Migdal Bavel
בראשית יא(א) ויהי כל הארץ [1]שפה אחת ודברים אחדים. (ב) ויהי בנסעם מקדם וימצאו בקעה בארץ [2]שנער וישבו שם. (ג) ויאמרו [3]איש אל רעהו הבה [4]נלבנה לבנים ונשרפה לשרפה [5]ותהי להם הלבנה לאבן והחמר היה להם [6]לחמר. (ד) ויאמרו הבה נבנה לנו [7]עיר ומגדל [8]וראשו [9]בשמים ונעשה לנו [10]שם [11]פן נפוץ על פני כל הארץ. (ה) וירד ה‘ לראת [12]את העיר ואת המגדל אשר בנו [13]בני האדם. (ו) ויאמר ה‘ [14]הן עם אחד ושפה אחת לכלם [15]וזה החלם לעשות ועתה [16]לא יבצר מהם כל אשר יזמו לעשות. (ז) הבה נרדה [17]ונבלה שם שפתם אשר לא ישמעו [18]איש שפת רעהו: (ח) ויפץ ה‘ אתם משם על פני כל הארץ ויחדלו לבנת העיר. (ט) על כן קרא שמה [19]בבל כי שם בלל ה‘ שפת כל הארץ ומשם הפיצם ה‘ על פני כל הארץ: פ (י) אלה תולדת שם כו‘
[1] Rashi: in Lashon Hakodesh. (But see the Yerushalmi Megillah 1(9) for a machlokes if they spoke Hebrew or the seventy languages.)
Here, the word שפה (“lip”) is always used for “language”; above in the section detailing the seventy nations (say, 10(5)) it always says לשונותם (their “tongue”), that is, the lashon of each individual nation. It seems to me that a “tongue” is something internal, and a “lip” is something more external, superficial. Each nation has its own “tongue”, that is defined by that nation’s essence. As we say in the davening for yom tov, “You chose us from all the nations... and raised us above every tongue” - for the tongue is a way of defining the nation. שפה, “lip” is different. That’s an external thing that doesn’t define a nation. They can speak it, but it’s not really theirs. A trade language, something they can use to communicate with other nations.
This was their relationship at that time to Lashon Hakodesh.
According to this, Hashem did not need to change their languages at the end of this story, just remove the common trade language.
[We can use this same idea to explain some verses in Shemos. Moshe Rabbeinu says to explain why he can’t speak to Israel, ד(י) כי כבד פה וכבד לשון אנכי (“I am heavy of mouth, and heavy of tongue.”) But when sent to speak to Par’oh, he says, ו(יב) ואיך ישמעני פרעה ואני ערל שפתים (“How will Par’oh listen to me - I am blocked in my lips?”)
[בסנהדרין קו: ז"ל ותשא בריתי עלי פיך. אמר רבי אמי: אין תורתו של דואג אלא משפה ולחוץ ע"ש וע' עליו רש"י ומהרש"א שלא פירשו כן.]
[2] Rashi explained 6(17) לכך נקראת שנער, שננערו שם כל מתי מבול עכ“ל: (“Therefore it was called שנער, that the dead of the mabul were shaken down [ננערו] to there.”) They saw before them the end result of all those sins, and did not take musar. On the contrary: they decided to rebel against Hashem, and prevent him כביכול from being able to bring punishment on them again. [“Never again!”]
[3] Rashi: one nation to another. Presumably he explains the whole parsha this way.
[4] They said this before they thought of building the city and tower; they just were learning how to build there.
[5] Not their words: this is just a mention of the situation; there were no regular building materials, but they managed to engineer them.
According to what we’ll see soon, one could explain that till then everyone built with stone and clay, the materials Hashem gave them. But these decided to build in a place that Hashem didn’t design for building. They didn’t want to work with what Hashem gave them. Soon they will add on to this, thinking to take all the good of this world and rule over it, without any servitude to Hashem or recognition of his rulership, or any need to pray to him or receive from his hand כביכול.
