One people with one language, and the city and tower they build to make a name for themselves.
The story
As the story opens, the whole earth has one language. People travel, find a valley in the land of Shinar and settle there. In this story the Torah names none of them.
כָל־הָאָרֶץ שָׂפָה אֶחָת וּדְבָרִים אֲחָדִים
Bereshit 11:1
They say to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks and fire them well.” Brick serves them as stone, and bitumen as mortar. Before they say what they will build, the Torah tells what they will build with.
הָבָה נִלְבְּנָה לְבֵנִים וְנִשְׂרְפָה לִשְׂרֵפָה
Bereshit 11:3
Then they say what they will build: a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens. And they say why: to make a name for themselves, and so as not to be scattered over the whole earth. These words are their own. What they mean by a name, the Torah does not say.
God comes down to see the city and the tower that people have built. He says, “They are one people with one language, and this is what they have begun to do. Now nothing they plan will be beyond them.” He goes on, “Let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”
הָבָה נֵרְדָה וְנָבְלָה שָׁם שְׂפָתָם
Bereshit 11:7
God scatters them from there over the whole earth, and they stop building the city. That is why the place’s name is Bavel (Babel): there God confused the language of the whole earth. They wanted to make a name for themselves, and the place’s name recalls what God did there. The story says nothing more about the tower.
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, so that we are not scattered over the whole earth.”
Words from the verse
הָבָהcome, let us
וְרֹאשׁוֹand its top
פֶּן־נָפוּץso we are not scattered
What it teaches: Humility
Knowing your place and not taking pride in what you were given.
The builders were one people with one language, and by God’s own words nothing they planned would be beyond them. They wanted to make a name for themselves, and in the end the place was called Bavel, after what God did there. From this we can learn humility: even great strength does not guarantee a person a name.
A question to sit with
Where am I putting most of my strength these days, and how much of that comes from wanting to make a name for myself?
Questions about the story
What did the builders use in place of stone?
Tree trunks from the valley
Bitumen they gathered from the ground
Bricks they made and fired
Answer
c. Bricks they made and fired
They told one another to make bricks and fire them. Brick served them in place of stone, and bitumen in place of mortar.
What reason do the builders themselves give for building the city and the tower?
To protect themselves from enemies
To make a name and not be scattered
To serve God together
Answer
b. To make a name and not be scattered
They say it themselves: to make a name for themselves, and so as not to be scattered over the whole earth. They give no other reason.
The lesson
A person can build a tower, but cannot choose the name they leave behind.
For this week
This week, when you talk about something you achieved together with others, try mentioning their part first.
From the sources
The Mishnah in Pirkei Avot quotes Hillel the Elder: “One who makes his name great loses his name.” The Mishnah does not mention Bavel, yet it is hard not to hear the builders in it: they set out to make a name, and the story names none of them.
The verses are from Miqra according to the Masorah (Wikisource, CC BY-SA 4.0), via Sefaria, without the cantillation marks. On this site the four-letter Name is written ה׳.
