This 1594 painting, “Tour de babel”, was painted by the Flemish painter Lucas van Valckenborch (1535-1597). It now hangs in the Louve Museum in Paris.
A Jewish Joke:
Q: How do we know that the Tower of Babel was unfinished because they ran out of money?
A: It’s in Chapter 11.
Kippah tip to Stu Lewis
The Tower of Babel “on one foot”:
The Tower of Babel is the Bible’s explanation for why we have multiple languages. There are those who consider it a Jewish myth. The story may be based on the Mesopotamian ziggurats, which were considered places where Heaven and Earth met and also had the name in Babylonian inscriptions as “the place with its top in the sky”. After the Hittite raid on Babylon around 1600 BCE, its main ziggurat was in ruins in such a way that it appeared to be unfinished. The Hebrew word for “Babel” is the same as the Hebrew word for “Babylon”; some see this as a commentary of one sort or another about the Babylonians.
Act 1
(1) Everyone on earth had the same language and the same words. (2) And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. (3) They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them hard.”—Brick served them as stone, and bitumen served them as mortar.— (4) And they said, “Come, let us build us a city, and a tower with its top in the sky, to make a name for ourselves; lest we be scattered all over the world.”
Context: This is from the Biblical Book of Genesis, right after the Noah’s Ark story and right before the Abraham stories. The Noah story ends with G-d telling Noah and his family to “fill the earth” (Genesis 9:7). Note that this story shows evidence of real knowledge, because as the Etz Chayim points out, “The phrase ‘with bitumen and burnt-brick’ is a standard phrase in Babylonian building inscription”, and it is a different form of building than the stone construction used in the Land of Israel.
1. History (and stories) are not inevitable — people (and authors) make choices. At what points could this part of the story have turned out differently?
2. Based on the text, does this seem like a good use of (brick-building) technology?
3. Rashi notices that the story begins by saying that not only did everybody have the same language, they also had the same words. What are the advantages of everybody having the same words? What are the disadvantages?
4. Is there a benefit to Jews if we could all speak one language?
5. Would there be a detriment to American Jews if the whole world only spoke English and American Jews had no access to Hebrew?
6. What might be the advantages and disadvantages of having everybody live in one city?
7. Esperanto was invented in 1887 by L.L. Zamenhof, a Jewish ophthalmologist in Bialystok. He intended it to be a universal language that would break down the linguistic and cultural barriers that he saw in his town (between Russians, Germans, Poles, and Jews) and elsewhere in the world. On the flip side, one of the signs of assimilation is losing one’s ethnic language. How do you feel about the “one language” question? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
8. According to Genesis 10 (verses 5, 11, 19-20, 30-32), there were already different languages being spoken and people had branched out across the land. In the next chapter, everybody now speaks the same language and seems to live in one group. What might have happened? Might it have had something to do with Nimrod, described in 10:8-10 as “the first man of might on the earth” who ruled over “Babel” in the “land of Shinar”? And how might this connect with modern examples (Native Americans, Ukrainians, Jews) being told to stop speaking their language?
9. If everyone is in one place, who is going to hear about the name that they are making for themselves? And why does a tower with its top in the heavens give them a name?
10. The format of “Come, let us build a tower lest we be scattered” is also found in Exodus 1:10, where Pharaoh says “Come, let us enslave the Israelites lest they increase in number” — connection?
Act 2
(5) יהוה came down to look at the city and tower that humanity had built, (6) and יהוה said, “If, as one people with one language for all, this is how they have begun to act, then nothing that they may propose to do will be out of their reach. (7) Let us, then, go down and confound their speech there, so that they shall not understand one another’s speech.” (8) Thus יהוה scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. (9) That is why it was called Babel, because there יהוה confounded the speech of the whole earth; and from there יהוה scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
Context: This is the next part of the story. Rashi points out that because here humanity works together in contradistinction to human-on-human violence in Noah’s time, these people were dispersed while those people were killed. Note that “Babel” is also the Hebrew word for “Babylonia”, and that the Hebrew word for “confound” (“balal”) is similar to “Babel”. This may be poking fun at the Babylonian interpretation of the term “Babel”, which they translated as “Gate of the god”.
1. At what points could this part of the story have turned out differently?
2. If you were advising G-d on what to do, would you think that this punishment fits the crime? And what even is the crime here?
3. Were they actually punished? Is it a blessing to have multiple languages?
4. Is it true today that people who have “one language” have nothing out of their reach?
5. Rashi cites Midrash Tanchuma that G-d knew the situation, but “came down to look at” what was going on anyway in order to give an example to humans that we shouldn’t come to conclusions until we have investigated matters for ourselves. When might this come up in life today?
