Genèse 9:20

And Noah began to be a man working in the earth. And he found a vine which the river had brought away from the garden of Eden; and he planted it in a vineyard, and it flourished in a day; and its grapes became ripe, and he pressed them out.

‘ISH’ (A MAN) OF THE GROUND. Rashi explained it as “the master [owner or lord] of the ground. This is similar to the expression, ‘ish’ (the man) of Naomi,” [which means the master of Naomi]. But this is not so. ‘Ish’ Naomi is an expression of the marital state, just as: ‘ish ve’ishto’ (a man and his wife). Others have said that it means “the outstanding one of the earth, and its leader,” and they brought proof from similar verses: Gideon the son of Joash, ‘ish’ (a man) of Israel, [meaning a chief of Israel]; Both ye sons of ‘adam’ and ye son of ‘ish;’ Art thou not ‘ish’ (a man)? And who is like to thee in Israel? And there are many other similar verses according to their opinion.
In my opinion, Gideon the son of Joash ‘ish’ of Israel, refers to his genealogy, i.e., that he was an Israelite. Art thou not a man? means that “there is no one like you in Israel.” Similarly, strengthen yourselves, and be men,, 4:9. means that they should not be weak like women. Both ye sons of ‘adam’ and ye sons of ‘ish,’ [means “both ye low-born and] ye men of higher station.” However, a man of the ground is like the men of the city, since Noah lived all over the earth and never built a city or country to which he should relate himself. Similarly, a man of the field, 25:27. means one who constantly stayed there. In the Mishnah we find: “Yosei ben Yoezer a man of Tzreidah, and Yosei ben Yochanan a man of Jerusalem.”
[It may be that a man of the ground means] that he was determined to work the ground, to sow and to plant, because he found the earth had been laid waste, for whoever dedicates himself to a certain purpose is so called, [i.e., ish of that purpose]. The men of the city means those that dwell in it. The men of David are his servants, and a man of G-d is one who is dedicated to His service. And so the Rabbis have said in Bereshith Rabbah: “A man of the ground [is so called just] as the castle guard is called by the name of the castle.” And the Rabbis also said, 36:5. that Noah had a passion for agriculture. Thus [the word ish is here used to signify] a relationship.
The meaning of the word vayachel (and he began) is that he commenced the planting of vineyards. The preceding men had planted single vines, but Noah began to plant many rows of vines, which together comprise a vineyard. On account of his desire for wine, he did not plant the vine singly as other trees; rather, he made a vineyard.

ויחל נח, he profaned himself, began to engage in unseemly activities. As a consequence, some of the results were negative. Our story illustrates how a seemingly minor deviation from accepted norms will ultimately result in major deviations from acceptable conduct. A case in point is found in Numbers 25,1 where the Israelites began by indulging in sexual permissiveness with the daughters of Moav, only to end up in worshipping their deities, and 24,000 Israelites being killed by a plague sent by G’d. Interestingly, that chapter also began with the word ויחל, (profaning oneself).

ויחל נח איש האדמה, we had already pointed out in 5,29 that Noach was a farmer and excelled in this vocation. Now, after the deluge, he acquired additional expertise in combining different strains of grapes and making wine out of the grapes. Up until this time people had used grapes only as a fruit to eat, and had not learned how to make intoxicating wine. When the Torah writes ויחל ויטע, this means that he began by planting grapes and ended by making wine. The expression ויחל is usually associated with the first stage תחלה, in a process requiring several stages. Alternately, the word ויחל is used in the same sense as in Samuel I 14,35 החל לבנות מזבח, “it was the first altar which he (Saul) established” Or, the meaning of the word ויחל may be similar to Joshua 3,7 אחל גדלך, “I will establish your greatness.” and similar to Genesis 10,8 הוא החל להיות גבור, “he was the first to become a hero, a warrior.” Or, the word simply means “he began with this work of farming, as part of which he planted a vineyard.” The line may simply mean that Noach began to plant a vineyard, [in which case we gain the impression that this was his major concern at this time. Ed.] What leads to all these explanations is the repetition of two verbs in close succession ויחל ...ויטע, without the Torah telling us what Noach had done. We have such a construction in Genesis 28,10 ויצא יעקב מבאר שבע וילך חרנה, “Yaakov left Beer Shevah heading towards Charan,” where we are also forced to understand the second verb וילך as meaning ללכת, to go. This story has to be understood as portraying two separate subjects. First we have to remember that Canaan, Cham’s son and his offspring were a cursed tribe, cursed by Noach, that is. We observe throughout the Book of Genesis how careful our ancestors were not to intermarry with members of such a cursed part of mankind. Avraham not only went out of his way to forbid Eliezer to take a wife from such people for his son Yitzchok (Genesis 24,3) but Yitzchok and Rivkah both warned Yaakov against such liaisons (Genesis 28,1). The Torah introduces a story showing how Canaan was even worse than his father Cham, so that the Torah makes a point of calling Cham “the father of Canaan,” [although he was the youngest of his four sons. (10,6) G’d had foreseen already that the offspring of Canaan would be totally corrupt, depraved. This is why He had encouraged Noach to curse his own grandson. (compare our comment on verse 8 on the wording of G’d’s address to Noach) Seeing that Noach was a prophet, his curse came true. Another aspect of this story is to warn anyone drinking wine not to overindulge, as this will impair the functioning of his brain, that which separates him from the animals. Solomon in Proverbs 23,2 is extremely critical of people who drink to excess. Also the prophets, (Isaiah 5,22; 28,1, and Amos 6,6) are very outspoken about the detrimental effects of drinking too much intoxicating wine. If the first human being ever to drink wine, i.e. Noach, became so drunk that he was unaware that he had disrobed himself, this serves as a warning to all of his descendants to be very careful in the manner in which the treat such intoxicating drink.