The Tower of Babel

(א) וַֽיְהִ֥י כׇל־הָאָ֖רֶץ שָׂפָ֣ה אֶחָ֑ת וּדְבָרִ֖ים אֲחָדִֽים׃ (ב) וַֽיְהִ֖י בְּנׇסְעָ֣ם מִקֶּ֑דֶם וַֽיִּמְצְא֥וּ בִקְעָ֛ה בְּאֶ֥רֶץ שִׁנְעָ֖ר וַיֵּ֥שְׁבוּ שָֽׁם׃ (ג) וַיֹּאמְר֞וּ אִ֣ישׁ אֶל־רֵעֵ֗הוּ הָ֚בָה נִלְבְּנָ֣ה לְבֵנִ֔ים וְנִשְׂרְפָ֖ה לִשְׂרֵפָ֑ה וַתְּהִ֨י לָהֶ֤ם הַלְּבֵנָה֙ לְאָ֔בֶן וְהַ֣חֵמָ֔ר הָיָ֥ה לָהֶ֖ם לַחֹֽמֶר׃ (ד) וַיֹּאמְר֞וּ הָ֣בָה ׀ נִבְנֶה־לָּ֣נוּ עִ֗יר וּמִגְדָּל֙ וְרֹאשׁ֣וֹ בַשָּׁמַ֔יִם וְנַֽעֲשֶׂה־לָּ֖נוּ שֵׁ֑ם פֶּן־נָפ֖וּץ עַל־פְּנֵ֥י כׇל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃ (ה) וַיֵּ֣רֶד יְהֹוָ֔ה לִרְאֹ֥ת אֶת־הָעִ֖יר וְאֶת־הַמִּגְדָּ֑ל אֲשֶׁ֥ר בָּנ֖וּ בְּנֵ֥י הָאָדָֽם׃ (ו) וַיֹּ֣אמֶר יְהֹוָ֗ה הֵ֣ן עַ֤ם אֶחָד֙ וְשָׂפָ֤ה אַחַת֙ לְכֻלָּ֔ם וְזֶ֖ה הַחִלָּ֣ם לַעֲשׂ֑וֹת וְעַתָּה֙ לֹֽא־יִבָּצֵ֣ר מֵהֶ֔ם כֹּ֛ל אֲשֶׁ֥ר יָזְמ֖וּ לַֽעֲשֽׂוֹת׃ (ז) הָ֚בָה נֵֽרְדָ֔ה וְנָבְלָ֥ה שָׁ֖ם שְׂפָתָ֑ם אֲשֶׁר֙ לֹ֣א יִשְׁמְע֔וּ אִ֖ישׁ שְׂפַ֥ת רֵעֵֽהוּ׃ (ח) וַיָּ֨פֶץ יְהֹוָ֥ה אֹתָ֛ם מִשָּׁ֖ם עַל־פְּנֵ֣י כׇל־הָאָ֑רֶץ וַֽיַּחְדְּל֖וּ לִבְנֹ֥ת הָעִֽיר׃ (ט) עַל־כֵּ֞ן קָרָ֤א שְׁמָהּ֙ בָּבֶ֔ל כִּי־שָׁ֛ם בָּלַ֥ל יְהֹוָ֖ה שְׂפַ֣ת כׇּל־הָאָ֑רֶץ וּמִשָּׁם֙ הֱפִיצָ֣ם יְהֹוָ֔ה עַל־פְּנֵ֖י כׇּל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃ {פ}

Genesis 11:1-9

(1) Everyone on earth had the same language and the same words. (2) And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. (3) They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them hard.”—Brick served them as stone, and bitumen served them as mortar.— (4) And they said, “Come, let us build us a city, and a tower with its top in the sky, to make a name for ourselves; else we shall be scattered all over the world.” (5) יהוה came down to look at the city and tower that humanity had built, (6) and יהוה said, “If, as one people with one language for all, this is how they have begun to act, then nothing that they may propose to do will be out of their reach. (7) Let us, then, go down and confound their speech there, so that they shall not understand one another’s speech.” (8) Thus יהוה scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. (9) That is why it was called Babel, because there יהוה confounded the speech of the whole earth; and from there יהוה scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

The Tower of Babel is a story about a time on Earth when every person spoke the same language and had the same words. After traveling to a valley in the land of Shinar, these people decided to establish a city and build a tower in the center that would be able to reach the sky/heaven. God discovers their plan and comes to realize that if the entire planet were able to understand each other and speak the same language, nothing they could try would be out of reach. Therefore, Hashem scattered them all over the world and made it so everyone would speak different languages.

