Еврейская мысль к Берешит 4:17

(1) The story of the tower of Babel is the corollary of this newly established covenant. On the one hand, the episode of Noach getting drunk illustrated that the attitudes of his three sons had indeed not remained identical. On the other hand, the Torah seems to stress their unity of purpose which resulted in the enterprise of building the tower of Babel. Mankind believed that their goal must be a unified one, and that all of them should reside close together. Observing the order prevailing in the heavenly constellations and the fact that they all seemed arranged around a central figure, i.e. the sun, they decided to build their civilization by emulating that system. They did this once they had moved into the valley out of their mountain caves, having learned to use rainproof bricks for building.d, in His wisdom, did not intend for mankind to remain closely bunched together. Man erred in believing that their concentration was an end in itself, rather than a means to an end. When urbanization is the means to achieve moral perfection of man, then it is laudatory. (2) Granted that stones and rocks are more enduring building materials than fired bricks, the fact that they were prepared to abandon the former in favor of the latter showed that their primary objective was the policy of clustering together, as stated in Genesis 11,5, "Lest we be scattered on the face of the earth." Having thus traded a higher moral purpose for the lower political purpose of togetherness, G-d decided to interfere before further unwelcome negative manifestations had a chance to develop. Man's collective thinking had become dangerously close to the thinking of Cain, who had excelled at being a "builder of cities" (Genesis 4,17) and who also believed that this would bring him closer to heaven. (4) G-d decided that some physical dispersal, while preserving the spiritual ideal of striving towards moral perfection intact, was preferable to mere physical togetherness. In this way, parallel to the advent of the deluge, a further step was taken towards making man concentrate on the attainment of higher objectives. (5) When G-d "descended," He examined their basic reasoning. When He found that their actions were rooted in their being united, i.e. like a regiment, single-minded and of identical modes of expression, He decided to change the course of their actions and disperse them. Thus, He caused linguistic changes due to change of habitat. Unity henceforth ought to prevail in their striving to become servants of the Lord etc., not in matters pertaining to boundaries etc. Thus, their error was of a kind that did not require further corrective action (punishment). One of the basic lessons we learn is that man must employ his speculative faculties and not remain content with remaining static.