Spiritual and
Ethical Issues in the Historical Books of Tanach;
JOSHUA, JUDGES, SAMUEL, KINGS (Nevi’im Rishonim) These four books ostensibly are merely the history of Israel from the entry into the Promised Land until the destruction of the Temple and the temporary loss of independent statehood. In fact they are actually, in a specifically Jewish sense, the most deeply religious and spiritual books of the Bible. One does not have to be specifically Jewish to see or feel the religion and spirituality in the revelations of the prophetic writings or in the words of the Tehillim. They speak to all people, as evidenced by the fact that the Bible is still the world's bestseller and there are millions of non-Jews who regularly recite the Psalms. However, it is specifically and intrinsically Jewish to understand that G-d is revealed in the prosaic material, in the political, social and military events in the lives of ordinary men and women, kings and leaders that are described in the Nevim Rishonim. Here are described the ideology and religious thoughts in Judaism, while in Chronicles we have the purely historical. "THE WHOLE WORLD WAS
OF ONE LANGUAGE" B'reishit 11:1 "All the people lived close together. They feared that they would spread out and be distanced from one another so they wanted to build a tower around which they could huddle. The tower would serve as a signal as to where the centre was and also as a beacon in case they wandered off. However, that was contrary to G-d's purpose in creating the world. The world was created partly as settlements, partly as desert and partly as intermediate areas, so that people could find diverse areas of settlement, move between them and enlarge or contract their settled areas. Hashem wanted the world to be widely populated and mankind in its diversity to develop it and conquer it, to their benefit. By building their tower, they wished by their unity to thwart His plan to benefit the world, so Divine Justice destroyed their unity of language and settlement" (Or HaChayim). The text uses the word disperse, rather than wandered off, to demonstrate clearly that their scattering was neither voluntary nor gradual but rather enforced and immediate, thus denoting Hashem's punishment. "Come, let us make bricks and burn them… Come, let us build a city" (11:3). "Elsewhere one built with stone and cemented with clay; both are materials provided by nature. Here they used artificial man-made products, bricks and mortar" (Rabbi S. R. Hirsch). We may argue that the plain of Bavel had no natural building materials, but if we remember that the Torah does not spell out the sin of that generation, perhaps we can discover another meaning to their actions. "The sin of that generation was simply a continuation of the sin of the generation of the Flood. While Hashem in His goodness and wisdom provided for their livelihood and wellbeing, so that satisfying themselves with a life of enough, they could busy themselves with affairs of the soul and the spirit that Hashem planted in them. However, they did not content themselves with the natural bounty He had provided. Instead, they devoted themselves to changing the products of nature into the forms they desired" (Abarbanel). "Let us make a name for ourselves" (B'reishit 11:4). They wanted to build a tower that would reach to heaven for purpose of idolatry; SHEIM, name, being a reference to idols (Sanhedrin 109a). Did they imagine that they could reach Heaven and do battle with Hashem? Not even the most stupid of people could think of that possibility. Rather they sought different ways to worship idols instead of G-d. There was the idea that there are two authorities in the world, Hashem and others; perhaps the others were a satan or the forces of evil or of darkness that warred with G-d. Perhaps, it was fear of another Flood that prompted their revolt against Heaven, seeing the building of the Tower of Bavel as a sort of protection. "However, this was the suggestion of Nimrod, who believed that the fame of the tower and the city would impress all men, so that they would then worship the ruler" (Sforno). How wise were our Sages who in many similar comments described the idolatrous power of the search for fame, of the lure of military power, of the passion for monuments to human knowledge and achievements. Not only can all of these lead to the worship of individuals, ideology and states but there is the human fear of death and the resultant search for ways of immortalizing themselves. Think of those engineering and architectural wonders, the Pyramids, built like the Tower of Bavel not for a productive purpose but solely for fame. Think of the rivalry of business people, not for wealth that they lack but for the fame that the wealth will bring or the jealousy of scientists and scholars that can lead to the misuse of knowledge or even its falsification, in order to achieve acclaim and prestige. Then it becomes easy to understand Chazal's equating of the desire of Nimrod's generation to reach heaven and make a name for themselves. It is difficult to understand why all our commentators see the sin of the Generation of the Tower, as some form of technology, political or economic development, when these are essential for the welfare and benefit that Hashem desires for His Creatures. There is nothing intrinsically evil about material development, about science and technology, or about urbanization and centralized government. However, when these are carried out free of the fear of G-d then evil must result. "And they traveled away from 'Kedem'", can be understood as a simple description of their travels from Northern Mesopotamia where the Ark had rested to the Plain of Shinar-Bavel in the South. Comments the Maharam of Rotenburg on this verse: "In Shabbat (117a), Rabbi Chiyah ben Chanina explained the verse 'When they traveled from the camp' (B'midbar 10:34), [that is when the murmurings about the lack of meat began], as, they turned against G-d. So too, here they journeyed away from G-d, the Kedem, the Ancient, of the World". So Avraham answered Avimelech's question as to how dare he suspect the civilized Philistines of being capable of murdering a man in order to take his wife: "Behold I understood that there is no fear of G-d in this place" (B'reishit 20: 11). This is the 94th installment in Dr. Tamari’s series on “Tanach and its messages for our times” [The
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