[6] Rashi: to plaster the walls. That is, not just as a mortar to join the bricks, but also to use as an overall covering, to combine them all together into a single object, not just a lot of joined individual bricks. This too will fit with their plan for mankind, as we'll see soon. [And see the words of RSR Hirsch: they were going to use חימר (“cement”) as חומר (“clay”) - the glue would become the main ingredient.]
[7] How was this a sin? Breishis Rabbah 38(6) ז“ל מעשה דור המבול נתפרש, מעשה דור הפלגה לא נתפרש עכ“ל (“The generation of the mabul, their sin was explicitly explained, but the generation of the הפלגה’s sin was not explained.”) But of course there are many mefarshim, but in the simple reading it is hard to find a sin. See RSR Hirsch who writes at great length, with extremely careful reading of the verses; for simple people it is hard to see it all in the verses.
See also the words of R’ Chaim Vital, Likutei Torah on Parshas Noach. He explains there how the דור הפלגה used שמות קדושים to capture (משביע) higher forces, with the intention of bring all goodness and wealth below without any subjugation to Hashem above. קבלה היא ונקבל for sure, but it is still our job to see what we can read for ourselves in the pesukim.
[8] בראשית כח(יב) ויחלם והנה סלם מצב ארצה וראשו מגיע השמימה והנה מלאכי אלהים עלים וירדים בו.a12(18) “He dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder standing on the earth, with its head reaching to the heavens; and behold, malachim were going up and down on it.” In Nefesh Hachaim 1(10) he writes at length (and so too throughout the sefer), that the neshama of man is the ladder, and reaches far above into the supernal forces.
Concerning Adam Harishon, our sages say (Chagigah 12a) “Adam Harishon reached from the earth to the heavens... once he sinned, Hakodosh Boruch Hu placed his hand on him and lessened him... Adam Harishon stretched from one end of the earth to the other... once he sinned...
Originally, Adam was the complete master of the world below. There was virtually nothing outside of his control, in the whole world, in all the world, up to the heavens.
I’ve written in other places that after the mabul, Hashem reordered the world in many ways. The intention was to remove the causes of the mabul. One of the changes was that Adam was separated into smaller parts: initially three sons of Noach, and eventually seventy nations. The idea was that no one nation would have access to all the כחות, all the supernal forces of the world. As a result, the world would never be deserving of complete destruction, since it would never be completely corrupt. This lessening (“downsizing”) was kindness from הי"ת, like all the other changes after the mabul, removing from Man those things that he could not do successfully.
This is why the sign of the new bris was the rainbow - light that was one white color, divided into various colors.
Nevertheless, Hashem did not separate the nations from one another completely. They still had a bond connecting them, through their common trade language.
It seems to me that this is the idea of the דור הפלגה’s attempted rebellion. They wanted to use that bond to join themselves completely, to become again like Adam before the mabul. They were making a tower with its head in the heavens, like the level of Adam before the sin. לעשות להם שם, to make for themselves a name: a single identity for all of them together. For only as a unity would they be able to control all the supernal powers of the world - like before.
Since this was their rebellion against him, Hashem in his mercy removed from them this ability, and the responsibility that came with it. He removed the common language and the glue that made them still one. Now they were completely separate, unable to fashion anything together.
[See the Ramchal דרך השם, chapter 2(4(2(3))), where he explains that after the דור הפלגה, it was no longer possible for an individual nation to reach shleimus. I’m wondering if that’s because they had lost their remaining connection to לשה"ק.]
The gemara in Chagigah learned out the extent of Adam Harishon from a verse in Va’eschanan,
דברים ד(לב) למן היום אשר ברא אלהים אדם על הארץ ולמקצה השמים ועד קצה השמים הנהיה כדבר הגדול הזה או הנשמע כמהו. (לג) השמע עם קול אלהים מדבר מתוך האש כו‘.
D’varim 4(32-33) “From the day that Hashem created Man on the earth, and from one end of the heavens to the other, has there ever been a thing like this, or has such been heard of? Where has a nation heard the voice of Hashem speaking from amidst the fire...”
