LET US GO DOWN AND

DISRUPT THEIR LANGUAGE SO THAT EACH WILL NOT UNDERSTAND HIS FELLOW'S LANGUAGE.

(Bereishit 11:7)

Dor HaPalagah [the Generation of the

Dispersal] – Ruthless Unity and Reforming Dissolution

Else we be scattered all over the world – One must

understand why they worried that some of their number might move to another

land; clearly, this is connected to the same words which they shared. Since

people differ in their opinions, they were concerned to keep people from

deserting their opinion and thinking differently. That is why they kept watch

that no one should leave their place of settlement, and he who turned away from

their same words would be sentenced to death by fire, as they did to our

Father Abraham. It becomes apparent that their same words became a

tyranny, and they decided to kill anyone who did not share their opinions.

(The NeTziV MiVelozhin's Ha'Amek Davar on Bereishit 11:4)

Will not understand – One asks for bricks and the other

brings mortar, the first assaults him and injures his brain.

(Rashi ad loc)

Let us go down – that is to say, I shall fix this matter

from its start to keep them from reaching the final evil. I shall disrupt their

language, so that one shall not understand his fellow's language, and they

shall enter into conflict with each other and separate from each other.

Will not understand [literally: will not hear] – [That

is to say,] They shall not understand,

and this [interpretation] does not deviate from the notion of hearing, since it

refers to hearing with one's heart.

(Rabbi YaShaR Reggio, ad loc)

The Origins

of the Nations

Amos Bardea

Parashat Noah constitutes the

boundary between ha'olam ha'nivrah [the created world] and ha'olam ha'hadash

of creation (human beings) and the world rebuilt upon its ruins. The Torah

describes the turning point following the flood in the end of chapter eight: So

winter, day and night shall not cease. Here begins

the world as we know it, a world that comports itself in accordance with the laws

of nature instilled into it following the flood. In the framework of that

world, human life is organized within national groups, also known as "peoples."

And these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem Ham and Yafet, and they begot children for themselves after the

flood (10:1). The Torah lists the

nations that came forth from each of the brothers, ending each account with similar

formulations: From these the island nations branched out by their lands – each

with its language – their clans and their nations (10:5). These are the descendants of Ham, according to

their clans and languages, by their lands and nations (10:20). These are the descendants of Shem according

to their clans and languages, by their lands, according to their nations (10:31).

Human national life arose from the lives of individuals.

Nationality is a prime factor that constitutes the kernel of primal identity

for most people; a person is born into a particular nation just as he is born

into a particular family. While secondary identities such as citizenship or

occupational position (referred to by sociologists as "status") may

be given formal definitions, the concepts of "nation" and "people"

are difficult to pin down. The definition of nation is slippery because it is

primary. Indeed, across the generations much philosophical and sociological

thought has been devoted to the definition of "nation" and "nationalism."

(Interestingly, this lack of formal definition makes it impossible for one to

switch nationalities the way that citizenship or religious affiliation can be

changed.) Various thinkers have tried to define "nation" in terms of

objective factors. Surprisingly, all of these factors appear in the verses quoted

above from chapter ten of Bereishit:

A. The ethnic

element or genetic origin: The nation is defined as a large extended family whose members bear a

shared genetic origin. Indeed, Classic Latin translated the Hebrew term am

("people") as gens. The verses I

have cited speak of the nations having branched out according to their clans,

or as Targum Onkelos has

it, le'zareit'hon (according to their seed).

Our father Jacob's family offers a good example of this. It grew and extended

until its members saw themselves as a people. The first time that the Torah

refers to the children of Jacob as a people occurs when they were still a

family of limited size. After Jacob left his father in law Laban

and before preparing for the encounter with his brother Esau, we read: Jacob

two camps (32:8).

B.

The territorial element: A people consolidate itself by living together in a specific territory

over time. A collection of families of varying ethnic origin can develop a

unifying national consciousness after living together in the same place for an

extended period of time. The cited verses introduce the territorial element

with the terms island nations and by their lands. RaMBaN explains: "The meaning of from these the

island nations branched out by their lands is that the children of Yafet were island dwellers and they dispersed, each of his

sons lived alone on a different island, and their lands were far from each

other."

C.

