Noah’s Three Sons and the 3 Ways We Perceive Reality - Rabbi Ya’akov Asher Sinclair

Noah, Noah, had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Japheth. These three sons represent three ways we perceive the world. The most basic level is the level of Ham. Ham means hot in Hebrew. Ham represents the world as defined and delimited by what we can feel. The next level is the level of Japheth, Japheth. Japheth comes from the Hebrew word yofi, which means beauty. Beauty exists in the world of the intellect. [music] Japheth sees the world as defined and delimited by what I can perceive. [music] The highest level is the level of Shem. Shem means name. The name of something is its essence revealed to the outside. The mystical sources relate that God brought all the animals to Adam Harishon, the first man, to give them names. Adam intuited each animal's essence and named them accordingly. >> [music] >> And then Hashem asked Adam what his name was, and Adam replied, uttering the four-letter ineffable name, the Tetragrammaton, Yud-Kev-K, which we pronounce Hashem. Adam was able to perceive the ineffable name, which is the interface to that which [music] is truly beyond. The world of Shem, of name, says that the world is more than I can perceive. [music] We, the Jewish people, are the descendants of Shem. It is our mission to show the world that beyond the world you can feel, beyond the world you can see, [music] there's a world of essence that can be named, but always will remain beyond human perception. [music]