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By Rabbi Rami Pavolotzky,
B’nei Israel Congregation, Costa Rica

Translated by Inés Baum - Proofreading by Ellen Zindler

Upon the end of Parashat Noach, there appears the story popularly known as “The Tower of Babel”, which in classical Jewish literature is entitled Maaseh Dor haPlagah, or “the story of the generation of the dispersion”.

Although the divine will had been for the generation of Noah’s children to populate the earth (Bereshit 9:1), the generation of the Tower of Babel challenge God’s order and choose to stay together in the same place. There, they start building a great city with a large tower, “with its top in heaven”, thus wanting to conquer the space reserved for divinity (11:4). The city and its tower would be so imposing, that its advocates would become exceedingly famous, or in biblical terms, “would make themselves a name”. God, Who abhors pride and the search for self-exaltation through material power, “comes down” to the city, scatters the people throughout the earth and confounds their languages, putting a stop to the construction of both city and tower.

Professor Cassuto wrote an interesting academic commentary about this story on his classical “MeNoach ad Abraham”, “From Noah to Abraham”. He explains that, unlike other texts from the first chapters of Genesis, this story has no comparison in the literature of ancient Eastern world. Actually, it could never have had one, since according to Cassuto, this tale constitutes a satire of the culture of Israel’s neighboring nations, especially the Babylonians. Such peoples boasted of their monumental buildings, which reflected the pride typical of civilizations that transformed technique into an end in and of itself. In the biblical story, God proves that the height of a tower cannot cause it to reach the divinity, but rather He has to “come down” from His heights in order to see men’s works. God calls the city “Babel”, using the root of the Hebrew word “confound”, since human tongues were confused. Here as well, there is an ironic purpose, since in its original language, Babel means “gate of God”. That is, that those men who believed themselves to be so smart as to determine the place of residence of the divinity, were scattered among the face of the earth and had to learn that only God can choose His dwelling place.

Just nine verses of the Torah, which tell the story of the Tower of Babel, are enough to remind us of some of the most important values of being Jewish: the opposition to monumental works, when they are built with the only purpose of boasting; the value of life and human spirit above material matters; humbleness over pride; respect for God and for humankind; the vanity of human purposes, which seek power or fame instead of the common good; the application of technique when it is considered as an end in itself.

In every generation and in every society, colossal constructions are raised again, which put to the test our ability as Jews to distinguish those that are driven by a spirit of kindness and justice, from those founded on haughtiness and arrogance. Perhaps, reading and reflecting one more time on the text of the Tower of Babel can help is distinguish wisely.

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Forwarded by Rabbi Gustavo Kraselnik, from Kol Shearith Israel Congregation, Panama.
Translated by Inés Baum and proofread by Ellen Zindler, from B’nei Israel Congregation, Costa Rica.

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