AND I WILL ESTABLISH MY

COVENANT WITH YOU, AND NEVER AGAIN WILL ALL FLESH BE CUT OFF BY THE FLOOD

WATERS, AND THERE WILL NEVER AGAIN BE A FLOOD TO DESTROY THE EARTH." AND

GOD SAID: "THIS IS THE SIGN OF THE COVENANT, WHICH I AM PLACING BETWEEN ME

AND BETWEEN YOU, AND BETWEEN EVERY LIVING SOUL THAT IS WITH YOU, FOR

EVERLASTING GENERATIONS. MY RAINBOW I HAVE PLACED IN THE CLOUD,

AND IT SHALL BE FOR A SIGN OF A COVENANT BETWEEN MYSELF AND THE EARTH.

The Sign of the Covenant, a Sign for Peace, Memory, and

Responsibility

…it has been

said, as rationale for this sign, that He did not place the bow with its two

ends facing upwards, which would make it seem as if it were shooting from the

heavens, He shoots his arrows and scatters them over the earth, but He

did the opposite, to demonstrate that it will not shoot from heaven, for this

is the custom of warriors, to turn the bow backwards in their hand when

they call for peace with those who oppose them. And furthermore,

the bow has no string with which to shoot the arrow.

(RaMBaN, Bereishit

9:12)

The

Holy One, Blessed Be He, did more than promise; He established a sign and a

memorial. This is characteristic of divine supervision: The Holy One decrees

signs, e.g., tefillin, Shabbat, circumcision, to

constantly remind one of the great truths upon which the peace of humanity

depends.

For

ageless generations: Doubly

lacking. [Translator's note – The Hebrew dorot

– "generations" – is spelled here without the two vowel vavs] God's covenant will exist in all situations;

it will also protect the generation which is marked by defects

observable both internally and externally. In those generations, man's heart

will melt, and he may despair of ever witnessing divine justice. But the sight

of the rainbow will remind him that God decreed a covenant with Man and with

the earth; this covenant will be in force at all times, in all generations, and

divine providence will achieve its goal – even in a flawed generation.

(Rabbi S. R. Hirsch on Bereishit.

9:12)

The Blessing of Multiplicity

and the Confusion of Languages

Ronen Ahituv

The

Babel passage (11:1-9) raises many questions. At first blush

it seems to be one more episode in the education of the humans who had been

created in God's image. It stands as the fourth link in a chain beginning with

the sin in the Garden of Eden and which continues with the sins of Cain and of

the generation of the Flood. All of these passages share a common structure in

which people commit a sin and are punished. The Babel passage appears to share this structure

as well: human beings plan and execute a deed; God interferes and quashes their

intentions.

All of the above gives rise to several questions: What was

the sin of Babel's

populace, and what was their punishment? How is their sin to be linked with the

sins mentioned in earlier episodes? In what way is their sin unique, and how

did the punishment atone for it?

Many

generations of commentators struggled to answer these questions. Some suggested

that the tower should be seen as an expression of rebellion against God; others

held that by building a city and cutting themselves off from the earth the

people of Babel

committed an ecological sin. Still others emphasized the element of national

and cultural homogeneity, or the concentration of settlement in a single

location.

To

my mind the fascinating thing about these suggestions is that they all (except

for the last) describe the values of modern Western culture, a culture that is

built upon humanist foundations which in many instances led to declarations of

rebellion against various religions, an urban culture cut off from working the

soil, which tries to bring about cultural homogeneity and to abolish national

and ethnic differences. If the Babel episode is understood as an episode of

sin, the very foundations and values of Western culture – and not only their

consequences – must be viewed as sinful; Western culture must be opposed at a

fundamental level.

I

shall now try to offer a new reading of the Babel episode. First of all, we must notice

that this is the last of the Torah's passages that relate to humanity in

general; from here on Scripture will concern itself with a single family – the family

of the Patriarchs. The stories of the Patriarchs do not follow the schema of sins

and punishment; rather, they speak of the dialogue and the covenant between

humans and God. This new schema already appears in the story of Noah, which is part

of the Flood narrative (and even earlier in the story of Cain). Beginning in parashat Lekh Lekha

it becomes the leading motif, there assuming the position formally held by the

schema of crime and punishment. This suggests that the story of Babel might be seen as a

transitional episode rather than an additional link in the chain of crimes and

punishments.

