Commentary for Genesis 11:1

שפה אחת ONE LANGUAGE — The Holy Tongue (Hebrew) (Midrash Tanchuma, Noach 19).

ויהי כל הארץ שפה אחת. The whole earth had a single language. We must give some thought to the intent of the generation that built the Tower. What exactly did they mean to achieve by means of a city and a tower? If all they had in mind was to give expression to some aspect of heresy, how was that expressed by their building plans? If indeed their heresy was of a serious nature, their punishment, i.e. scattering them over the globe, seems an inadequate punishment. How would that punishment cure them of their heresy? The words ועתה לא יבצר מהם כל אשר יזמו לעשות, "Must not everything they are planning to do be withheld from them now?," are difficult. This line poses severe problems for a believer. Why did they say: "we will build a city for ourselves?" Who else was there to build a city for? Besides, did not G'd want mankind to construct a civilised universe? Surely He did not want a bunch of cave-dwellers?

ויהי כל הארץ, the Torah does not mean the earth, of course, but all the people on earth.

...One language - that is what caused the first sin. This is that they agreed to stop in one single place. And this is against the will of God that said to "fill the land and replenish it" - that is, to walk to all its places, since the land was created to be settled.

The holy language. For if it was another language, there would not be only one language [on earth, as the holy language remained until this point.]. For all agree that the world was created with the holy language, as Rashi explained on (2:23): “The man said, ‘This at last... shall be called אשה.’”

Wir haben schon oben gesehen, dass aus ganz natürlichen Ursachen die Menschen in verschiedene Gruppen und in Folge davon in verschiedene לשונות auseinandergingen. Allein diese לשונות waren keine gänzliche Entfremdung der Sprachen, und wie לשון zu שפה sich äußerlich verhält, so auch übertragen auf ihr Produkt, die Sprache; sie hatten eine Lippe, aber verschiedene Zungen, d. h. es war noch immer eine Sprache, die nur in verschiedenen Mundarten gesprochen wurde. שָפָה heißt ja eigentlich der Rand, und zwar nicht das Ende, wo ein Gegenstand durch Störung aufhört, sondern wo er sein natürliches Ende findet, diejenige Grenze erreicht hat, die er erreichen soll und so zum Abschluß gekommen ist. Daher ספה allgemein: einen Gegenstand sein natürliches Ende finden lassen, und auch: etwas versorgen, einer Sache ihr Genüge geben, wovon מספוא: Futter. שפה heißt nun Lippe als die Grenze, der Abschluß des Innern, das, wodurch jemand sein Inneres abschließt. So wie שפה also eigentlich die ganze Mundhöhle repräsentiert und לשון nur das einzelne Organ, das den Hauch gestaltet, so kann לשון die verschiedene Mundart bezeichnen, שפה aber nur die Sprache im allgemeinen. Ungeachtet der verschiedenen Mundarten war doch noch die Sprache eine. Wir dürfen nicht vergessen, dass nahe an 400 Jahre zwischen der Sündflut und dem דור הפלגה liegen, in welchen die natürliche Verbreitung des Menschengeschlechtes und die daraus hervorgehende mundartliche Modifizierung der Sprache sich hinlänglich vollziehen konnte, die gleichwohl noch שפה אחת, noch eine Sprache blieb.

ודברים אחדים AND ONE SPEECH — They came with one plan, saying: “He has no right to select the heavenly regions exclusively for Himself; let us ascend to the skies and make war upon Him”. Another explanation (of דברים אחדים which is taken to mean “words referring to “One”): words regarding the Sole Being (God) in the Universe. Another explanation of ודברים אחדים is: they spoke דברים חדים “sharp” words; they said, “Once in every one thousand six hundred and fifty six years (the period that elapsed from the Creation to the Flood) there is a heaven-shaking, just as there was in the days of the Flood. Come. then, and let us make supports for it” (Genesis Rabbah 38:6).

...And the same words - The text did not explain what those words were, rather, it leaves as a hint, as explained in midrashim. But the words themselves are not explained by the text, it just tells us that they were the same words, to teach us that it wasn't because of the content of the words themselves that the Holy One of Blessing was distressed. They were what they were, and in its simplicity there is not sin, and on the contrary all appears well. But here what happened is that all thought the same thing, and this came to be the problem of the settlement.

שפה אחת, everyone was speaking the same language, i.e. Hebrew, as we pointed out already in connection with Genesis 5,4.