6. A midrash states that the Tower had to be stopped because people didn’t mind if builders fell off and died, but they wept if a brick fell off and smashed. How does that relate to today?
7. A Second Temple midrash suggests that one reason why the Tower had to be stopped was because women had to keep making bricks until the moment they gave birth, and immediately after they had to keep making bricks while holding their newborn (and infants) in their apron (3 Baruch 3:5-8). How does this midrash relate to labor practices today?
8. Some think this is a spoof on technology, given that bricks were once the high tech of the day. Were bricks the problem? Or was it how they used technology? How is it relevant to today?
9. At the end of Act 1, the people built the tower so that they didn’t get scattered. At the end of Act 2, they got scattered. Have you encountered a situation where people were so afraid of something happening that they did something which then led to their fears being realized?
10. Some people view this story as saying that G-d does not want us to get closer physically to G-d, but rather to go forth into the world and make the world a better place. How can you do that?
Pictures and Videos Illustrating This Story
Context: This is the cover of the October 2, 1995 “New Yorker” magazine. The color copy can be found here: https://media.newyorker.com/photos/5909509a019dfc3494e9d63c/master/w_280,c_limit/1995_10_02.jpg, and the black-and-white close-up comes from Stu Lewis.
Context: This is a board game about building the Tower of Babel.
Context: This is a 2018 video from G-dcast / BimBam.
Context: This is a Bible Raps 2014 video by Matt Barr.
Historical Origins of The Story
From: The Historical Atlas of The Bible, by Dr. Ian Barnes, p. 208
The name Babylon is a Greek form of the Hebrew name Babel, itself derived from a Sumerian name meaning “Gate of God”. Genesis 10:10 describes the founding of the city of Babel by Nimrod, a descendent of Ham, son of Noah. Genesis 11:1-9 describes the building of the city and its famous tower “whose top may reach unto heaven”, and how God punished the people’s arrogance by creating a confusion of different languages.
Although Babel and Babylon are probably one and the same, there is not sufficient written or archeological evidence to establish that Babel was on the same site as Babylon and, though many have attempted to locate the ruins of the original Tower of Babel, no-one has succeeded. It is now thought that the legend of the tower refers to a ziggurat built in the 18th Century BCE.
Mesopotamian Analogues
There are similar stories to the Tower of Babel
Sumerian myth similar to that of the Tower of Babel, called Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta,[35] where Enmerkar of Uruk is building a massive ziggurat in Eridu and demands a tribute of precious materials from Aratta for its construction, at one point reciting an incantation imploring the god Enki to restore (or in Kramer's translation, to disrupt) the linguistic unity of the inhabited regions—named as Shubur, Hamazi, Sumer, Uri-ki (Akkad), and the Martu land, "the whole universe, the well-guarded people—may they all address Enlil together in a single language."[36]
In addition, a further Assyrian myth, dating from the 8th century BC during the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BC), bears a number of similarities to the later written biblical story.[citation needed]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Babel
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was the author of “Walden”; he lived at Walden Pond for 2 years to prove that could live simply):
“We are in great haste to construct a telegraph from Maine to Texas, but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important communicate… As if the main object were to talk fast and not to talk sensibly. We are eager to tunnel under the Atlantic and bring the Old World some weeks nearer to the New; but perhaps the first news that will leak through unto the broad, flapping American ear will be that the Princess Adelaide has the whooping cough.”
The Portable Thoreau,.p. 307
“The Tower of Babel” as Readers’ Theatre
Act 1
Narrator: Everyone on earth had the same language and the same words. And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.
People: Come, let us make bricks and burn them hard.
Narrator: Brick served them as stone, and bitumen served them as mortar.
People: Come, let us build us a city, and a tower with its top in the sky, to make a name for ourselves; else we shall be scattered all over the world.
Act 2
Narrator: G-d came down to look at the city and tower that humanity had built.
G-d: If, as one people with one language for all, this is how they have begun to act, then nothing that they may propose to do will be out of their reach. (7) Let us, then, go down and confound their speech there, so that they shall not understand one another’s speech.
Narrator: Thus G-d scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. (9) That is why it was called Babel, because there G-d confounded the speech of the whole earth; and from there G-d scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
The Full Story
(1) Everyone on earth had the same language and the same words. (2) And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. (3) They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them hard.”—Brick served them as stone, and bitumen served them as mortar.— (4) And they said, “Come, let us build us a city, and a tower with its top in the sky, to make a name for ourselves; else we shall be scattered all over the world.” (5) יהוה came down to look at the city and tower that humanity had built, (6) and יהוה said, “If, as one people with one language for all, this is how they have begun to act, then nothing that they may propose to do will be out of their reach. (7) Let us, then, go down and confound their speech there, so that they shall not understand one another’s speech.” (8) Thus יהוה scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. (9) That is why it was called Babel,*Babel I.e., “Babylon.” because there יהוה confounded*confounded Heb. balal “confound,” play on “Babel.” the speech of the whole earth; and from there יהוה scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
With appreciate to Stu Lewis and Barbara Birnbaum for their thoughts on this topic.
