the main character of the story of the Flood. After the Flood, there’s a very interesting episode involving the three children of Noah — Yefet, Shem, and Cham.

The Torah says that when Noah left the ark after the Flood, he planted a vineyard. He produced wine, drank it, and became drunk within his tent. Cham, the third son of Noah, saw his father drunk and in a disgraceful state. There are two interpretations of what exactly happened:

In any case, he left his father in disgrace inside the tent. When he left, he told his two brothers, “Hey, go look what Dad is doing!”

Shem and Yefet, the other two sons, responded differently. The Torah says that they took a blanket, walked backwards, and covered their father. They deliberately kept their faces turned backward so they would not see their father’s nakedness.

The Torah explicitly adds, “the nakedness of their father they did not see.”

When Noah woke up and realized what had happened to him, he blessed Shem and Yefet and cursed Cham and his descendants.

Why Does the Torah Emphasize “They Did Not See”?

A simple question arises: Why does the Torah say, “they did not see the nakedness of their father”?


If they were walking backwards, their faces turned away, of course they didn’t see it! Why does the Torah need to add this detail?

To understand this, we can look at a teaching from the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of the Chassidic movement — not directly related to this story, but deeply illuminating for it.

The Mirror of the Soul

The Baal Shem Tov teaches that when a person sees something bad in someone else — an evil behavior, a moral flaw, or some wrongdoing — this is a reflection of something within themselves. It is like looking in a mirror:

“If the face you see reflected in the mirror is dirty, it’s because your own face is dirty. If it’s clean, it’s because your face is clean.”

The other person is, in a sense, your mirror.

But why should that be true? What proof is there that if I see something bad in another person, it must mean that I have it in me too? Maybe that person really is just bad — and I’m not.

The answer is that people naturally love themselves and therefore tend not to see their own faults. So G-d, in His mercy, arranged a kind of mirror system in the world: you see your own faults reflected in others. That way, when you notice a negative trait in someone else, it gives you the opportunity to look inward and recognize that same tendency — perhaps in a subtler or hidden form — within yourself.

Two Ways of Seeing

However, there’s more nuance here. Sometimes you might see someone doing something wrong not because you share their flaw, but because you’re meant to help them.

There are two ways to see another person’s wrongdoing:

  1. Constructively: You see the situation as something G-d has shown you for a purpose. You think, “What can I do to help this person improve their ways?”
  2. Judgmentally: You see the person and think, “What an animal! What an evil person!”

If your attitude is the first — focusing on how to help — then it’s not proof that you share that evil. You saw it in order to help correct it.

But if your reaction is the second — focusing on how bad the other person is — that’s a sign that the flaw exists in you. You’re judging it outwardly because you can’t bear to see it within yourself. G-d shows it to you in someone else as a mirror, to awaken you to your own imperfection.

Returning to Noah’s Sons

Now we can understand the story of Shem, Yefet, and Cham.

When Cham saw his father’s disgrace, he focused on the shame and the moral failure of his father. He was obsessed with the bad behavior he witnessed. That focus on the evil led him to commit an even greater sin — whether it was castration or rape — and to expose his father’s shame to others.

But Shem and Yefet were different. They did not want to see — not physically and not spiritually — the disgrace of their father. They walked backwards, their faces turned away, to avoid seeing the nakedness.

And the Torah adds: “The nakedness of their father they did not see.”
This teaches that not only physically, but also spiritually, they refused to focus on the evil or the shame. Their concern was only: “What can we do to restore dignity and cover our father’s shame?”

A Timeless Lesson

This story contains a timeless lesson for every human being.
When you see someone else doing wrong — what do you see?

Do you see an opportunity to help?
Or do you see a reason to judge and condemn?

The choice reveals your inner world.

If you respond with compassion and the desire to build — you are like Shem and Yefet.
If you respond with judgment and mockery — you are like Cham.

Every encounter becomes a mirror, and how you choose to see others reflects who you truly are.

“When you see somebody else,” the Baal Shem Tov would say,
“you are really seeing yourself.”

Talk from Rabbi Tuvia Serber


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