Walking Backward

After the Flood, Noach planted a vineyard, drank of its wine and lay uncovered inside his tent. His son Cham saw him and went out to tell his two brothers.

Shem did not wait to discuss it. The Torah says "Shem and Yefes took" a garment, but uses a word for "took" that speaks of one person, and Chazal explain that Shem moved first and Yefes followed his lead. They laid the cloth across both their shoulders and walked into the tent backward. The Torah adds that their faces were turned away, and the Midrash explains why it needs to say so: even when they came close and had to turn to cover him, they covered their faces with their hands, out of respect for their father.

When Noach woke and learned what had happened, he blessed them. "Blessed is Hashem, the G-d of Shem," he said.

Chazal teach that Hashem repaid each brother measure for measure. The descendants of Yefes would one day receive an honorable burial. Because Shem took the garment first, his children merited the tallis with its tzitzis, a garment that Jews wrap themselves in every morning. The Midrash adds that Shem's covering of his father was repaid in another way, generations later, when Chananya, Mishael and Azarya were thrown into the furnace still wearing their garments and came out alive.