Historical race concepts Classical ideas with the notion that humanity as a whole was descended from Shem, Ham and Japheth, the three sons of Noah, producing distinct Semitic (Asiatic), Hamitic (African), and Japhetic (Indo-European) peoples. This theory dates back to the Babylonian "Talmud", which states, "the descendants of Ham are cursed by being black, and [it] depicts Ham as a sinful man and his progeny as degenerates." In the 9th century, Al-Jahiz, an Afro-Arab Islamic philosopher, attempted to explain the origins of different human skin colors, particularly black skin, which he believed to be the result of the environment. He cited a stony
Yoel Baal Shem Yoel Baal Shem Yoel Baal Shem () was an Orthodox Jewish scholar of Halacha and Kabbalah who lived in Zamość (; Yiddish: Zamoshtsh) during the 17th century. He became renowned as a Baal Shem (lit; Master of [Divine] Names) for performing miracles, commanding demons and authoring Kabalistic amulets. Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (1880–1950) writes in his memoirs Yoel married before the age of 20 and started learning Kabbalah. Upon a dream, Yisrael Yosef sent his son Yoel to Prague to learn kabbalah from Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem. Yoel became one of the closest students of Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem who