Noach (parsha) God would remember God's covenant and the waters would never again flood to destroy all flesh. The fifth reading (, "aliyah") and the first open portion (, "petuchah") end here. In the sixth reading (, "aliyah"), Noah became the first to plant a vineyard, and he drank himself drunk, and was uncovered within his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father's nakedness and told his two brothers. Shem and Japheth placed a cloth against both their backs and, walking backward, covered their father, without seeing their father's nakedness. When Noah woke up and learned what Ham had done
Curse of Ham and Phut the Libyans. In medieval Christian exegesis, Ham's sin was regarded as laughter (for mocking his father and doing nothing to rectify his condition). Elsewhere in Medieval Europe, the "Curse of Ham" also became used as a justification for serfdom. Honorius Augustodunensis (c. 1100) was the first recorded to propose a caste system associating Ham with serfdom, writing that serfs were descended from Ham, nobles from Japheth, and free men from Shem. However, he also followed the interpretation of 1 Corinthians 7:21 by Ambrosiaster (late 4th century), which held that as servants in the temporal world, these "Hamites" were