Gen. 6:9-11:32
Précis: The story of Noah (Hebrew: Noach) and the 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 afterward 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 a 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.”
Here is the familiar story of humanity’s decision to build a tower toward heaven. The Sages seemed to believe that God’s decision to “confound their speech” was to make it impossible for them to be unified and to challenge God’s will. In effect, confounding of speech became the basis for division among the people “scattered across the face of the earth.”
Is that not where we find ourselves today in America? We may speak the same language, but we don’t comprehend what or how the other person can possibly believe it. The divisions in our society are greater than at any time in my memory (and that includes school integration in the 50’s, VietNam and civil rights struggle in the 60’s, the Women’s Liberation Movement of the 70’s, and etc.). Virtually every issue is now political, and “facts” seem to require quotation marks. Some commentators suggest we have not been so divided since the 1850’s, which of course led to the Civil War.
And yet. We have just completed a season of hope that atonement can be achieved for harms done, and that there is hope for the future, despite the looming calamities of climate change, income inequality, racial animus, antisemitism, and war. Indeed, this parasha ends with the introduction of Abraham, selected by God to transform humanity. We must pray and take action for such a transformation, because surely it has happened before and must happen again.