The

focus of the episode finds it expression in verses six through seven:

And

the Lord said, "Behold! [they are] one people, and they all have one

will not understand the language of his companion."

We

can juxtapose these verses to God's speech preceding the expulsion from Eden:

Now

the Lord God said,

Life and eat and live forever."

These

two passages are the only examples of the schema "Behold [hen]… and

now [ve'ata]" in all of Scripture. There

is also a strong geographical connection between the two episodes. Following

the expulsion from Eden God stations the Cherubs and the fiery turning sword east

of [mikedem] the Garden of Eden (3:24). The Babel story begins with the words and when

they traveled from the east [mikedem] (11:2). These linguistic connections permit us to

set up a parallel between the story of Babel and

the expulsion from Eden.

In

contrast to standard views, I propose that the expulsion from Eden is not presented as a punishment for the

eating of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. That sin is described in earlier

verses (3:1-8) along with its punishment (verses 9-19). Therefore, the verse beginning Behold man has become should not be read as a description of the

sin but rather as an explanation why the humans must be expelled from Eden. From this we may

deduce that the confusion of languages in the parallel story of Babel does not serve a

punishment for some sin. Construction of the city and the tower was not a

crime, and the confusion of languages was not a punishment.

What,

then, was God's motivation for confusing the languages? Let us return to the

comparison of the two passages before us. In the story of the expulsion from Eden, God agrees with the

snake's claim that man has become

like one of us, having the ability of knowing good and evil and further mentions concern that man might

live for ever. In the story of Babel we read of a situation in which [they

are] one people, and they all have one language followed again by an

expression of concern, will it not be withheld from them, all that they have

planned to do? This worry leads God to disrupt the human activities by

confusing their language. The city and the tower were not the problem – the

very ability of human beings to execute projects was the problem.

It

seems that the key is to be found in the expression behold man has become like one of us. We have before us four divine qualities. Man

gained two of them and might come near to the other two: man managed to acquire

both knowledge of good and evil and (cultural) unity. The worry is that he

might also gain eternal life and unlimited powers to execute his plans. In

order to prevent the realization of these worries, God expels man from Eden and confuses his

language.

Why do human accomplishments generate concern? Does God view human

competition as a threat to His status and reign? Didn't He instruct humans to conquer

the earth and subdue it, as it is written: and the earth He gave to humans

(Psalms

115:16)?

It seems that the worry here does not involve God's status, but rather

the status of humanity itself. The unlimited abilities of human culture do not

endanger God; rather they endanger human culture itself. A culture without

limits and which does not recognize its own failings has no challenges; it

loses its sanity and its ability to flourish and to renew itself. The weakness

of the modern West can be interpreted in this fashion.

Does the Israeli-Zionist culture also suffer from too much success?

In the course of history

overly successful cultures have collapsed of their own accord, but thanks to

the confusion of languages and the multiplicity of cultures there is always another

culture, energetic and full of its own aspirations, to take their place. The

confusion of languages and multiplicity of human cultures (which are never all

successful at the same time), are God's means for ensuring the survival of

humanity even in situations of success.

Jewish biblical culture did not surrender itself to either of the

limitations that God set upon humanity. It reached out to the Tree of Life, as

it is written; It is a Tree of Life to those who grasp it (Proverbs 3:18). It also insisted upon the hope

for universal solidarity, as it is written: For then I will convert the peoples to a pure language that all of them

call in the name of the Lord, to worship Him of one accord (Zephaniah 3:9). How does the prophet's vision contend with the danger of success? Perhaps

the cure is that proposed by R. Eliezer the son of R.