Appendix: Midrashim about The Tower of Babel
(ו) רבי פנחס אומר לא היו שם אבנים לבנות את העיר ואת המגדל מה היו עושין היו מלבנים לבנים ושורפין אותן כיוצר חרש עד שבנו אותו גבוה שבעים מיל ומעלות היו לו ממזרחו וממערבו אלו שהיו מעלין את הלבנים היו עולים ממזרחו ואלו שהיו יורדין היו יורדין ממערבו ואם נפל אדם ומת לא שמי' את לבם עליו ואם נפלה לבנה אחת היו יושבין ובוכין ואומרין אוי לנו אימתי תעלה אחרת תחתיה.
(6) Rabbi Phineas said: There were no stones there where-with to build the city and the tower. What did they do? They baked bricks and burnt them like a builder (would do), until they built it seven mils high, and it had ascents on its east and west. (The labourers) who took up the bricks went up on the eastern (ascent), and those who descended went down on the western (descent). If a man fell and died they paid no heed to him, but if a brick fell they || sat down and wept, and said: Woe is us ! when will another one come in its stead?
(יא) והיו רוצין לדבר איש אל רעהו בלשון הקדש ולא מכירין איש לשון רעהו מה עשו לקח איש חרבו ונלחמו אלו עם אלו להשחית וחצי העולם שם נפלו בחרב ומשם הפיצם יי' על פני כל הארץ שנאמר וייפץ יי' אותם משם על פני כל הארץ.
(11) And they wished to speak one to another in the language of his fellow-countryman, but one did not understand the language of his fellow. What did they do? Every one took his sword, and they fought one another to destroy (each other), and half the world fell there by the sword, and thence the Lord scattered them upon the face of all the earth, as it is said, "So the Lord scattered them abroad on that account, upon the face of all the earth" (Gen. 11:8).
(ו) רַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר וְרַבִּי יוֹחָנָן, רַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר אוֹמֵר … דּוֹר הַפְלָגָה אָמְרוּ לֹא כָּל הֵימֶנּוּ שֶׁיָּבוּר לוֹ אֶת הָעֶלְיוֹנִים וְלִתֵּן לָנוּ אֶת הַתַּחְתּוֹנִים, אֶלָּא בּוֹאוּ וְנַעֲשֶׂה לָנוּ מִגְדָּל וְנַעֲשֶׂה עֲבוֹדַת כּוֹכָבִים בְּרֹאשׁוֹ וְנִתֵּן חֶרֶב בְּיָדָהּ וּתְהִי נִרְאֵית כְּאִלּוּ עוֹשָׂה עִמּוֹ מִלְחָמָה. אוֹתָן שֶׁל דּוֹר הַמַּבּוּל לֹא נִשְׁתַּיְּרָה מֵהֶן פְּלֵיטָה, וְאֵלּוּ שֶׁל דּוֹר הַפְלָגָה נִשְׁתַּיְירָה מֵהֶם פְּלֵטָה, אֶלָּא דּוֹר הַמַּבּוּל עַל יְדֵי שֶׁהָיוּ שְׁטוּפִים בְּגָזֵל, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (איוב כד, ב): גְּבֻלוֹת יַשִּׂיגוּ עֵדֶר גָּזְלוּ וַיִּרְעוּ, לְפִיכָךְ לֹא נִשְׁתַּיֵּיר מֵהֶן פְּלֵיטָה, אֲבָל אֵלּוּ עַל יְדֵי שֶׁהָיוּ אוֹהֲבִים זֶה אֶת זֶה, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: וַיְהִי כָל הָאָרֶץ שָׂפָה אֶחָת, לְפִיכָךְ נִשְׁתַּיְּרָה מֵהֶן פְּלֵיטָה.
(6) Rabbi Elazar and Rabbi Yoḥanan, Rabbi Elazar says: … The generation of the Dispersion said: ‘How arrogant of Him to select the upper reaches for Himself and to give us the lower reaches. Instead, let us come and make a tower and craft an idol at its top, place a sword in its hand, and it will appear as though it is waging war against Him.’ Yet those of the generation of the Flood, no remnant of them remained, while those of the generation of the Dispersion, a remnant of them remained. The explanation is that the generation of the Flood, because they were steeped in robbery, as it is stated: “They move boundaries; they rob a flock and herd it” (Job 24:2), that is why no remnant of them remained. But these, [the generation of the Dispersion], they loved each other, as it is stated: “The entire earth was of one language,” that is why a remnant of them remained.