Another explanation: Against the Sole Being of the universe. There is a question on the first explanation: Why does it not say בדברים אחדים (with conforming words)? Thus Rashi says, “Another explanation...” But this answer also raises a difficulty: Why does it not say ודברים אחרים (and other words)? Thus Rashi offers the third explanation, which interprets דברים אחדים to mean דברים חדים (sharp words). (Maharshal)

If we accept the view of the sages that G'd intended one third of the earth to be under cultivation and civilisation, one third desert, and one third water, if you were to line up all the cities side by side even now several thousand years later, they would not cover one hundredth of a third of the available land mass! Most of the earth would remain desert, or at least uninhabited! It seems therefore that the roads linking one town or village to another are all considered as part of the "built up" areas that are to form approximately one third of the earth's surface. When the Torah reports that the people spoke one language and דברים אחדים, were of one mind about all important issues, the meaning is that they literally congregated together without spreading out at all. To prevent becoming scattered they built a single city. They built the tower as a landmark so that if anyone of them strayed too far from home he would be able to orient himself by seeing the tower from a distance. The "name" the Torah speaks of is the "name" of the tower, i.e. its visibility from afar, its significance. It was this very reluctance to comply with G'd's intention to populate various parts of the earth which annoyed G'd. Had they not been endowed with free choice, they never could have defied G'd's plan for an evenly populated earth in this manner. G'd therefore had to resort to some stratagem to frustrate their plan without interfering with their basic freedom of choice. G'd achieved this by confusing their uniform language. Henceforth people who had a language in common would tend to congregate together, and as a result of a common language they would choose to live together. This could only be accomplished through their migrating from what used to be a central location, or what we are fond of calling "the cradle of civilisation." G'd's whole purpose was to fill the earth with people. The sin of wanting to remain together in one location was almost as serious as outright heresy, being מקצץ הנטיעות. While it is true that there are numerous mystical angles to this episode, and our sages elaborate on many of them, none of these explanations represent the plain meaning of the text.

ודברים אחדים ist nicht dasselbe wie שפה אחת .שפה אחת ist die phonetische Einheit der Sprache, die auf der organischen Gleichheit beruht. דברים אחדים ist die Gleichheit der Wort- und Satzbildung, die aus der geistigen Übereinstimmung in Anschauung der Dinge und ihrer Beziehungen hervorgeht. Der Verwandtschaft von דבר mit תוב ,טור ,דור ,תפר die alle eine Verbindung mehrerer gleichartiger Dinge bezeichnen, haben wir bereits gedacht. Auch in דבורה: Bienenschwarm, und דברה: Floß, sowie דבֶר: Hürde, und דבר: das Führen einer Menge, tritt diese Bedeutung deutlich hervor. Jedes Wort ist phonetisch eine Verbindung mehrerer Laute, sowie als Gedankenausdruck die Verbindung mehrerer Merkmale zu einem Begriff ( — Begriff selbst bezeichnet das Zusammengreifen mehrerer Merkmale —) und als Satz- und Redeinhalt die Verbindung mehrerer Gedanken zu einer Einheit; alles dies bezeichnet דבר. Es war somit noch das Menschengeschlecht organisch und geistig in Gutem und Bösem in harmonischem Einklang.

ודברים אחדים, they were of one mind. The פה, “mouth,” i.e. the organ used to verbalise thoughts in one’s mind, is used also elsewhere to describe unanimity, such as in Joshua 9,2 להלחם עם יהושע ועם ישראל פה אחד, “to make war against Joshua and Israel, unanimously.” All these kings were united in making common cause against the invading Jewish armies. In our verse, the people all agreed that the time had come to move down from the mountainous regions around where the ark had run aground and to search for a valley with abundant water supply, good topsoil, etc, a region where they could all live near one another in comfort and safety. This occurred approximately 340 years after the deluge. It appears that Noach and his sons as well as Ever were not part of this consensus, as they were smart enough and righteous enough to understand what this might lead to. Noach still possessed books written prior to the deluge as well as books that had been written by people enjoying a long lifespan after the deluge. In these books the history of mankind had been recorded and the memory of G’d having communicated directly with man in the very early stages of human history had been preserved. Avraham was already 45 years of age during the generation of the Tower, the dispersal. According to some scholars (Bereshit Rabbah 30,8, he was either 45 or 48 years old when he became truly aware of G’d the Creator.) Other sages credit Avraham with having gained such knowledge already at the tender age of 3. At any rate, Noach and family were convinced that G’d had created the universe for no other purpose than to settle all or most of it. They came to this conclusion by simply noting their population increase and the inadequacy of the environment in which they lived at that time. They knew also that even the new plan to settle all of mankind in one single irrigated valley would not be a solution for the long term. Although they knew all this, they decided to go along with the majority opinion at that time and to preserve the positive values of unity and a common language among all men. According to Bereshit Rabbah 38,6 the plan to congregate and build the Tower was already idolatrous in its inception, their argument being that G’d cannot lay claim to the heaven to assign only earth as the domain of man. They wanted to assert their independence from G’d’s control of their fates. [The language used in the Midrash is obviously not to be taken literally, i.e. ”conquest of heaven and placing a sword in the hand of a statute placed there by man,” but is a figure of speech describing the people’s urge to assert their sovereignty on earth. Ed.]

ומגדל וראשו בשמים, clearly this is a figure of speech, no one having been foolish enough to believe that it was possible to build such a structure.