Everyone speaks the same language, agrees on a shared goal and knows how to work together. At first glance, this seems a promising beginning for humanity after the flood. Yet this very joint enterprise is stopped by divine intervention.
What went wrong at Babel? Was the problem the tall tower, the desire for fame, or the use of the power created when everyone is united?
What do the builders want to achieve?
The story opens with a brief description:
vayehi chol ha’aretz safah achat udvarim achadim.
Translation: The whole earth had one language and the same words.
Genesis 11:1
The people settle in a plain in the land of Shinar, make bricks and plan their building:
vayomru havah nivneh lanu ir umigdal verosho vashamayim vena’aseh lanu Shem pen nafutz al pnei chol ha’aretz.
Translation: They said: Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered over the face of the whole earth.
Genesis 11:4
Ibn Ezra explains that the tower’s height need not be understood literally, as though it could reach heaven. It is a biblical way of describing immense height. He points to a similar description of fortified cities in Deuteronomy. In his reading, the builders wanted to remain together rather than disperse, contrary to God’s intention. Ibn Ezra on Genesis 11:4
Attention shifts from the structure’s height to its purpose: the builders want to secure their continued existence as a group concentrated in one place. The scattering they fear will ultimately be the outcome of their actions.
When the city becomes everyone’s center of power
Sforno offers a sharper interpretation. He says that the leaders of the generation planned to make Nimrod king over all humanity. The tower was to house an object of idolatrous worship whose stature and fame would draw everyone to it, enabling the city’s king to rule them all. Sforno on Genesis 11:4
This is Sforno’s interpretation of the building’s purpose. In the verses themselves, Nimrod is not mentioned in the tower story.
On this reading, the city and tower provide a basis for concentrating political and religious power. Sforno adds that uniformity of language and belief allows the plan to advance without disagreements that might obstruct it. His concern is that one idolatrous worship would dominate humanity, leaving no one to turn toward knowledge of the Creator. Sforno on Genesis 11:6
Unity gives the builders great power. The question is what that power serves.
And yet, they have a merit
Rashi compares the generation of the flood with the generation of the dispersion, as the tower generation is called. He describes the latter as seeking to rebel against God, yet asks why they did not perish from the world as the flood generation did.
His distinction is surprising: the flood generation was marked by robbery and strife, while the tower generation treated one another with love and friendship. Their bonds counted in their favor even though their purpose was wrong. Rashi on Genesis 11:9
Together, the interpretations form a complex picture: unity can enable a dangerous enterprise, while the love between people can still have value. There is no simple answer that human connection is always good or separation always bad. Both the relationships and the purpose people pursue together need examination.
The parashah ends midway through a journey
After the builders are scattered, the Torah traces Shem’s descendants to Terah’s family. Abram and Sarai enter the story, and Sarai is described as barren. Terah takes Abram, Sarai and Lot, and they leave Ur of the Chaldeans for Canaan. But they reach Haran and settle there. Genesis 11:27-32
Ramban explains that Abram is the central figure driving the journey: the travelers leave on his advice and on his account, even though the verse begins with Terah taking the family. Ramban on Genesis 11:31
The transition can be read as a shift in the story’s focus. The city and tower sought to fix humanity in one place; at the parashah’s end, a family sets out on a journey not yet completed.
Parashat Noach closes in Haran, before arrival in Canaan. Abram is already on a journey, but the call that will give it a new direction will be heard only in the next parashah.
More Questions on the Parsha
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