We Can Make for Ourselves a Name
Senior Sermon/Noah 5784
There was a time when all the inhabitants of the earth spoke a single language —more than that, when they spoke, they used the exact same words. All of humanity gathered in a single place, the Valley of Shinar. Our species was united in a way it hadn’t been since the first days of creation, and the people sought to keep it that way. הָבָה נִבְנֶה־לָּנוּ עִיר וּמִגְדָּל וְרֹאשׁוֹ בַשָּׁמַיִם. “Come,” they said, “let’s build for ourselves a city and a tower reaching towards heaven.” וְנַעֲשֶׂה־לָּנוּ שֵׁם. “And let’s make for ourselves a name,” פֶּן־נָפוּץ עַל־פְּנֵי כָל־הָאָרֶץ, “lest we be scattered across the face of the earth.” But God had other plans for humanity. And so God confused their language, so they would stop building, so they would disperse.
The story of Babel doesn’t take much space in Torah, but it looms large in our imaginations. And at its core is the assumption that the people of Babel did something wrong, which demanded punishment. Why build a tower whose “head” pierces heaven? To wage war, says the Talmud, against God. What proves this? וְנַעֲשֶׂה־לָּנוּ שֵׁם. Names are not nothing in Torah; God Godself is known as The Name, השם. Surely, this aspiration to make a name suggests idolatry. But if that’s what Torah meant, then why not say it directly? As Rashbam notes, we need not complicate matters; the people explicitly state their aim in building the Tower: פֶּן־נָפוּץ עַל־פְּנֵי כָל־הָאָרֶץ, to prevent their being scattered across the earth. And of course, that’s exactly what happens: God scatters the people. And if that’s how the story ends, then it stands to reason that God is bothered not by their construction, but by their concentration.
How, then, do we explain God’s rationale for intervening?הֵן עַם אֶחָד וְשָׂפָה אַחַת לְכֻלָּם וְזֶה הַחִלָּם לַעֲשׂוֹת וְעַתָּה לֹא־יִבָּצֵר מֵהֶם כֹּל אֲשֶׁר יָזְמוּ לַעֲשׂוֹת. “If one people with one language is capable of this, there’s nothing they won’t attempt.” If we are already inclined to read this as a story of rebellion, this certainly sounds ominous. It suggests that God thwarts the people because their unity is a threat.
But is it really? As the Radak says, only a fool would believe that a man-made structure could ever touch heaven. As even the Talmud admits, if their intention was to reach heaven, they were fools to build in a valley. And since when is God threatened by a challenge? The God I know welcomes a challenge, and laughs when bested. I’m not sure why our ancestors saw God as reactionary, driven by fear and self-preservation. In my view, there is another way to read this verse, with God acting, not as adversary, but as aid…
