At the beginning of this week’s Torah portion, Noah, we are informed why God decided to destroy the entire world: “The earth became corrupt before God: the earth was filled with lawlessness” (Genesis 6:11). We learn from the Jerusalem Talmud (Baba Metzia 4:2) that people cheated each other for such small sums, that the courts could not prosecute them. People lost faith in the ability of governments to treat them fairly, as anarchy ruled in place of fairness. God would preserve only Noah, his three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth and their families, seven pairs of the clean animals and a male and female representative of each of the unclean ones.

When we reach the conclusion of the portion, we read of the story of the Tower of Babel. What was the “sin” of the people that caused God to confound their unified manner of speech and send them packing across the face the globe? One would think it would be most desirable for everyone to have “the same language and the same words” (Genesis 11:1), given the problems that occurred some generations earlier. The ability to communicate and be understood would be something to be valued. Yet, we read that the descendants of Japheth, including Yavan (the precursor of Greece), became maritime nations who branched out to various lands – each with its language, its clans and their nations (Genesis 10:5). It would seem that the migration of nations was a great blessing both to these peoples and to the world at large, fulfilling God’s blessing to Noah and his sons (Genesis 9:1): “Be fertile and increase, and fill the earth.”

According to the Midrash, the cause for the dispersion of humankind across the globe and the confounding of their languages was caused by the insolence of Nimrod, the son of Cush and grandson of Noah’s son Ham. Nimrod is described as the “first man of might on earth. He was a mighty hunter by the grace of the LORD” (Genesis 10:8-9). Rashi on this verse informs us that Nimrod ensnared people with his words and incited them to rebel against God. He conquered Babel, which became the basis for the empire that he built, as described in the next three verses (Genesis 10:10-12). At the point where we read about the preparations to build the Tower of Babel, the Midrash informs us that Nimrod wanted to build a tower ascending to heaven and from it, wage war against God – not just “to make a name for ourselves; else we shall be scattered all over the world” (Genesis 11:4).

In Deuteronomy 19:19 we learn concerning the case of plotting and scheming witnesses: “You shall do to him as he schemed to do to his fellow. Thus you will sweep out evil from your midst.” So too, God here acts in a similar manner towards the builders of the Tower of Babel, bringing upon the human population of that era the fulfillment of their worst fear – the inability to communicate with one another, which forced them to disperse across the globe.

In truth, one language – Hebrew - and a common purpose would be of great benefit. According to the Midrash, this would have been a great boon to mankind had they taken advantage of the presence of Noah, Shem and Abraham, all of whom were alive at this juncture of time. People chose to ignore the possibility for spiritual growth and focused instead only on personal greed, power and self-aggrandizement.

Rabbi Robert Alpert, a member of the UJC Rabbinic Cabinet, is a rabbi at the East Brunswick Jewish Center in East Brunswick, New Jersey. Just prior to his return to the pulpit rabbinate, he served as an instructor of Judaica for the Upper School of the Charles E Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Maryland.