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A Community Supports the Perfection of the Individual - Parashat Noach 5777 - November 4, 2016

In this week’s parasha, the Torah presents the story of the dor haflaga – the Generation of the Division – what is known colloquially as the story of the Tower of Bavel.

Approximately 400 years after the flood, families began to settle in one locale. These families shared a common language, culture and outlook and decided to become more industrially advanced. The Torah tells us, “they then decided to build a city and a tower with its top in the heavens and to make for themselves a name lest they become dispersed across the whole earth.” The Torah continues and tells us that Hashem descended to see the city and the tower. Upon seeing that they had one culture and had decided to construct this tower, Hashem confuses their language and causes them to become spread across the whole earth.


Apparently, Hashem punished this generation. At first glance, however, it is unclear what the people did wrong. On the contrary, this generation seems to have acted quite rationally. Upon settling in a new land, they quickly created industry instead of complete relying on the natural world and they built a strong city with a tower. Furthermore, the Torah implies that part of their sin was that they had one shared outlook – one community. It is difficult to understand the problem with this outlook. Indeed, the Torah supports the idea of shared perspective at the expense of individuality. One of the 613 mitzvot is the mitzvah of lo titgodedu – communities are enjoined from dividing into agudot agudot – several sub-communities. Specifically, a community may not have two courts – this one deciding halacha one way for the community and another one deciding halacha differently for the same community. Based on these considerations, it is difficult to understand what this generation did improperly.


One approach taken by our rabbis to these questions is that of Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch. 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”. According to Rabbi Hirsch, this phrase indicates that there was nothing inherently wrong with industrialization and cities and towers - the sin of this generation lay in their motives and not in their actions.


Dor haflaga created and strengthened their community for an arrogant purpose – an exercise in self-aggrandizement. The Torah expressly indicates the motivation of this generation – na’aseh lanu shem – to make a name for their community. The Torah further reveals their motive in telling us that the generation said, “lest we become dispersed over the entire earth.” A community that is concerned with the welfare of its members would say, “Lest we become weak and hurt the potential of our members to become more perfected.” Instead the generation of the Tower of Babel was only concerned with ceasing to be a community – they prioritized the welfare of the community over and above all else.


According to Rabbi Hirsch, the Torah teaches us here that a community is a vehicle to support the pursuit of perfection, justice and morality of each of the community’s individual members. The fundamental purpose of a community is to help each individual member positively shape his or her relationship with the Almighty. The sin and punishment of the generation of the flood teaches us that a community must center itself around the guiding principle of lifting up the individuals who make up the community – or it is better off not existing.

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