Yossi HaGalili, i.e.,

humility. One's awareness of one's own limitations can – in a different way – take

the place of one's need for being constantly challenged. It neutralizes the

dangers of success. Perhaps the words of the Talmud can be understood in this

spirit:

Not

choose you, for you are the least of all the peoples. The Holy One

blessed He said to Israel:

I delighted in you because even when I grant you greatness – you make

yourselves small before Me. I granted greatness to Abraham – he said before me,

and I am dust and ashes… but idolaters are not like that. I granted

greatness to Nimrod – he said let us build ourselves a city… and make a

name for ourselves. (Hullin 89a)

A

culture that takes care to make itself small before God can perhaps also do

without human multiplicity and the experience of failure, and survive even the

accomplishment of universal success. For the time being – unfortunately – such

a culture exists only as a distant dream, even for the sons of our father

Abraham.

Ronen Ahituv is from Mitzpe

Netufa. He teaches in Midreshet

Oranim, Kinneret

College, and the Western Galilee

College.

And these are the

generations of the sons of Noah: The latent message in the detailed Scriptural

narrative

Every narrative in the Law serves a certain purpose in

connection with religious teaching. It either helps to establish a principle of

faith, or to regulate our actions, and to prevent wrong and injustice among

men; and I will show this in each case.

It is one of the fundamental principles of the Law

that the Universe has been created ex nihilo, and that of the human

race, one individual being, Adam, was created. As the time which elapsed from

Adam to Moses was not more than about two thousand five hundred years, people

would have doubted the truth of that statement if no other information had been

added, seeing that the human race was spread over all parts of the earth in

different families and with different languages, very unlike the one to the

other. In order to remove this doubt the Law gives the genealogy of the nations

(Gen. 5 and 6), and the manner how they branched off from a common root. It

names those of them who were well known, and tells who their fathers were, how

long and where they lived. It describes also the cause that led to the dispersion

of men over all parts of the earth, and to the formation of their different

languages, after they had lived for a long time in one place, and spoken one

language (ibid.

11.), as would be natural for

descendants of one person. The

accounts of the flood (ibid.

6-8.) and of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

(ibid. 19), serve as an illustration of the doctrine that, Verily

earth (Psalms 58:12).

(The Guide of the Perplexed

III:50, Friedländer

translation)

Torah Morality is

not Tribal Morality

Now that the exile is

prolonged because of our many sins, Israel must separate itself from the

vanities of the world, and must hold on to the seal of The Holy One, Blessed Be

He, which is truth; Israel must sanctify itself even by

should not lie, neither to Jew nor to gentile, and not deceive them in

anyway, as is written: The remnant of Israel will not perform iniquities and

will not speak falsely, and their mouths shall not house deceptive tongues (Zephaniah 3:13). Furthermore it is written And

I will sow her in the land as My own (Hosea

2:25) – a person sows one kur of seed

in order to harvest a number of kurim, so

The Holy One, Blessed Be He sowed Israel among the nations in order that it be

joined by converts (Pesahim

87b) As long as they [Israel] deal with them honestly, they will cleave

to them. The Holy One, Blessed Be He, is stringent even regarding theft from

the wicked, as is written, And the land was

rife with lawlessness (Bereishit

1:11)

"It once happened that Rabbi Shimon ben Shetah purchased a donkey from an Ishmaelite. His students

noticed a precious stone hanging from its neck. They said to Rabbi Shimon:

Rabbi, It is the blessing of the Lord that enriches (Proverbs 10:22). He replied: I bought a

donkey; I did not buy a precious stone. He went and returned the stone to the

Ishmaelite. The Ishmaelite said of him: Blessed is the God of Shim'on ben Shetah!"

(Devarim Rabba 3:3)

And thus in the Jerusalem

Talmud (Bava Metzia 2:5) "The elderly sages purchased wheat

from the gentiles, and discovered a hidden bag of coins, and they returned it.

Proclaimed the gentiles: Blessed is the Lord of the Jews! And so there were

many cases where they returned things in order to sanctify His Name.

(Orhot Tzadikkim, Gate 23, The

Truth)

 Dependence upon

Land Desecrates

Then began Noah, man

of the soil – Because he was dependant upon the soil, he became

unconsecrated. At first he was a righteous and wholehearted man, but now, a man

of the soil.

(Tanhuma Bereishit 13)

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