May Japheth Dwell in the Tents of Shem

Another interpretation: "You prevented me from raising up a fourth son; therefore your fourth son is cursed. You prevented me from doing a thing that is done in darkness; therefore that man shall be ugly and blackened." Ham and the dog mated in the ark; therefore Ham came out blackened and the dog came out exposed in its mating. Rav Levi said: this is like one who minted his own coin within the king's tent. The king said, "I decree that his face be blackened and his coin be invalidated." "May God enlarge Japheth, and may He dwell in the tents of Shem" (Genesis 9:27). This is Cyrus, who decreed that the Temple be built; even so, "and may He dwell in the tents of Shem," for the Divine Presence rests only in the tents of Shem. Bar Kappara said: let words of Torah be spoken in the language of Japheth within the tents of Shem. Rabbi Yudan says: from here is the basis for translation [Targum] from the Torah, and so it says, "And they read in the book, in the Torah of God" (Nehemiah 8:8), this is the Scripture; "distinctly," this is the translation; "and gave the sense," these are the cantillation accents; "and they understood the reading," these are the verse divisions. Rabbi Huna ben Lulianus says: these are the rulings and proofs. The rabbis of Caesarea say: from here is the basis for the Masorah. Rabbi Zeira and Rabbi Chananel in the name of Rabbi: even a person as expert in the Torah as Ezra may not read from his memory and write it down. But it was taught: it once happened that Rabbi Meir was in Asia and there was no scroll of Esther there, and he read it from his memory and wrote it. There they say: he wrote two scrolls; he stored away the first and kept the second. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: even the scrolls were permitted to be written only in Greek, as it is said, "May God enlarge Japheth," the things of Japheth shall be in the tents of Shem. If so, Gomer and Magog also? Rather, this is what it says: the beauty of Japheth shall be in the tents of Shem.