,הוא החל להיות גבור “he began to be outstanding amongst the people who had survived the deluge."
להיות גבור TO BE A MIGHTY ONE — Mighty in causing the whole world to rebel against the Holy Blessed One, by the plan he devised for the generation that witnessed the separation of the races (דור הפלגה) to build the Tower of Babel (Genesis Rabbah 23:7).
Nimrod was the first to display man’s power over the wild beasts for he was a mighty hunter.
על כן יאמר כנמרוד, “this is why people would use Nimrod as an example, saying: ‘just like Nimrod, a mighty hunter by the grace of the Lord.’” According to tradition no ferocious beast ever escaped alive in an encounter with Nimrod. He was aided by G-d in attaining such a reputation so that G-d could demonstrate in due course that such apparently invincible warriors could not prevail against Him.
גבר ציד לפני ה' בעולם, וכן עיר גדולה לאלקים בכל עולמו של הקב״ה לא היתה עיר גדולה כמוה.
גבור ציד לפני ה, “a great hunter before the Lord, i.e. throughout the earth. “ We find a similar use of the expression when in the Book of Jonah (Jonah 3,3) the city of Nineveh is described as עיר גדולה לאלוקים, “a great city before G-d,” where the expression means that on the whole globe there was no city comparable in size of population.
The meaning of before the Lord (v. 9) is that Nimrod built altars and offered the animals he hunted as whole offerings to God. This is the literal meaning of the verse. However, its Midrashic interpretation is totally different.
HE WAS A MIGHTY HUNTER BEFORE THE ETERNAL. He ensnared the minds of people by his words, misleading them to rebel against the Omnipresent. Therefore it is said regarding any man who brazenly acts wickedly, knowing his Master and yet intentionally rebelling against Him — it is said, “This man is like Nimrod.” Thus the language of Rashi, and so is the opinion of our Rabbis.
But Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra explained the matter in the opposite way, by way of the plain meaning of Scripture, for he interpreted the verses thus: He began to be a mighty one over the animals in hunting them. Before the Eternal, Ibn Ezra explained, means that he would build altars and offer the animals as whole-offerings before G-d. But Ibn Ezra’s words do not appear to be correct, and lo he justifieth the wicked, for our Rabbis knew by tradition of Nimrod’s wickedness.
The correct interpretation appears to me to be that Nimrod began to be a ruler by force over people, and he was the first monarch. Until his era there were no wars and no reigning monarchs; it was he who first prevailed over the people of Babylon until they crowned him. After that he went to Assyria, and he did according to his will, and magnified himself, and there he built fortified cities with his power and with his might. This is what Scripture intended when it said, And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel…and Accad…and Shinar.
ותהי ראשית ממלכתו בבל, the Torah mentions this to explain that because of Nimrod’s powerful and relatively civilised kingdom all the people moved to the valley of Shinor to be within the orbit of his power and influence. The illusion of great power, augmented by unity of purpose, led to their insurrection against G’d, and to their downfall. Central symbols always exercised a gravitational pull on people’s minds, as we see even among the Jewish people in the efforts by Jerobam to counteract the centrality of the Temple in Jerusalem. (Kings I 12,26)
נפלגה הארץ, literally: “the earth was divided;” a reference to people’s lifespans having been halved. Careful analysis of the text will show that up until the birth of Peleg, people appear to have lived for 400 years, whereas starting with him they did not live to be much more than 200 year old.
פלג, כי בימיו נפלגה הארץ, “Peleg,” so called as during his lifetime the population of the earth was split up. According to Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel, Bereshit Rabbah 37,7, states that former generations who had been endowed with holy spirit were able to name their children in a manner that reflected important acts that they would perform in the future, whereas we who have not been enabled to “make use of holy spirit” and who did not know i.e. we did not witness the deeds which made our forefathers famous, (as the lifespan had been so drastically curtailed) must name our children after our ancestors in order to keep alive at least some knowledge of their importance during their lifetime. [This is how this editor understands the commentary by maharzu on this passage of the Midrash. Ed.]
ויהי כל הארץ שפה אחת. The whole earth had a single language. We must give some thought to the intent of the generation that built the Tower. What exactly did they mean to achieve by means of a city and a tower? If all they had in mind was to give expression to some aspect of heresy, how was that expressed by their building plans? If indeed their heresy was of a serious nature, their punishment, i.e. scattering them over the globe, seems an inadequate punishment. How would that punishment cure them of their heresy? The words ועתה לא יבצר מהם כל אשר יזמו לעשות, "Must not everything they are planning to do be withheld from them now?," are difficult. This line poses severe problems for a believer. Why did they say: "we will build a city for ourselves?" Who else was there to build a city for? Besides, did not G'd want mankind to construct a civilised universe? Surely He did not want a bunch of cave-dwellers?
If we accept the view of the sages that G'd intended one third of the earth to be under cultivation and civilisation, one third desert, and one third water, if you were to line up all the cities side by side even now several thousand years later, they would not cover one hundredth of a third of the available land mass! Most of the earth would remain desert, or at least uninhabited! It seems therefore that the roads linking one town or village to another are all considered as part of the "built up" areas that are to form approximately one third of the earth's surface. When the Torah reports that the people spoke one language and דברים אחדים, were of one mind about all important issues, the meaning is that they literally congregated together without spreading out at all. To prevent becoming scattered they built a single city. They built the tower as a landmark so that if anyone of them strayed too far from home he would be able to orient himself by seeing the tower from a distance. The "name" the Torah speaks of is the "name" of the tower, i.e. its visibility from afar, its significance. It was this very reluctance to comply with G'd's intention to populate various parts of the earth which annoyed G'd. Had they not been endowed with free choice, they never could have defied G'd's plan for an evenly populated earth in this manner. G'd therefore had to resort to some stratagem to frustrate their plan without interfering with their basic freedom of choice. G'd achieved this by confusing their uniform language. Henceforth people who had a language in common would tend to congregate together, and as a result of a common language they would choose to live together. This could only be accomplished through their migrating from what used to be a central location, or what we are fond of calling "the cradle of civilisation." G'd's whole purpose was to fill the earth with people. The sin of wanting to remain together in one location was almost as serious as outright heresy, being מקצץ הנטיעות. While it is true that there are numerous mystical angles to this episode, and our sages elaborate on many of them, none of these explanations represent the plain meaning of the text.