Friday, October 16, 2015

Two Building Projects

Noach
Genesis 6:9-11:32

PrĂ©cis: The story of Noah (Hebrew: Noach) and Flood appear in this parasha. Noah, called by God, builds the Ark and collects the animals. It rains for forty days and nights. Noah and his family are saved, and afterwards leave the Ark, build an altar, and make sacrifices to God. God sets a rainbow as a promise not to destroy mankind again. Noah plants a vineyard, makes wine, and becomes drunk. An odd incident with sexual overtones takes place with his sons. The story of the Tower of Babel is included in this parasha, and it ends with a genealogy of the ancient peoples of the Bible, concluding with Abram.

Gen. 11:1-9 “All the earth had the same language…and as man migrated from the east they settled in the valley… and they said, ‘let us make bricks….and let us build a city and a tower with its top in the sky, and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered all over the earth.’ Adonai came down and said, ‘If, as one people with single voice this is how they have begun to act, then nothing will be out of their reach. Let us go down and confound their speech.’ Thus Adonai scattered them across the face of the earth.”

            This parasha includes the story of two different building projects. The first, of course, is Noah’s Ark, which is built strictly according to the dimensions and plans that God transmits to Noah. The second is the Tower of Babel, which is built by the inhabitants of that land (all of humanity!) according to their own desires. The first succeeds, the latter fails. What are we to  make of this juxtaposition?
            Rashi notes that the building materials for the Tower were significant:  the inhabitants had to make bricks, because they lived in a valley where stone was not available. Ibn Ezra adds that the inhabitants’ use of bricks showed their belief that they themselves were the creators of their world, and they were free to ignore God’s role in creation. These commentaries seem to point to the conclusion that we succeed when we act with  knowledge of God’s involvement in the world, but fail when we ignore His role.
            Today tech advances come faster than we can cope with them. It’s a fact that many alive have witnessed the introduction of radio, television, passenger aircraft, computers, smart phones, and the internet. The pace of change is by far the fastest in history. We are also proud that Israel is among the world’s leaders in technological advancement.

            Nevertheless, this reading reminds us that the Tower of Babel was a remarkable technological achievement for its time. Humanity suffered a disastrous fate when it forgot God’s role in their achievements. Noah succeeded by following God’s plan, and that the Tower fell when the people of Babel allowed their pride in their own achievements to ignore the Divine. In the face of all of the contemporary achievements, we need to temper our pride and thank the Creator who has endowed us with the ability to make remarkable progress.