“The whole earth used one language, the same words. It came about that as they traveled from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shin’ar and lived there. They said to one another, ‘Come let’s make bricks and bake them in the fire.’ So they had bricks for building-stone and clay for mortar. Then they said, “Come. Let’s build ourselves a city with a tower that has its top reaching up into the heaven, so that we can make a name for ourselves and not be scattered all over the earth.” (Genesis 11:1-4) In that day, all men had developed and adhered to a type of common trade language that enabled them to move with great precision with whatever they put their hands to do, to the point where Yahweh acknowledged, “At this rate, nothing they set out to accomplish will be impossible for them!” (Genesis 11:6) Notice also the reference to Elohim acknowledging that the “people are one (echad)” in the same verse. Yahweh is displeased with the people’s unwillingness to seek and obey Him and yet they are trying vainly to be like Him. This is not at all unlike the current global climate today. You can just hear the dissidence in mankind’s language, “Come let’s make bricks and bake them in the fire… Come. Let’s build ourselves a city with a tower that has its top reaching up into the heaven so that we can make a name for ourselves…” This insolent rhetoric is met with the rebuttal from the Divine Council, “Come, let us go down and confuse their language…” (Genesis 11:7) causing an irrespirable collapse of the relied-upon support and a separation and weakening of the people. This week’s parashah speaks with unprecedented authority to today’s modern technologically advanced world. The technology of the community that settled in the plain of Shin’ar was state-of-the-art for its time. The panicle attraction of the nation’s hub was a massive tower that soared high into the sky. Made with fired stone and fixed with mortar, it must have been an imposing sight to behold. Today, man has moved into an era of dependence upon a single trade language. All over the world, English is taught as a mandatory language and technology has invaded the personal space of nearly every individual on earth. English is the standard school curriculum language taught worldwide. There are approximately 1400 languages left in the world today that are still used and less than a dozen used globally for the purposes of science, government, business, and trade. Mobile phones, iPhones, ipads and the internet have become a dependent prosthesis for the masses. Contrary to popular belief, as man moves through the ages, he has advanced and receded in his ability to harness the environment’s riches to produce things. Contrary to the popular scientific linear model, man’s ascent toward technological advancement has ascended and descended many times. Man strives toward the ceiling of atonement with existence, either by way of spiritual means, technological means or a combination of the two. He reaches a peak and falls away. We live in an age of ever-changing and ever-advancing technologies, a super information highway that once steered onto with the purchase of a computer; one is subject to the ever-evolving upgrades and updates of a tool that becomes obsolete before it even leaves the warehouse. For every computer monitor that is built another one becomes out-dated. Cars, while the process is a little slower, are no different, televisions are no different, white goods are no different, DVDs, CDs and USBs, the list goes on. If it is electrical it will one day become obsolete. The generations of people before the Flood had been interested only in themselves; they thought of themselves as supermen and lived each one for himself alone; they used violence and force against their weaker neighbours, paying no attention to laws and rules. The new generation of mankind was different. They stressed the opposite code of living. The individual did not count for himself; he counted only as part of the community, and he had to subject his own interests to those of the group. Had they confined themselves to this kind of social life, all might have been well. But they overdid it. The tremendous strength that grew out of their organization and goodwill made them proud, and their pride made them turn against Elohim. When the languages became divided, the project of the Tower had to be given up. The people divided into various groups and migrated in different directions, settling in all parts of the world. The Tower itself was partly burned and swallowed by the earth. We must be unified in accordance with Yahweh’s will and we must utilise technology, as Yahweh blesses us, to draw closer to Him.
Posted on: Sat, 23 Nov 2013 02:19:46 +0000
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