The people of what is referred to as Dor Hapelaga - the Generation of the Dispersion – said: “Come, let us build us a city, and a tower with its top in the sky, to make a name for ourselves; else we shall be scattered all over the world” (Genesis 11:4). Many commentators look to this passage in search of the story’s value lessons.

Midrashic literature provides numerous examples in which the desire to build a tower is interpreted as rebellion against God in the form of a turn to idolatry: “R. Natan says: They all intended idolatry. Here it says ‘to make a name for ourselves’, and there it says ‘Make no mention of the names of other gods’ (Exodus 23:13). Just as the latter refers to idolatry, so does this” (TB Sanhedrin 109a).

As opposed to this, Rashbam (R. Samuel b. Meir, c. 1080-1158) views the passage as reflecting a breach of a Divine directive: “Come, let us build us a city – According to the plain meaning of the text, how did Dor Hapelaga sin? If it was in saying ‘with its top in the sky’, is it not written ‘large cities with walls sky-high’ (Deut. 1:28)? Rather it is because God commanded them ‘be fertile and increase, and fill the earth’ (Genesis 9:1), and they chose themselves a place to settle, saying ‘else we shall be scattered’. Therefore God dispersed them in punishment.” In other words, the verse does not reflect a desire to rebel against God, but rather a refusal to realize his command to “be fertile and increase, and fill the earth”.

Similarly, R. Bahya b. Asher (c. 1250-1340) wrote: “To make a name for ourselves – According to the plain meaning, they wished to settle in one place in order to stay together, and they found a place in Shinar, and they therefore wanted to build themselves a city and a tower that would hold them all – the city as a settlement and the tower as a symbol and sign for all the world to see, so that they would navigate by it and settle in that city and not in some other place.”

We find another approach among modern commentators. For example, Robert Alter suggests:

Although there is a long exegetical tradition that imagines the building of the Tower as an attempt to scale the heights of heaven, the text does not really suggest that. “Its top in the heavens” is a hyperbole found in Mesopotamian inscriptions for celebrating high towers, and to make or leave a “name” for oneself be erecting a lasting monument is a recurrent notion in ancient Hebrew culture. The polemic thrust of the story is against urbanism and the overweening confidence of humanity in the feats of technology (The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary, 58).

Prof. Alter’s comments may have a modern ring, but they reflect an approach that we find even among such commentators as Abravanel (1437-1508):

And thus the sin of Dor Hapelaga was similar to that of Adam and Cain and his descendants, since inasmuch as God provided them with most of the things required for their existence, they were free from any work or toil and ready to dedicate themselves to perfecting their souls. But they were not satisfied with what their Creator had provided in His munificence, and they decided to set their hands and their minds to the mission of building a city that would be their common goal, and a tower in its midst, so that they could join there and become city dwellers rather than inhabitants of the countryside, thinking that their special purpose was an organized state that would allow the continuation of their cooperation and society, which is the highest of human goals, together with all that flows from it in terms of titles and appointments and governments and imagined honors…

Prof. Eliezer Schweid presents what appears to be a synthesis of these various approaches:

The story of the Tower of Babel […] presents the desire to establish human sovereignty that would ensure the independent existence of all people, and that would thereby restore the reality of the Garden of Eden. That desire constitutes rebellion against God’s will that humankind be dispersed throughout the earth and that the nations be separate, and it later results in the audacity to try to scale the heavens to wrest control from God. But this desire is a terrible stumbling block for the people themselves, because they create a despotic regime that will subjugate and oppress them (The Philosophy of the Bible as a Cultural Foundation in Israel, 82).

1. Why would God want to disperse humankind across the face of the earth? Does this purpose reflect the only possible understanding of the phrase “be fertile and increase, and fill the earth”? Does the desire that the human race be dispersed throughout the planet negate the possibility of developing an urban culture?

2. A midrash on parashat Ha’azinu states; “So Jeshurun grew fat and kicked – Rebellion comes from satiety. And so we find in regard to the generation of the Flood that only rebelled against God because it was satiated with food and drink and was comfortable…and so we found in regard to the people of the Tower who only rebelled against God when they were in a state of well-being, as it says: ‘Everyone on earth had the same language’ (Genesis 11:1)” (Sifrei Deuteronomy 318). Does rebellion arise from satiety and well-being rather than hunger and despair? What kind of rebelliousness might the sages be referring to?

3. Abravanel was treasurer to King Alfonso V of Portugal.  After Alfonso’s death, Abravanel was suspected of conspiring against the new king, and sentenced to death. He escaped to Spain, where he served Ferdinand and Isabella until their expulsion of the Jews of Spain forced him to flee to the Kingdom of Naples. Might Abravanel’s biography explain the negative attitude toward government and monarchy expressed in his commentary?