Shem was a high priest, and he had the advantage of honor and blessing over his brothers (Zohar 1:117a).

The sacred books of Scripture may be written, in addition to Hebrew, only in Greek because it is written, "May God grant beauty to Japheth, and it will dwell in the tents of Shem” (Genesis 9:27). The beauty of Japheth, that is, the Greek language, shall be in the tents of Shem (Megillah 9b).

"Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s (Noah’s) nakedness and told his two brothers” (Genesis 9:22). Ham ridiculed his father’s nakedness (Lekach Tov, Bereishit 9).

It is not always true that the deeds of the righteous are duplicated by their offspring. Genesis 6:1 asserts: "Noah was a righteous man, perfect in his generations.” He begot Shem, Japheth, and Ham, who are remembered in a descending order of righteousness. From their loins came the seventy nations. Shem continues the Hebrew line; Japheth, the Greek peoples; Ham, the Ethiopians, Egyptians, and Canaanites. In the eyes of the Biblical text, last is most certainly least. Ham is cursed by Noah for mocking his father’s drunken stupor as well as his nakedness. His fate and the fate of his national successors is to serve as the lowliest of slaves.

Japheth has a much happier destiny. The rabbis of Late Antiquity were infatuated with the Greeks - both with their worldliness and their intellectual perspective. They were stopped from total cultural assimilation by one major, and insurmountable, distinction described succinctly by Arnold Toynbee: "The Greeks worshipped the holiness of beauty; the Jews worshipped the beauty of holiness.” Noah’s cursing of Ham is followed by his blessing of Shem and Japheth. Japheth, as his Hebraic name indicates, is blessed with beauty and sensitivity. This blessing takes root in ancient Greece and all that vibrant culture spawned. Shem’s blessing rests on the future of Israel and its performance of the commandments.

Ultimately, the Biblical text subjugates Japheth to Shem: "May God grant beauty to Japheth, and it will dwell in the tents of Shem” (Gen. 9:27). Japheth’s appreciation of beauty is deeply significant, but only if it is placed at the service of the spiritual truths represented by Shem. Seen alone, a life lived strictly in pursuit of the aesthetic diminishes man, makes him a victim of his passions, deifying himself instead of God on High. Thus it is the intent of the text to merge the characters and characteristics of Shem and Japheth. Shem’s blessing of holiness and awareness of the Divine Presence combine with Japheth’s intellectual and physical acuity: together, they are the perfection Noah envisioned in the new world; separate, they are the tragedy that afflicts all humanity. The paradigm remains today, sadly unfulfilled.