Chavarah- Jewish Community Learning

A blog of Jewish study and traditions. Notes from classes: Torah Study with Rabbi Marder, Toledot and Shabbaton as well as other details found of interest.

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Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Different Languages at Babel




Tower of Babel

Continuation of exploration of Nimrod from Ch 10, he was associated with Babylon and the building of the city and the tower and the turning away from God.

"Now the whole earth had one language and few words. And as men migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, 'Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.' And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.' And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of men had built. And the LORD said, 'Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.' So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.' Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth." (Genesis 11:1-9)


We focused on the “languages” aspect this week.

“everyone had the same language”

Abravnel - the goal is a single community. There was no ‘private property’ until Nimrod built the city and the tower. (sin was the capitalization of moving away from a communistic view)

Contradiction
How important is unity through language?
How important is diversity?
or is it more 'understanding' that changed?

Different words for language:
Safa VS Lashon
Lips VS Tongue
Language of the tongue is from the depth of life / holy tongue.
Language of the lips is on the surface.

What is the language of God?
A language that everyone understands.

ABRACADABRA - relates to language origins – Hebrew

The sins of those who built the Tower resulted in the language differences and thus cultural differences and mis-communications. The contrast between the richness that the differences give us and the problems of those same differences.

Why is this story in this place of Torah?
Parallels between Adam and Eve in the garden and the building of the city and the tower,

The contrasts between urban and rural living begin at this point.

The question if Language is a unifying factor or not was discussed as well.

11:2 – “from the East” could also refer to “from the old ways”
marks a moving away from God. . .

East is significant – Babel is in Southern Iraq today.

11:3 “come let us make bricks”
no mention yet of what building but emphasis on ‘bricks’ rather than ‘stones’.
Bricks made by man rather than natural like stones.

Etymology – 1st person imperative - signifies the desire to do this.

Historical moment – a new way of building with brick and mortar.


No other Mesopotamian story parallels the Babel story.

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