Mayim Hayim – Noah 5767
Let us examine two points from Parashath Noah, both having to do with Mighdal Bavel – the “Tower of Bavel”. The beginning of chapter 11 in the Book of Bereshith describes the scenario that led to the desire and the construction of the Mighdal Bavel . The verse says (Ber. 11:1), “Va’yhi chol ha’aretz safah ehath u’dvarim ahadim.” – “And the whole world was one language and one in policy.” The Torah states explicitly that all of mankind at that time (1996 years after Creation, 1764 B.C.E.) spoke one language.
What language did they speak? Rashi on the words safah ehath says Lashon HaQodesh – The Holy Tongue. Similarly, Targum Onkelos translates it to the Aramaic lishan hadh – one speech, as do both Targum Yonathan (mistakenly attributed to Yonathan ben ‘Uziel) and Targum Yerushalmi (both know to ha e been authored in the Land of Israel), who further explain it to mean Lishnan Qudhsha, like Rashi.
Ibn ‘Ezra (Rabbi Avraham ben ‘Ezra) concurs, translating safah ehath as lashon ehath, adding that “it makes sense (qarov) to me that it was Lashon HaQodesh”. The Ibn ‘Ezra is not necessarily basing his comments here on Agaddic sources; he is a super-rationalist commentator who utilizes strict linguistic methodology in his analysis.
The Lashon HaQodesh that all of these sources are speaking about is Hebrew, the original Hebrew that the Creator used to create the universe (recall that creation was accomplished through speech – “And God said let there be light, and there was light”, etc.). One could reasonably make the claim that this original Hebrew was somewhat different from the Hebrew of the Torah, but it is clear that it was still recognizably Hebrew, and not merely an obscure prototype distantly related to Hebrew as well as to other ancient languages.
This is obvious – what other language could be the original language? Norwegian? Japanese? English? Yiddish? The assumption throughout the Torah is that the original language was Hebrew. If the Torah says something, then it is both true and, in worldly matters at least, should be able to be proven through empirical means, if possible.
The primacy of Hebrew can be demonstrated by the otherwise unexpected relationship between such words as Adam (man, Mankind, human, humanity) and adamah (earth, dirt, ground). Why else would humanity be called Adam, if not for the Torah’s reason?
Man is called Adam because he was formed “’afar min ha’adamah “ (2:7) – “dust from the ground”. One could easily challenge this derivation, because other things are also described as being “min ha’adamah” : certain trees, including the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (2:9), and land animals and birds (2:19).
Adam, however, is the only one in Creation who is told and thereby made aware that he will eventually return to the adamah. Part of his punishment for eating from the Tree of Knowledge against God’s direction was that “By the sweat of your brow you will eat bread until you return to the adamah.” (3:19). He is named Adam to remind him that he chose to identify with his physical, earthly origins instead of raising himself up to identify with his spiritual, Godly self (“…and He blew into his mouth a living soul” (2:7)).
Standard linguistic theory does not accept the premise that Hebrew was the original language; it claims instead that there were several prototype language roots, such as Indo-European (IE), Proto-Semitic, etc. Since, for example, English and German belong to the IE family while Hebrew belongs to the Semitic family, they are not from the same language source. Most linguists won’t admit to the significance of the Hebrew connection, because it would destroy their carefully constructed but baseless Tower of Babble.
Linguistic theory, like any other theory, need evidence and proofs to back up its claims. If proof can be brought that there is in fact a strong linguistic connection between extremely diverse languages, then the entire linguistic structure falls to the ground.
Groundbreaking work has recently been done to identify Hebrew as the Original Language by Isaac Mozeson in his books “The Word” and more recently “The Origin of Speeches”. He has even given a name to this emerging field, calling it “Edenics”, the study of the roots of language back to Eden. Edenics identifies hundreds of connections between words coming from apparently dissimilar languages. One recognized expert in linguistics even went so far as to exclaim that his work demands a reexamination of our etymologies (word origins).
His research can be a powerful tool to demonstrate and reiterate the truth of the Torah itself. It is an essential field of research, which we will refer to often in these pages. It is not just another word game, another fruitless pursuit, but an important and enlightening field of study that supports fundamental issues in the study of Torah.
Now that we have examined this aspect of the underlying scenario behind the building of the Migdal Bavel, let us look at its builders’ motivation for building it. What were they trying to do with this tower? What did they do wrong by building it? What’s wrong with having a tall building? What was the problem with their fear of being dispersed in the first place?
We see in Talmud Bavli 109a that Hazal (our sages of blessed memory) describe the Generation of the Dispersion (Dor HaPelagah) as rebelling against The Holy One, Blessed Be He (mordim BaQadosh Boruch Hu).
The verse describing their self-proclaimed intentions, however, doesn’t seem to say so. “Let’s come and build for ourselves a city and a tower, its head in the heavens; and let us make a name for ourselves lest we be dispersed upon the face of the entire world” (Ber. 11:4).
The Ramban (11:2 beginning with v’ansheh) brings the opinion of those whom he calls the rodfeh ha’pshat (pursuers of literal meaning) who claim that since the verse only states that they were afraid of being dispersed, they obviously had no rebellious intent, but rather just wanted to stay together. The Ramban goes on to challenge the implication of understanding the verse in such a literal way; “they would have been stupid – how could one city and one tower be enough for all the world’s inhabitants?” Rather, they wanted to “cut off the plantings” – cut themselves off from their roots, their roots connecting them to to the Creator.
Historically, a migdal has always been associated with the idea of ‘avodah zarah – idolatry. “Its head in Heaven” is a hint to this – as if to say that they wanted to pierce, to challenge God in Heaven. One language and a unified approach – against The One God. Rabbi ‘Ovadia Sforno says clearly that their desire to make a name for themselves was in reality a desire to practice idolatry. (see Bereshith Rabbah (38:1))
But what kind of ‘avodah zarah were they trying to practice? You don’t need a big tower to practice idolatry. The tower was their attempt to make themselves the world center of idolatry in order to increase their own power. The country or culture that was the base for the supreme deity would become the most important one in the eyes of others. Every nation had its own diety; each wanted its god to be the most impressive, the most majestic, showing others that their god was the best.
Religion has often been the proclaimed vehicle for an underlying plot to gain political power. The thirst for control over others is apparently a very ancient one. Similarly, Christianity and Islam have often been used as a means of achieving power in relation to others. At one time, the Vatican ran the affairs of half the world – for over a thousand years. Mohamed, although nominally preaching service of the One God, was also actually very good at conquering other peoples. The Islam of today continues this legacy, in their attempt, through immigration, high birth rate, conversion, and other means to take over Europe and then the entire world.
We find many times in the prophecies of Yishayahu and other prophets that peace will come only when all people recognize Hashem as the One True God and the Nation of Yisrael as His true representative among the nations (see the second paragraph of the ‘alenu prayer at the end of the three daily prayer services). May we see, and help to bring this reality soon in our days.