Questions about the Tower of Babel:
1. Why was it so important to the people that they make a name for themselves? (11:4)
2. What else could the people have accomplished if God had decided to let them continue speaking the same language? (11:6)
3. Why did Hashem scatter the people and give them different languages? Wouldn't one have been enough? (11:8)
4. Why does the first verse say that they spoke the same language and used the same words? Doesn't one imply the other? (11:1/difficulty)
5. Why did God give them all the same language to begin with? After all, Hashem is omniscient and knew it would come to the point where they would have to be scattered. (11:1/difficulty)

אור החיים על בראשית י״א:א׳

(א) ויהי כל הארץ שפה אחת וגו' יש לתת לב לתור בענין דור הפלגה מה היא דעתם בבנות העיר והמגדל, שאם טעמם הוא בפרט מפרטי הכפירה לא נודע אופן הכפירה, גם לא היה ה' מספיק להענישם בהפיץ אותם לבד, ועוד צריך לדעת אומרו לא יבצר מהם כי ח"ו כמעט יבא הטועה לטעות בה, ועוד מה הוא כוונת הכתוב שכתב לנו ענין בנין העיר בפרטים המגונים, והלא ארז"ל כי מרצון ה' היה שיתעסקו בבנין העולם:

Or HaChaim on Genesis 11:1

(1) ויהי כל הארץ שפה אחת. The whole earth had a single language. We must give some thought to the intent of the generation that built the Tower. What exactly did they mean to achieve by means of a city and a tower? If all they had in mind was to give expression to some aspect of heresy, how was that expressed by their building plans? If indeed their heresy was of a serious nature, their punishment, i.e. scattering them over the globe, seems an inadequate punishment. How would that punishment cure them of their heresy? The words ועתה לא יבצר מהם כל אשר יזמו לעשות, "Must not everything they are planning to do be withheld from them now?" are difficult. This line poses severe problems for a believer. Why did they say: "we will build a city for ourselves?" Who else was there to build a city for? Besides, did not G'd want mankind to construct a civilized universe? Surely He did not want a bunch of cave-dwellers?

In this commentary, Or HaChaim tries to decipher the real intent the people who built the tower had. He questions what did the people achieve from building the tower all the way to the heavens and if it was an act of heresy, how was simply scattering them and giving everyone new languages a reasonable punishment. Or HaChaim also questions why they said "we will build a city for ourselves." He wonders who else they could build a city for and why God would not want them to live in a civilized manner.

רד"ק על בראשית י״א:א׳

ובב"ר (ל"ח) לשם ע"ז נתכוונו, אמרו לא כל הימנו שיבחור לנו את העליונים באו ונעשה עמו מלחמה. (ד) זהו ומגדל וראשו בשמים, וזה אינו כמשמעו כי לא היו טפשים לעשות מלחמה ממש אלא המלחמה הזאת באמונה היתה לעבוד זולתו, וכיון שנתפזרו בטלה הסכמתם:

Radak on Genesis 11:1

According to Bereshit Rabbah 38;6, the plan to congregate and build the Tower was already idolatrous in its inception, their argument being that G’d cannot lay claim to heaven to assign only earth as the domain of man. They wanted to assert their independence from G’d’s control of their fates. [The language used in the Midrash is obviously not to be taken literally, i.e. ”conquest of heaven and placing a sword in the hand of a statue placed there by man,” but is a figure of speech describing the people’s urge to assert their sovereignty on earth. Ed.] (4) ומגדל וראשו בשמים, clearly this is a figure of speech, no one having been foolish enough to believe that it was possible to build such a structure.

Radak explains that the creation of the tower was idolatrous. He says that the people's point of building a tower that reached the heavens was a way for them to say that God can not be the only one who claims Heaven, and God also can not give humankind Earth only. Radak mentions that the people wanted to assert their independence from Hashem. He also explains that the people knew they could not actually build a structure reaching to the heavens and that it was a figure of speech.

ברכת אשר על התורה, בראשית י״א:א׳

(א) כל הפרשה כולה קשה: (א) לא נאמר כלל, למה נסעו ממקומם קדמה. (ב) לשם מה צריכים ללבנים (ומה עניין יש בפרטים על חומרי הבנייה). (ג) למה בקשו להישאר יחדיו ומה רע בזה. (ד) ולא פחות תמוה אפוא, למה הטריח ה' לרדת לראתם מקרוב. (ה) ניתן להסיק שבהתקבצות זו למקום אחד יש משום שלילה, בלא שיבואר אופיה של שלילה זו.

