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Why does the Torah (תורה) preserve details of both Cham's crimes - castration and sodomy - when only the castration explains Noach's curse on Canaan? The shiur connects this to a pattern where Hashem (ה׳) reveals that acts meant to destroy actually strengthen, like Egyptian oppression backfiring to increase Jewish births. Understanding Cham's dual crimes illuminates why evil strategies consistently fail in Jewish history.
The shiur begins with an analysis of Noach's story after the flood, focusing on the incident with his son Cham. Rabbi Zweig examines the Gemara (גמרא)'s dispute about what exactly Cham did to his father - one opinion holds he castrated him (sareso), while another maintains he sodomized him (ravo). The proof for castration comes from Noach's curse being directed specifically at Cham's fourth son Canaan, reflecting measure-for-measure punishment since Cham prevented Noach from having a fourth son. The proof for sodomy comes from a gezeira shava comparing the word "vayar" here to its usage regarding Shechem and Dinah. Rabbi Zweig poses a fundamental question: why does the Torah (תורה) need us to know both crimes? For the storyline, we only need to know about the castration to understand why the fourth son was cursed. Yet Hashem (ה׳) established a halacha (הלכה) l'Moshe miSinai - the gezeira shava - ensuring that every generation of Torah scholars would know about the additional sin of sodomy. This seems unnecessary information that doesn't advance our understanding or provide practical benefit.
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Sanhedrin 70a
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