The linguistic element: A human group which possesses a spoken and written national language. The

linguistic element creates a national consciousness, even among people who lack

a common genetic origin, and even if they do not live in a single geographical

region. Our cited verses refer to the linguistic element with the words each

with its language and according to their languages. Language is not merely spoken language; it is an

expression of a culture built upon codes of behavior that are peculiar to a particular

nation.

D. The

political element: A nation consolidates around the political system it creates to

organize its life. For example: the American people is a nation of immigrants

which consolidated round the U.S. Constitution, a document based on the value

of liberty, which underpins the nation's political and civil life.

The story of the Dor HaPalagah [the Generation of the Dispersal] tells of a nationality

based on all these elements. Language: Everyone

on earth had the same language and the same words (11:1). Territory: As

they migrated from the east, they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there (11:2). Political might: And they said: "Come, let us build us a city,

shall be scattered all over the earth (11:4). God cancels the power

concentrated in their national consciousness by confusing their language and

dispersing the builders of the tower across the earth. Thus, He removes speech,

territory, and polity as constitutive elements of national power. Let us,

the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city (11:7-8).

Empirically speaking, sometimes the defining elements of nationality

and peoplehood are missing. There exist nations who

lack the objective elements (the Jewish People, for example),

while there are also groups of people who share all of these elements but who

have not formed unified nations. Recognition of this led to the development of

a subjective approach that does not base nationality only upon objective characteristics,

but rather takes into account the subjective feeling of belonging to a nation

as integral to the factors that make up national consciousness.

In the end of chapter eleven, the biblical

narrative turns to the figure of Abraham, the great man of faith, and to his

origins. Abraham discovers his Creator and sees himself as standing before Him

to serve Him. Already in the twelfth chapter of Bereishit,

with which the parasha Lekh

Lekha begins, Abraham is called upon to make the

first payment for his faith. Abraham is required to break away from the national

framework that was the prime core of his identity: And the Lord said to

land that I will show you" (12:1). Abraham

leaves the environment in which his personality was formed, the territory in

which he grew up, his family and birthplace, for the sake of an ideal which

would eventually found his descendants' nationality. The Israelites grew into a

nation out of their family origins; they changed from an extended family into a

people. It is an external factor which defines the Israelites as a national

body. In Shemot 1:9, Pharaoh speaks: And he said

to his people: "Look, the Israelite people are much too numerous for us."

The Israelite nation stands before the Egyptian nation, threatening it.

The Israelites leave Egypt as a national entity

founded upon common ethnicity. However, the goal of the exodus from Egypt was

the creation of a people that, as a nation formed upon earthly foundations,

would stand before God and accept His covenant, thus raising

up truth from the earth. A nation formed upon genetic foundations would change

the kernel of its national identity into a religious identity connected to the

covenant with God: Moses went and repeated to the people all the commands of

"All the things that the Lord has commanded we will do! (Shemot 24:3). The Israelites awaited

their entry into the land, in which they were required to form a national life

on the foundation of the divine covenant, a kingdom of priests and a holy

nation. Moses announces that the people have been founded by having stood

before God and having accepted His covenant: Moses and the Levitical Priests spoke to all of Israel saying: "Silence!

Hear, O Israel! Today you have become the people of the Lord your God! (Devarim 27:9). Thus, religion and

nation become two sides of the same coin; a Jew must belong to the Jewish

religion, and someone who subscribes to the Jewish religion must belong to the

Jewish People. Religion becomes the defining element of the nation, and all

other elements become inessential accessories, as Rabbi Saadia

Gaon said, "Our nation is a nation only because

of its Torahs" (the Written and the Oral Torahs).

Following the entry to the land, the Kingdom of Israel was established

there. Despite his Moabite blood, David was chosen to reign over the people, and

it was even promised that King Messiah would be his descendant. After the

destructions of the commonwealths, the Jewish People was dispersed in foreign

lands, there losing its ethnic, territorial, linguistic, and political

elements, but it survived as an independent national entity on a religious

basis. The modern era saw attempts to place under doubt the unbreakable bond of

the people defined as a religion, beginning with the period of the emancipation

in the 18^th and 19^th centuries up to the early 20^th

century. On the one hand, there was an attempt to dismiss national identity and

make Judaism into a purely religious matter (Moses Mendelssohn in his book Jerusalem,

assimilationist supporters of the documentary

hypothesis, and the "reform rabbis."). On the other hand, in the

period of national awakening there was an attempt to base Jewishness

on the nation as the central element of Jewish identity. An additional attempt

was made by the ideologues of secular Zionism to change the core of Jewish

identity from a religious identity to a political-civil identity. What factor

unites the Jews of our day, joining together the Polish Jew with the Ethiopian

Jew or with the Jew who has just arrived from South America?

