Naomi Shemer (1930-2004), known as the "first lady of Israeli song and poetry," is considered by many to be Israel's greatest songwriter. A product of the Kibbutz movement and the Army Nahal musical troupe, Shemer wrote comedic and tragic songs about nearly every aspect of Israel's history, including several episodes from the Torah. Among them is her 1971 poem/song, "Shem, Ham, and Yefet," a modern take on the biblical story of Noah's three sons, which appears in this week's Torah portion, Parashat Noach.
Before the Flood, we are introduced to Noah's three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japeth (Genesis 6:10). After the Flood, Noah gets drunk and falls down naked in his tent. His youngest son, Ham, sees this nakedness and informs his elder brothers, who walk backwards to cover their father without seeing his nakedness. Noah wakes up from his hangover and curses Ham's son, Canaan, with intergenerational slavery: "Cursed be Canaan; the lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers" (Genesis 9:25).
This is the first time that the word "eved" (slave) ever appears in the Bible. Tragically, in the era of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, this verse was used by many, including prominent religious figures, to justify the enslavement of Black individuals and families. They argued that Ham's African descendants were destined to be enslaved. Without any textual basis, commentators read into the biblical story that Noah's three sons, Shem, Ham, and Yefet, were the ancestors of three distinct groups: Semites, Africans, and Europeans-and that Ham's descendants were therefore cursed with eternal slavery.
Into this sordid, shameful history strides Naomi Shemer with a socialist, poetic, and musical corrective:
Shem, Ham, and Yefet Nice to meet you, my name is Shem Who will clean the cowshed Take, for example Ham, a piano mover. Shem has work, too, thank God. Who is it passing Let me tell now about Yefet, too. This is how it goes all week long Ham and his wife sunbathe | שֵׁם חַם וְיֶפֶת - נָעִים מְאֹד שְׁמִי שֵׁם |
Shemer imagines Shem, Ham and Yefet as proletarian brothers with a common worker-status. Instead of black being a racial designation, Shemer's song makes it a descriptor of the kind of exhausting manual work (kol ha'avodah hakhi sheḥorah ume'ayefet)that all three brothers perform on a daily basis. Together, Shem, Ham, and Yefet work on a farm, mine, and schlepp. Ham hauls pianos; Yefet, whose name rhymes with "me'ayefet" (exhausting) and "zefet" (tar), builds and finishes roofs. Shem sweeps streets; if the streets appear clean, then Shem is "ashem" (guilty) of having cleaned them. This is the only mention of guilt, an explicitly ironic overturning of the racist tradition ascribing inter-generational guilt to Ham and his progeny.
The song is a light-hearted, comical, and ultimately hopeful rendering of life in a then-socialist State of Israel, where Jews from different corners of the world came together to build the state. Everyone does their work; even those performing manual tasks occupy an important place in the country. Everyone takes time off on Shabbat, with the rhyme between Yefet and "zefet" (tar) or "refet" (cowshed) giving way to rhymed descriptions of Sabbath leisure, with Ham's wife "mishtazefet" (sunbathing) and Yefet's wife "mitkayefet" (having a good time).
Performed by the legendary comic musical trio Hagashash ha-ḥiver, this song is an example of how modern Israeli artists continue to filter contemporary experience through the lens of the Torah. In this case, Shemer manages to turn a truly horrific story of the world-wide Flood, which culminates in world-wide racism and class strife, into a picture of a would-be egalitarian society with a healthy capacity for comic self-deprecation.
In the spirit of this song, may people come together in comity and cooperation, with the best democratic and human values in mind.
