Ziv Parashat Noah

Out of Babel

This parasha tells the story of the tower of Babel, just before the flood that marks the beginning of a new creation. Men of that time were afraid because of what had happened to the previous generation (a commentary explains that they had found the bones of the victims of the flood…). They decide to be united, and to build a tower whose summit would reach heaven. It will be the symbol of their power and autonomy. It is the wicked Nimrod, in his rebellion against God, who had suggested this to them. This project was based on latent violence, according to the Midrash : “If someone fell and died, nobody would pay attention. But if a single brick fell, they would sit and cry, saying: Woe to us! When shall we find another one to replace it?” And at the beginning of the narrative, it is said that the builders moved eastwards, in Hebrew they left “qedem”, a term that may be understood as “the one that was before”, namely, the Creator.

And He descended and confused their languages. They had to scatter and fill the earth… In the beginning, the world was created with ten words that had created life, while separating and giving names to the original chaos. No sooner was man created that he received the commandment to fill the surface of the Earth (Genesis 1:28). The building of the tower is the reverse of the movement of life in creation: instead of spreading horizontally over the earth, man is building vertically… He refuses to leave the place where he is living, to become a nomad. He refuses to be separated from the others, preferring to live in a world where everything is the same.

After Babel and the multiplication of tongues, men have to learn from each other. It is no longer possible to exchange without learning the language of the other. Only in this mutual attention will they be able to build peace. In Hebrew, the word for “violence” has the same root as the word for “mute”: it is the refusal to speak, or to listen, which creates violence. The words have the power to create and to make light. After the generation of Babel, the Creator will give once again ten words to the world, ten words of separation and creation. The “ten commandments” received by Moses at Mount Sinai separate what is permitted from what is forbidden. This distinction will allow the edification of a social life. And at the heart of those ten words, we find the commandment to worship the One God.

Abraham, the faithful servant, appears just after this story. He will listen to the word of God and put it into practice. He is leaves his country for an unknown destination. He accepts to be only a wanderer, and will live his life in a tent, and not in a tower. His posterity will be as the stars of the sky, as the sand near the sea, and will cover the whole surface of the earth. Shabbat shalom.