The message relayed by the description of the evolution

of the developing national consciousness as it moves from earthly foundations

to the religious foundation of a people that stood before God well-explains the

reason why parashat Noah takes trouble to deal with

the origins of the nations.

Dr. Amos Bardea is a scientist and thinker.

Two of each shall come to you to stay alive – He informed him that

they would come, two of each, on their own; he would not have to hunt them in

the mountains and on the islands. Then he would later bring them into the ark. And

He specified that they come male and female. This was the general rule. Afterwards,

He commanded that Noah take of every clean animal seven of each; in this case

He did not say that they would come on their own, but that Noah should take

them, for those who come to be saved and to preserve their seed come on their

own, but He did not decree that those who come in order to be offered as sacrifices

come on their own to be slaughtered, but Noah took them, for the command of seven

of each was so that Noah be able to use them for sacrifices.

(RaMBaN,

Bereishit 6:20)

Noah…

went into the ark because of the waters of the Flood – Rabbi Yohanan said: Noah lacked perfect faith, for had the waters

not reached his ankles; he would not have entered the ark.

Two of each came to Noah – Falsehood came and wanted to enter. Noah said to him: You

may not enter, unless you wed a spouse. Falsehood went and sought a wife. He

met Curse, and she said to him: From where do you come? He

told her: From Noah – I wanted to enter the ark, but he refused to admit me

unless I had a wife. She replied: And what will you give me? He said to her: I

stipulate with you that you may take all which I accumulate. She listened to

him, and the two entered the ark. When they exited the ark, Falsehood went and

accumulated, and Curse kept taking first. Falsehood came and said to her: Where

is all that I accumulated? She replied: Was this not our condition,

that I take all which you accumulate? He had no answer. Therefore it is

written He hatches evil, conceives mischief, and gives birth to fraud (Psalms 7:15). The parable says:

Falsehood begets – but Curse takes all.

(Yalkut

Shimoni, Noah, 56)

The World's Existence Depends Upon Law, Morality, and Interpersonal

Respect

The world exists thanks

to law, you can see that the flood came to the world because they lacked law,

they stole and robbed from each other, as it is written, the land became

full of robbery. And if this is so, then one who judges,

upholding the law faithfully, causes the world to persist in its existence. It

is as if he becomes a partner [to the Creator].

(Siftei Hakhamim

Shemot 18:9)

Now that the exile has

continued for too long because of our sins, Israelites should separate itself

from the vanities of this world and hold firm to the seal of the Holy One

blessed be He, which is truth,

sanctifying themselves even in regard to that which is permitted them (Yevamot 20a), lying neither

to Israelite nor gentile, and not misleading them in any way, for it is said: The

speech shall not be found in their mouths (Zephaniah

3:13). And it is also written: And I shall sew them in the land (Hoshea 2:25). Does a

man not sew one kur unless it is in order to

reap several kur? So too, the Holy One Blessed

be He sews Israel in the lands in order that converts join them (Pesahim 87b). As

long as they treat them without deceit, they shall join them. And the Holy One

blessed be He is strict about theft from wicked

people, for it is said: and the land became full of robbery.

"There is a story

involving Rabbi Shimon ben Shetah,

who bought a donkey from a certain Ishmaelite. His students went and found a

precious stone hanging from its neck. His students told him: Rabbi, It is

the Lord's blessing that enriches (Mishlei 10:22). He said to them: I bought a donkey; I did not buy a precious

stone. He went and returned it to the Ishmaelite. The Ishmaelite called

out: Blessed be the Lord, God of Shimon ben Shetah!" (Devarim Rabbah

3:3)

And so in the Yerushalmi (Bava Metiya 2:5) [we

read]: "The wise elders bought wheat from the gentiles. They found a bunch

of coins in it, which they returned to them. The gentiles said: May the God of

the Jews be blessed!" Likewise, there are many cases when they returned [such

items to the gentiles] for the sake of the sanctification of the Divine Name.

(Orhot Tzadikim, Chapter 23 – Sha'ar

Ha'Emet)

Dear

Friends,

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