Pemikiran Yahudi Ulangan 9:1: Akeidat Yitzchak & Derashot HaRan

(1) The remnants of the antedeluvian giants were found only in the land of the Philistines. Goliath, in the cities of Gat and Ashdod, and the legendary Og in what is today Jordan. Had the Israelites continued on the path that the expulsion by the Egyptians had indicated, they would have sustained losses in the encounter with such kings. They would not have had the faith building experience of crossing the sea on dry land etc. Their lack of self confidence would have been understandable, and the prediction of the Egyptian astrologers that the Jews were marching towards their doom would have been fulfilled. For this reason, G-d made them detour in order that these miracles could be experienced and for the surrounding nations to be duly impressed and frightened by the G-d of the Hebrews. We know from the testimony of Rachav of Jericho forty years later, that there was fear in the hearts of the Canaanites ever since the crossing by the Jews of the sea of reeds and the drowning of the flower of the Egyptian army in those same waters. Even the forty year trek through the desert by the Jewish people, had not diminished that impression. When the Emorite Sichon made war subsequently, G-d had to infuse his heart with obstinacy as well as the hearts of the other kings of Canaan who defended their country against invasion by the Israelites. These had not been natural reactions, but Divinely inspired defensive wars, to enable the Israelites to carry out the conquest of the land, and to enable G-d to fulfil His promise to Abraham and to them.

This was the crucial factor in respect to the generation of the dispersal. There is no doubt that at that time all men held defective beliefs, all of mankind concurring only in their espousal of idolatry, with a few rare exceptions who had tasted and witnessed the goodness of the Light of the World. But even they could not call others to serve the L-rd together from fear of the peoples who were the ruling powers in their lands. So that the first to begin this call, Abraham, experienced what he did at the hands of Nimrod until he was compelled to leave his land and go to a different one. Now, unquestionably, for those righteous men who were unique in those generations the division of peoples and kingdoms was a good and a benefit. For when the people of a certain kingdom would oppress them, they would move on to a different land, where they could serve the L-rd as they desired, as is the case in our present-day exile. For when enforced conversion began in the Arab lands, the Jews fled to a different land, and, thence, back to the Arab lands. And this gave us a lease on life in the midst of our afflictions and our toils. At that time all the world spoke one language and they agreed that there be one head for the entire world, a leader and a regent, and that they not be spread out and divided among their dominions. It is for this reason that they chose a spacious valley, for, unquestionably, most men would choose to be as close as possible to the head of their kingdom. It is for this reason, too, that they agreed to build a tower with its "top in the heavens," that is, as tall as possible (the sense of the phrase corresponding to [Deuteronomy 9:1]: "great cities and fortified in the heavens"). For it befitted him who was chosen as the terrestrial regent to have a palace and a tower so tall as to inspire all who saw it with awe and fear, and to be visible from afar.