“Ḥam, father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside” (Genesis 9:22). “Ḥam, father of Canaan, saw [and told [vayaged]]” – he said it to them and spoke persuasively to them;28Vayaged is interpreted in its Aramaic sense, of causing something to move forward, in this case, Ham’s brothers’ opinions. he said to them: Adam the first man had [only] two sons and one of them arose and killed the other.
This one [Noah] has three sons and he seeks to make them four?29Noah sought to engage in marital relations (see section 4). He said it to them and spoke persuasively to them. Rabbi Yaakov bar Zavdi said: What is the reason that a slave is liberated by [losing] a tooth or an eye?30If one strikes his slave and causes the loss of an eye or a tooth, he must free the slave (Exodus 21:27). It is from here: “He saw” and “he told.”31Canaan, Ḥam’s son, the archetypical slave (see Genesis 9:25), saw with his eyes and told with his teeth, which are instrumental in producing speech.