Once in the days of Joshua, as stated (in Josh. 9:2): THEN < ALL THE KINGS > GATHERED TOGETHER [WITH ONE ACCORD] TO FIGHT AGAINST JOSHUA [AND AGAINST ISRAEL]. What is the meaning of TOGETHER? That they took issue with the Holy One.
Once in the days of Gog and Magog, as stated (in Ps. 2:2): THE KINGS OF THE EARTH TAKE THEIR STAND … < AGAINST THE LORD AND AGAINST HIS ANOINTED >.
Here, as stated (in Gen. 11:1): NOW THE WHOLE EARTH HAD [ONE LANGUAGE AND THE SAME WORDS], words of blasphemy < which > they were uttering against the Holy One. Even though the scriptures have not specified < the blasphemies >, our masters have specified some of them. What were they saying? After a thousand years and one day plus six hundred and fifty-six years, a flood is coming to the world. Then the heavens are to be shaken, and the waters above shall fall upon us. But come and let us make ourselves purgoi {i.e., columns}, so that if the heavens fall, they will support them. Ergo (in Gen. 11:1): AND THE SAME WORDS.
Any debate that is carried out for the sake of Heaven [is destined to endure]. What is an example of a debate that is carried out for the sake of Heaven? [The debate between Hillel and Shammai].
Any gathering that is for the sake of performing the commandments…. What is an example of a gathering that is for the sake of performing the commandments? The Men of the Great Assembly. What is an example of a gathering that is not for the sake of performing the commandments? The assembly of the men of the Generation of the Dispersal [those who built the Tower of Babel]. 17.
“Each man said to his counterpart” – who said to whom? Rabbi Berekhya said: Mitzrayim said it to Kush.
“Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly [venisrefa lisrefa]” – these peoples are going to be eradicated [mishtarpa] from this world.
“The brick was for them as stone…” Rabbi Huna said: They met with success. One would come [with the intention] to lay one brick, and he would lay two. He would come [with the intention] to plaster two bricks, and he would plaster four.
“They said: Come, let us build us a city, and a tower, with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for us; lest we be dispersed upon the face of the entire earth” (Genesis 11:4).
“They said: Come, let us build us…” – Rabbi Yudan said: They built the tower, but they did not build the city [completely]. An objection was raised to him: “The Lord descended to see the city and the tower” (Genesis 11:5). He said to them: ‘Read a subsequent verse: “They ceased to build the tower” is not written here, but rather, “they ceased to build the city”’ (Genesis 11:8).
Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba said: The tower that they built, one-third of it was burned, one-third of it sank [into the ground], and one-third of it still exists. If you think it is small, Rabbi Huna said in the name of Rabbi Idi: Anyone who ascends to its top sees the palm trees before him as though they were grasshoppers.
“And let us make a name [shem] for us” – Rabbi Yishmael taught: Shem is nothing other than idol worship.
“Lest we be dispersed upon the face of the entire earth” – Rabbi Shimon ben Rabbi Ḥalafta said: “A fool’s mouth is ruin for him” (Proverbs 18:7).
“Come, let us descend” – this is one of the instances that they altered for King Ptolemy – [they wrote:] “Come, I shall descend and I shall muddle.”
“And muddle [navla] their language there” – Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said: From their language, I will make them into carcasses [nevela]. One of them would say to another: ‘Give me an axe,’ and he would give him a shovel. He would then strike him and split his skull. That is what is written: From their language, I will make them into carcasses [nevela].
“The Lord dispersed them from there upon the face of the entire earth, and they ceased to build the city” (Genesis 11:8).
“The Lord dispersed [vayafetz] them from there” – Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Neḥemya, Rabbi Yehuda said: The residents of Tyre went to Sidon, and the residents of Sidon to Tyre. Each land retained its borders. Rabbi Neḥemya said: Each and every person retained his land of his original residence and returned there. What, then, is meant by “He dispersed”? It is that each [of the residents] of the lands gathered at the mountaintops, and each one [mountaintop] would absorb the residents of its place.
The Rabbis say: Vayafetz is nothing other than inundated [vayatzef] – He inundated them with the sea and drowned thirty families of them. Rabbi Levi said: There is no misfortune that befalls a person that others do not benefit from it. Those thirty families, from where were they replaced? It was from Abraham: sixteen from Ketura, twelve from Ishmael, and the other two: “The Lord said to her: Two peoples are in your womb” (Genesis 25:23).