The Tower of Babel

The Tower of Babel (1568) by Lucas van Valckenborch

This picture doesn't display a particular psukim there is nothing that describes the land.

In Genesis 10:8

It is interesting to know that there is no religious person in israel named נִמְר֑וֹד the name is a symbol for rebelling.

- Olivia

"to make a name for ourselves" - Genesis 11:4

I feel like this is saying that the people wanted to make them selfs famous. The idea of a tower became a symbol of these people trying to be better than everyone else when they should be content with their lives they could build without the tower. Some could believe that striving to be better than everyone else isn't bad, but do they really need the tower?

-Olivia

Sforno says, "ויאמרו הבה נבנה לנו עיר, this was at the advice of their leaders who wanted to enthrone Nimrod as king over the entire human race," Sforno also says, "ומגדל וראשו בשמים ונעשה לנו שם, the meaning of the words נעשה שם, is a metaphor for “let us make a supreme idol.” This idol was to be placed on top of the Tower. They hoped that the visibility of the Tower and its symbol on top would ensure that they would be most highly esteemed among people all over the world, regardless of whether such people had become part of their city-state. Anyone ruling their city would automatically be recognized as the ruler of mankind."

- Obadiah ben Jacob Sforno (1475 Cesena, Italy - 1550, Bologna, Italy,)

Now today, president elect, Donald Trump, has multiple building with his name on it. I think this is a way for him to show his "Power"

"וַיֵּ֣רֶד"

I think it was written in the idea that G-d comes down from heaven to the Babel.

"הָעִ֖יר"

Not only was there a Tower of Babel, but there was a city that housed the people. it could have been that there was a city at first, and then they decided to build a tower. But it could also mean that the city grew as the tower grew.

- Olivia

I think that not only is this massive tower changing, they the people are changing. I think that the people are focusing on the building, I don't think that anything is progressing in the peoples' characters. They are becoming people who are selfish. The tower starts to turn into a symbol of negativity. It no longer seems to be necessary.

I think the people threw them selfs into the tower. finishing the next level, being the first to place the first brick on the newest level of the tower suddenly became the most important thing to do. Its not that the people were being bad, but they were all trying to be better then each other. Only thinking of themselves.

When God comes down, he sees people who are completely self absorbed, and are being the same as the people before the flood.

-Olivia

I think this story of Babel can teach you some great morals. Building a tower was at first to keep themselves from being scattered, but then it became a the ladder the climbed to bet higher. If they had used their language to build useful, and important things to their community, then they wouldn't have been scattered.

-Olivia

I think G-d stopped them because they weren't acting morally and he saw them as a treat to what he wished for the world.

"Thus the LORD scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city." He stopped them from building the tower, and when he scattered them across the face of the earth, he scrambled their language, so they could never understand each. This would stop the chance of another tower.

One of the first questions I had about the tower is why they needed it. and What did they plan to do with the tower after construction.

No one truly knows what the tower looked like but some believed that it looked like an upside down cone. People don't know what they were going to do with it.

Similar to The Tower of Babel by Lucas van Valckenborch, this image from Wikipedia shows the Tower as an upside-down cone.

בהפרידו בני אדם, after the death of Noach and the time of Avraham about which the Torah wrote

(Genesis 10:5) “from this point on they separated, branched out by their respective lands, each with its language, etc.” יצב גבולות עמים, twelve descendants of Canaan

(Genesis 10:6)mentioned in that context in that chapter of Genesis, corresponding to the eventual 12 tribes of Israel. Canaan and his 11 sons amounted to twelve.

(Genesis 10:15-18)The Torah describes the boundaries of the Canaanites as extending from Tzidon in the north to Gerar, near Gaza in the south, and Sodom in the east. This entire region became the land of Israel during the conquest commencing in the days of Joshua, except for the coastal plains inhabited by the Philistines which was conquered many hundreds of years later, and Jerusalem which was captured by David. The Torah does not give details of the boundaries of the territories of any of the other sons of Noach. למספר בני ישראל, matching the number of the Children of Israel.

-Rashbam (1085 -1158 Troyes, France.)

After reading the tower of babel story and digging deeply into the unanswered questions, I discovered my message for today. As you remember, the people used their knowledge and all of their technology to build a tower ''in order to make a name for themselves." This motive struck me as JUST PLAIN WRONG. We should use our materials, knowledge, and technology to help others. Commentators like Isaac Abravanel (1437 - 1508 Lisbon, Portugal) and Obadiah ben Jacob Sforno (1475 Cesena, Italy - 1550, Bologna, Italy,) believed the tower was wrong.

One of the reasons Sforno thought the tower was a bad idea is because they wished to place Nimrod(The man who is rebellious to G-d) as their king.

"ויאמרו הבה נבנה לנו עיר, this was at the advice of their leaders who wanted to enthrone Nimrod as king over the entire human race,"

- Obadiah ben Jacob Sforno (1475 Cesena, Italy - 1550, Bologna, Italy,)

בהפרידו בני אדם WHEN HE SEPARATED THE SONS OF ADAM — i.e. when He scattered the generation which witnessed the separation of races, He also had the power to remove them from the world, yet He did not do so, but יצב גבלת עמים HE FIRMLY ESTABLISHED THE BOUNDARIES OF THE NATIONS — He let them (the peoples) remain in existence and did not destroy them,

- Rashi (1040 - 1105 Troy, France)

I added the image above, cause I think that this picture shows Nimrod in 'Glory' and he is surrounded by working people. in the bottom left corner, you see a man with a robe and a crow standing with his nobleman, and all of the workers bowing down to him. The tower also seems to look like a palace, filled with hundreds of rooms.

I notice there is a big difference between the different images, some depict the tower as a palace, some depict it as a failure. Others also show the tower next to a body of water. Some are simple with no people, some show crowds of people everywhere. In my opinion, the tower is a failed Palace, that was meant to stand next to a body of water, and was meant to be glorious. But what was the fatal weakness that turned this project from one of glory to one of destruction?

Take way: I think that we should be happy with what we have. I have the same belief as the commentator Sforno. From what he said above, he thought that the tower was a symbol of the people's hunger for power. When it says that they had the same language I think it means that they all believed in the same idea and were engrossed in their shared idea that they weren't able to see what effect they were making. I believe that the people's intentions were bad, this happens to be the mainstream idea that the tower was used to be a ladder for those who wished to gain power. Why would G-d have torn down the tower and mixed their languages if the tower's meaning was a positive one?