This sheet on Genesis 11 was written by Jeremy Benstein for 929 and can also be found here
The place name, בבל, bavel can refer to: Babel, Babylon, or Babylonia. Each of these ancient "Bavels" suggests a model for the 21st century.
The Tower of Babel (Genesis, 11:1-9) tells how ethnic diversity came into the world, bridging the gap between Noah & Sons, and the historic world of nations and cultures to follow. The dominant image is mutual incomprehensibility, and therefore dispersion, difference, and the loss of a sacred and political center.
Which brings us to the second bavel: Babylon. The Babylonians destroyed the First Temple and the city of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E, resulting in the First Exile. That experience is described poignantly in Psalm 137:
"By the rivers of Bavel/Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion… How shall we sing the LORD'S song in a foreign land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I remember thee not…"
In the first story, Bavel/Babel was the center that was lost in that divinely instigated "exile;" here Bavel/Babylon is the destination they were exiled to, after the loss of the sacred center. And as opposed to the babble of Babel, here the result is – silence; the inability to speak or sing God's songs, in that strange land. Indeed, without Jerusalem speech will be lost, with tongues cleaving to roofs of mouths, and the ability to speak one's identity and desires, gone.
The first Bavel/Babel was an imagined site, invented to explain ethnic dispersion and cultural diversity, a world for whom the idea of a center has been declared anathema. The second Bavel/Babylon was a very real place, the exile an actual historical event, but underlying it too is an idea: a people with a once and future sacred center whose national and cultural identity can only be brought to fruition there.
The third Bavel is also a real place, but is not Biblical – it is Talmudic. It is the Bavel of Babylonia (Iraq) which became a center of the Jewish world after the Romans quashed the Great Revolt of 135 C.E. Bavel/Babylonia became home to generations of sages in centers of learning such as Sura, Nehardea and Pumbedita (now Falluja), which were to remain so for close to a thousand years.
The Babylonian Talmud (the Bavli – "of Bavel") that developed there, is, along with the Bible, the foundational text of Judaism. And with it came the unprecedented reality of another center of legal and intellectual authority, which rivaled, and ultimately exceeded, that other center in the Land of Israel.
The rise of Bavel/Babylonia was a rejection of Ps 137: it moved Judaism itself from a circle, with the Holy Land at its center, to an ellipse, with two centers defining its orbit. And in creating a second vibrant center, Babylonian Judaism opened up the way for many more "centers" to come, throughout Jewish diasporic history.
These three models – Babel, Babylon, Babylonia – represent three numerical possibilities for sacred centers in our lives:
The Tower of Babel (Genesis, 11:1-9) tells how ethnic diversity came into the world, bridging the gap between Noah & Sons, and the historic world of nations and cultures to follow. The dominant image is mutual incomprehensibility, and therefore dispersion, difference, and the loss of a sacred and political center.
Which brings us to the second bavel: Babylon. The Babylonians destroyed the First Temple and the city of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E, resulting in the First Exile. That experience is described poignantly in Psalm 137:
"By the rivers of Bavel/Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion… How shall we sing the LORD'S song in a foreign land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I remember thee not…"
In the first story, Bavel/Babel was the center that was lost in that divinely instigated "exile;" here Bavel/Babylon is the destination they were exiled to, after the loss of the sacred center. And as opposed to the babble of Babel, here the result is – silence; the inability to speak or sing God's songs, in that strange land. Indeed, without Jerusalem speech will be lost, with tongues cleaving to roofs of mouths, and the ability to speak one's identity and desires, gone.
The first Bavel/Babel was an imagined site, invented to explain ethnic dispersion and cultural diversity, a world for whom the idea of a center has been declared anathema. The second Bavel/Babylon was a very real place, the exile an actual historical event, but underlying it too is an idea: a people with a once and future sacred center whose national and cultural identity can only be brought to fruition there.
The third Bavel is also a real place, but is not Biblical – it is Talmudic. It is the Bavel of Babylonia (Iraq) which became a center of the Jewish world after the Romans quashed the Great Revolt of 135 C.E. Bavel/Babylonia became home to generations of sages in centers of learning such as Sura, Nehardea and Pumbedita (now Falluja), which were to remain so for close to a thousand years.
The Babylonian Talmud (the Bavli – "of Bavel") that developed there, is, along with the Bible, the foundational text of Judaism. And with it came the unprecedented reality of another center of legal and intellectual authority, which rivaled, and ultimately exceeded, that other center in the Land of Israel.
The rise of Bavel/Babylonia was a rejection of Ps 137: it moved Judaism itself from a circle, with the Holy Land at its center, to an ellipse, with two centers defining its orbit. And in creating a second vibrant center, Babylonian Judaism opened up the way for many more "centers" to come, throughout Jewish diasporic history.
These three models – Babel, Babylon, Babylonia – represent three numerical possibilities for sacred centers in our lives:
- Babel = 0: centralization negated; one world, many tongues;
- Babylon=1: the singular center of Zion;
- Babylonia≥2: the possibility of two (or more) sacred, cultural or political centers.
Dr. Jeremy Benstein is the managing editor of 929-English, and is the author of a new book about the Hebrew language, "Hebrew Roots, Jewish Routes: A Tribal Language in a Global World" (Behrman House, 2019).
929 is the number of chapters in the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible, the formative text of the Jewish heritage. It is also the name of a cutting-edge project dedicated to creating a global Jewish conversation anchored in the Hebrew Bible. 929 English invites Jews everywhere to read and study Tanakh, one chapter a day, Sunday through Thursday together with a website with creative readings and pluralistic interpretations, including audio and video, by a wide range of writers, artists, rabbis, educators, scholars, students and more. As an outgrowth of the web-based platform, 929 English also offers classes, pop-up lectures, events and across North America. We invite you to learn along with us and be part of our dynamic community.
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