This week’s parasha, Parashat Noach, describes the dor haflaga – the generation of the division – the story of the Tower of Bavel.
The Torah explains that approximately four hundred years after the flood, all of the families of the earth began to settle in one locale. These families shared a common language, culture and outlook and decided to become more industrially advanced.
The Torah writes, “They said one to another, ‘Come, let us make bricks and burn them in fire.’ And the brick served them as stone, and the bitumen served them as mortar. And they said, ‘Come let us build us a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed across the whole earth.’”
The Torah then tells us that Hashem, seeing that they had one culture and had decided to construct this tower, confuses their language – causing them to become spread across the whole earth. Hashem said, “Behold, they are one people with one language for all, and this they begin to do!”
From the way in which Hashem intervened, it seems that that the generation of the Tower of Bavel committed a sin. However, when reading this section in the Torah, it is not clear what they did wrong. On the contrary, by creating industry and building a strong city with a tower, the generation seems to have acted quite rationally. They appear to have been coping with the natural world.
Furthermore, the Torah implies that part of their sin was that they had one shared outlook – one community. Why is this a sinful attribute? Indeed, the Torah supports the idea of shared perspective at the expense of individuality. The Torah commands us, lo titgodedu – a community may not divide into agudot - sub-communities. Specifically, a community should not have two courts – this one deciding halacha one way for the community and another one deciding halacha differently for the same community. It is difficult to understand what this generation did improperly.
Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch suggests an approach to answering these questions. When reading this passage, we are struck by the fact that the Torah says that Hashem “descended” to see the city and the tower that the people had built. Hashem knows all – he has no need to “descend”!
“Descending” indicates that Hashem was “looking” more closely – He was judging motives. “Descending” indicates that there was nothing inherently wrong with industrialization and cities and towers. The sin of this generation lay in their intentions.
What motivated this generation?
The generation pronounced their intention – na’aseh lanu shem – let us make a name for our community.
The generation of the Tower of Bavel created and strengthened their community for an arrogant purpose. Building the tower was an exercise in communal self-aggrandizement. In fact, the Torah reveals their motive when it tells us that they said pen nafutz al peneh kol ha’aretz – lest we become dispersed over the entire earth.
A community that is concerned with the welfare of its individuals would say, “Lest we become weak and hurt the potential of our members to become more perfected.” Instead, they were afraid of not being a community – they prioritized the welfare of the community over and above all else.
Through the mitzva of lo titgodedu, the Torah teaches that a healthy community is very important – we are not permitted to not allow the community to devolve into warring sub-groups. However, the story of the generation of the Tower of Bavel teaches us that, in its essence, a community is a vehicle to strengthen each of its individual members. A healthy community bolsters each person’s relationship with the Almighty and each one’s pursuit of justice and morality. A healthy community centers itself around a guiding principle – a mission statement towards a worthy purpose – or it is better off not existing.
Each community struggles with the tension of balancing the needs of the group and the needs of its members. The tension is inherent. Community is critical and must be supported and not undermined. Simultaneously, every individual is important and the purpose of a community is to support individual growth and perfection. The Torah teaches that the challenge for a community is to maintain a healthy outlook – one that supports the growth of each of its members.
I am proud that our MHA-FYOS school community, in specific, and our Memphis Jewish Community, in general, is oriented towards supporting the development and growth of each of its individuals within the context of a healthy community. May Hashem bless our community with strength and vibrancy towards this worthy aim.
Comments
Post a Comment