God (using the name of Divine Providence that ensures the future of mankind) came down, examining the motives of the collective effort to build the city and tower. God chose to intervene to ensure that ultimately the Divine presence will be able to dwell with man on earth – עיקר שכינה בתחתונים). If the community as a whole continues as it set out, there would be no room for God to enter man’s world.
God introduces a new element which will pull apart this unity.
Language can be formed from an objective view of the world and how it should be defined. The language man spoke until this time was based on this and was rooted in a tradition that transmitted this. All people spoke one language and uniform words because they had the same basic opinions and attitudes. The differences in dialect were subtle, the result of living apart and under different physical conditions.
Language can also be formed from a subjective view of the world. When language is formed that way, even if the words would be the same from one country to the next, they would mean different things. (see pages 274-277 where Hirsch cites many examples of this distinction)
At the early stages of history, God taught man to speak one language; שפה אחת. This language reflected the unchanging nature of things. Through this language He taught man the nature of things and their purpose. It was God’s Will that man’s wisdom should be based on this view. To call out in the name of God, לקרא בשם השם, means to teach man the nature of things and their purpose, not according to man’s subjective, arbitrary view, but according to God’s view and His Will for mankind. We can only have a clear, objective view of the world if we call things by their right names.
Now a new element penetrated this uniform language, cutting language off from its source. That new element was the self-consciousness of the individual.
God awakened within each individual, his inherent value. Individuals resisted the attempt to be nullified by the power of the community. Individuals’ self respect moved them to break from the “group think” and form their own opinions. Now, individuals would be obstinate, subjective and egotistic. Now, individuals would not accept or submit to any view other than their own, not even to a Divine tradition.
This change in man might seem at first glance to undo God’s plan for mankind but the alternative was much worse. Man as a community had decided to use its power to leave no room for God. Now, the individual would break away from the community. True, people would now leave the good along with the bad, cutting themselves off from the roots of language, the root of how they were to understand the world, but this was now necessary. This path will ultimately bring about man’s redemption.
As individuals form their personal attitudes the uniform language of man withers away (נבלה שפתם). Although on the one hand this is a movement away from the pure and unifying source, this becomes the new path of man bringing God back into the circle of Man. Mindfulness awakens individuals to see beyond a Nimrod, to a Power above. This is now the path to bring back the שכינה.
Perhaps at first people still spoke the same language (שפה אחת) but their opinions were different (no longer דברים אחדים). Ultimately this developed into different languages being spoken.
- This concludes the Torah’s introduction. From this point forward the Torah focuses on the Jewish mission, living according to the Torah, which will facilitate God’s coming into the human sphere. Understanding how the world got to this place, serves to teach Israel its mission.
- (And we see this immediately in the next chapter: Avraham Avinu begins his task by calling out in the Name of God (12:8) as opposed to his contemporaries who wanted to make a name for themselves, as Hirsch points out there. GS)
Ultimately, mankind will come back to God’s objective view of the world and perceive the world in a united way.
כִּי אָז אֶהְפֹּךְ אֶל עַמִּים שָׂפָה בְרוּרָה לִקְרֹא כֻלָּם בְּשֵׁם השם לְעָבְדוֹ שְׁכֶם אֶחָד (צפניה ג,ט)
“For then I will restore to the people a purified language so that they will all call in the Name of God to serve Him with one shoulder (with united strength).
Beraishis 11:5-9
pages 269-280
