The Alshich (commentator of late 16th century) explains this verse in Parashah Noah, that it refers to one who embarrasses another person. The Sages equate embarrassing someone with murder because when a person is humiliated and embarrassed his blood flow goes to his head and makes the person red in the face.
The verse concludes by saying “…for in the image of G-d He has made man.”
An attack on a person is an underlying attack on H”S.
Embarrassment causes much pain, because when you humiliate someone you lower their self worth and it makes him fail to see his true greatness and cause him to fall very low and not live up to his potential.
Sometimes people humiliate their kids or the spouse by telling them:”you are sloppy, you are slow, you are messy, you are lazy, etc.. All these negative connotations are humiliating, embarrassing and at the end the kid starts believing them and become that.
In Parashah Noah, The first thing Noah does when they leave the ark is he plants a vineyard and gets drunk. When his son Cham saw his father’s nakedness he humiliated him by performing indecent acts on his father and then went and told his brothers.
When Shem and Yefes heard this they took a blanket, walked backwards as not to see their father’s humiliation and covered him.
Because of this they were greatly blessed, while Cham was cursed.
The Torah is a book of Life, it teaches us human nature and what is the way to behave.
We should always be very careful of not making anyone red in the face, and if we come to see someone who is we should help them overcome it.
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