Birkat Asher on Torah, Genesis 11:1

The whole affair is difficult: (1) It is not said at all, why they traveled from their place of progress. (2) What [are bricks] needed for (and what interest there is in the details of the building materials)? (3) Why did they ask to stay together and what's wrong with it ?(4) And no less puzzling, then, why did God bother to come down to see them up close? (5) It can be concluded that in this gathering in one place there is negativity, without explaining the nature of this negativity.

Birkat Asher brings up more questions rather than answers. Some of these questions include why did the people want to stay together and why did God come to see the tower. We come to find these questions are rather difficult to answer considering the strangeness of the whole affair. Yet, Birkat Asher tries to explain that all of the events can be traced back to a negation, although there is no explanation for said negation.

Rabbi Isaiah Rothstein on Genesis 11:1 - 11:9
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/2014/10/23/a-call-for-diversity-the-tower-of-babel/
In the words of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (Germany, 19th century), “Mankind must be scattered, must distribute itself among all the different regions of earth in order that the most divergent and contrary faculties of the human mind may find in nature the needed opportunities of development, in order that experience become full and complete…” We learn here that the Torah does not only welcome diversity, but insists on it. Though we may have been scattered to the far ends of the earth, our ability to create our own borders, languages, and theological premises, has been the gift that allowed for civilization to thrive economically, culturally, and intellectually from Noah until now.

In this commentary, Rabbi Isaiah Rothstein elaborates on the commentary of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch about the Tower of Babel. According to Rabbi Hirsch, the human race had to be scattered by God because it gave us the opportunity to develop in unique and individual ways that would not have happened if we were all together, speaking the same language. Rabbi Rothstein explains that through this story, we can see that the Torah encourages diversity and that scattering humankind among different regions enabled us to form our own borders and languages. Also, he states that the dispersion of people around the world was a gift as it allowed us to form civilization and thrive as a species.

ספרי דברים מ״ג:ט׳

(ט) וכן אתה מוצא באנשי המגדל, שלא מרדו בהקב"ה אלא מתוך שביעה; שנא' (בראשית י״א:א׳-ב׳) ויהי כל הארץ שפה אחת ודברים אחדים, ויהי בנסעם מקדם וימצאו בקעה בארץ שנער וישבו שם. ואין ישיבה האמורה כאן אלא אכילה ושתייה, שנ' (שמות לב) וישב העם לאכול ושתה ויקומו לצחק - היא גרמה להם, שאמרו הבה נבנה לנו עיר ומגדל וראשו בשמים ונעשה לנו שם. מה נאמר בהם? (בראשית י״א:ד׳) ויפץ ה' אותם משם על פני האדמה.

Sifrei Devarim 43:9

(9) And thus do you find with the men of the tower (of Bavel), that they rebelled against the Holy One Blessed be He only out of satiety, as it is written (Ibid. 11:1-2) "And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they sat there." The "sitting" here refers to eating and drinking, as in (Shemoth 32:6) "And the people sat down to eat and drink, and they arose to 'play.'" This is what caused them to say (Bereshith, Ibid. 4) "Come, let us build for ourselves a city and a tower with its top in heaven, and let us make a name for ourselves." What is said of them? (Ibid. 8) "And the L-rd scattered them from there over the face of all the earth."

The Sifrei Devarim explains that the people rebelled against God out of satiety, the feeling of being satisfied or the desire to be satisfied. It tells us that when it says "they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they sat there," that the sitting refers to them sitting down to eat and drink. The Sifrei Devarim elaborates that they enjoyed that feeling of satisfaction they got from "sitting" and felt as though building a city and "a tower with its top in heaven" would provide them with the same satisfaction as they would be making a name for themselves. Therfore, God scattered them across the Earth because of their intentions in building the Tower of Babel.

From these specific commentaries, I think there are a couple of lessons that stand out for us teenagers. One lesson we can take from these commentaries is about the intent behind our actions. Although it seemed on the surface that there were no ill intentions in building the Tower of Babel, several different commentaries discuss how the reason behind building this tower was bad. Some of these reasons include asserting independence from Hashem and the desire for satisfaction. Either way, this can teach us that when we have the wrong intentions behind our actions, even if others don't know, Hashem does. Another lesson we can learn from these commentaries is the importance of independence to development. Rabbi Hirsch explains that it was necessary that the human race be split up to enable independent development for everyone. This can teach us about the benefits of independence and how following others' leads doesn't help us grow as a person.

Sophia Marton