Noach (parsha) to him, he cursed Ham's son Canaan to become the lowest of slaves to Japheth and Shem, prayed that God enlarge Japheth, and blessed the God of Shem. Noah lived to the age of 950 and then died. The second open portion (, "petuchah") ends here. As the reading continues, chapter sets forth the descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, from whom the nations branched out over the earth after the Flood. Among Japheth's descendants were the maritime nations. Ham's son Cush had a son named Nimrod, who became the first man of might on earth, a mighty hunter, king
Shem-Tob ben Isaac of Tortosa the four seasons of the year. According to the superstitions of his time, he believed in the influence of the planets on man; and accordingly an entire treatise deals with astrology. His translation was undertaken with the view of spreading medical science among the Jews, so that they might not be dependent on Christian physicians (comp. 'Ab. Zarah ii.2). The translation is not literal; and in this Shem-Ṭob departed from the method of the earlier translators. As to the various names of diseases and medicaments, Shem-Ṭob employs all that he could find in the Bible and in Talmudic literature. Others