The verses are speaking of Matan Torah at Har Sinai. There Israel combined into “one man with one heart”, a complete fulfillment of what the דור הפלגה schemed to do.
[See also the verses there, how Israel was able to perceive completely that Hashem is one, without any physical form or physical connection at all. Only those who contained within themselves all the forces of this world would be capable of such a recognition.
And see also Daniel 3, the story of the image of Nevuchadnezzar. He wanted the princes of all the nations of the world to bow to it. Perhaps by this he also wanted to bind the world together under his rule, as I’ve described here. (The Malbim there explains similarly: His goal was to prevent his dream, the image with head of gold and shoulders of silver and belly of copper etc. - Hashem's decree that his kingdom would end and be replaced by Persia and Media, and them by Greece etc. Therefore he made an image that was all gold, see the Malbim's wondrous words there. And see also the midrashim that he brings, that the Valley of Dura where Nevuchadnezzar made his image, was the same place as the Tower of Bavel.)
And see Esther Rabbah 2(1), where Achashveirosh wore the clothes of the Cohen Gadol at his seudah. For the cohen gadol carried on himself the names of all the tribes of Israel, on his shoulders and on his heart, as it says in Shmos 28(12,29). By means of this, one man combined all the strengths of Israel, which is why he was to go into the Kodesh Kodoshim, which no other man can do, and Hashem held nothing back from him. Thus, Achashveirosh came, in his mistaken thinking that Israel would never be redeemed (Megillah 11b), and made a great feast with all the princes of the nations before him, and wore the clothing of the cohen gadol.]
[9] They wanted to do something brazen against Hashem, to build something to the heavens. This was like the sin of Adam and Chava, who listened to the nachash, “והייתם כאלהים” - you shall be like gods.
[10] At the end of Parshas Breishis, the wicked mighty ones were called אנשי השם, the men of Name. And in that same section was mentioned Shem ben Noach. So too here, Shem ben Noach will be mentioned near to their attempt to create their Shem. And see Dasan v’Aviram in Parshas Korach, who were also called אנשי שם. All of these tried to create their own false Shem, not like Shem ben Noach, who was Name in his essence.
[11] The Rambam brings those who say that this was their sin: they didn’t want to be scattered, whereas Hashem had said to fill the earth. But see Rashi, who seems to say that this was the cause of their sin rather than the sin itself.
[12] It sounds as though these were the essence of their sin.
[13] Rashi: sons of Adam Harishon. For these too wanted to be like gods, masters, not servants to הי"ת.
[14] See Rashi’s words: “All this kindness...” For it is a great kindness to be one, without war or machlokes.
[15] Not only didn’t they recognize Hashem’s kindness, they took advantage of it to rebel, turned it into a weapon כביכול against its creator.
[16] It certainly sounds as if without Hashem’s intervention, their scheme was workable and could succeed.
[17] RSR Hirsch, נובל, wither. As we’ve discussed above, not to take away their tongues, but to remove the extra ability to converse together in לשה"ק.
[18] Rashi: זה שואל לְבֵנָה וזה מביא טיט, וזה עומד עליו ופוצע את מוחו. “This one asked for a brick and that one brought mortar - the first rose against him and smashed his skull.” It seems a remarkable thing to say: Why such an extreme reaction? Wouldn’t it be enough if he couldn’t build the city, since he didn’t get his brick? But we think of mankind as being higher than the animals largely because he is a “מדבר”, capable of speech. As long as people can speak with one another, even if they are different nations, they think of each other as human. The minute they can no longer speak, they start thinking of the others as animals, and it’s permissible to kill them. It is well known how great a distance it creates between people when they have trouble speaking together.
[19] Not the Name that they wanted to create. And now this new name is established on the place, and one wonders what relationship it has to the golus in Bavel and the Talmud Bavli, וצ"ע.
אחר כתבתי כל זה, שוב מצאתי כמעט הכל והרבה יותר בדברי הר“מ אלשיך עה“ת, ברוך שכוונתי לקצת דבריו הקדושים ע“ש.