Noach
Genesis 6:9 - 11:32
We know the content of this week’s Torah portion just by looking at the title: Noach. Yes, this is the week we read of the terrible flood, the pairs of animals, the ark, the dove, and the rainbow. What you can’t tell by reading the name of the portion is that there is much more in this week’s portion than just the story of Noah and his family.
The portion this week ends with another, only slightly less famous story: The Tower of Babel. The Torah tells us that, after the flood, people moved east and settled in the land of Shinar. They decided to build a city for themselves and a tower that reached up into the heavens. “Let’s make a name for ourselves,” they say to one another, “or we will be scattered all over the earth.” Seeing the city and the tower that they were building, God decides to do what the people had feared. God states, “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.” So, God, indeed, scatters them throughout the world and makes them speak different languages.
Abravanel, a 15th century commentator, explained that before they began building the tower, people had lived at peace with one another. But, as soon as they biegan building, they started to argue bitterly with one another. They disagreed over who would bake the bricks, who would carry them, and who would place them on the tower. Each one wanted credit for laying the first brick on a new level, or the design, or the color. The project of building caused jealousy and hate. They became more interested in competing for fame that cooperating for the good of the community.
Rabbi Benno Jacob, a modern biblical scholar, suggests that the tower failed because their goals were wrong. They mastered the art of brick making, but instead of using their new technology to improve living conditions in their city, to create housing for the poor, sick and aging they decided to use all their resources and efforts to build the highest tower ever.
The Italian Torah commentator Sforno had another explanation for the tower builders demise. He explains that the people’s goal was one religion for everyone, one point of view on the world, one accepted way of doing things. The tower believers feared difference of opinion and diversity of belief. According to Sforno, when God saw that the twer builders were crushing freedom of thought, it became necessary to intervene and scatter the people throughout the world.
We can see that the commentators found many explanations for God’s destruction of the Tower. The project resulted in jealousy and hate, misuse of technology, and disregard for individuality. Rabbi Harvey Fields asks, “Could it be that God actually saved humanity from catastrophe by destroying the tower and dispersing us, with different languages and traditions, to all corners of the earth?”
Perhaps the real message and lesson of this story has to do with helping us understand that our differences—whether they be in language, culture, or traditions - represent significant strengths and blessings for humanity.
Shabbat Shalom,
Cantor Korn
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