The Sin of The Tower of Babel

The sin of the Tower of Babel was that is was a totalitarian government. There is no freedom of thought in such a society. God wants us to disagree and debate that way we will arrive at the truth.

A Quick Dvar Torah: The Tower of Babel and the Danger of Totalitarianism

In this week’s parsha, Parshat Noach, we come across two forms of society that the Torah warns us against: anarchy and totalitarianism.

The generation of the Flood represents anarchy. People did whatever they wanted. They robbed, stole, committed acts of violence, and had no respect for private property or the rights of others. There was no effective moral authority. Everybody did as he pleased, and the result was the destruction of civilization.

But at the end of the parsha, we encounter the opposite extreme: the generation of the Tower of Babel.

The entire story of the Tower of Babel occupies only nine verses. That’s it. Yet those nine verses contain a remarkable lesson about the dangers of totalitarianism.

The Torah begins by telling us that the entire world spoke one language and used the same words: Safah achat u’devarim achadim.

Now, think about that for a moment. If everybody spoke the same language, wouldn’t they naturally use the same words? Why does the Torah have to tell us both?

One interpretation is that the Torah is describing something much more sinister than linguistic unity. Everybody spoke the same language, but everybody was also expected to think the same way. There was no freedom of thought, no freedom of expression, and no room for disagreement.

That is the essence of totalitarianism.

The Tower of Babel was a society in which power was centralized. Everybody had to participate in the same project, follow the same leadership, and accept the same ideas.

And that’s what happens in totalitarian societies. You don’t have genuine debates. You don’t have differences of opinion. You don’t question the leadership. You simply do what you’re told.

Now, among Jews, we have a very different tradition. We love to debate. Open a page of the Talmud and what do you find? Arguments! Hillel disagrees with Shammai. Rabbi Akiva disagrees with other sages. We argue back and forth, and that’s perfectly legitimate, provided, of course, that the arguments don’t become personal.

The Jewish tradition recognizes that disagreement can be a source of wisdom.

But in a totalitarian society, disagreement is dangerous.

As they used to joke about the Soviet Union, you had a choice: you could vote for the Communist Party or join the going-away party!

If you didn’t follow the party line, you could find yourself in serious trouble.

Many years ago, I knew a dentist who participated in a professional exchange program with the Soviet Union. He went there to observe how Soviet dentists practiced dentistry.

During one visit, he noticed that a Soviet dentist was treating a patient without Novocaine. Instead, he was using some form of electrical stimulation to control the pain.

The patient was a huge Russian soldier, a big bear of a man. But the treatment was so painful that tears were streaming down his face.

My dentist friend turned to his Soviet counterpart and said, “Excuse me, but that man is obviously in terrible pain. Whatever you’re doing isn’t working.”

And the Soviet dentist replied, “He’s not in pain. They told me he’s not in pain.”

Think about that answer.

The evidence was right in front of him. The man was crying. He was suffering. But none of that mattered because the authorities had declared that the treatment was painless.

In a totalitarian society, truth is not determined by reality. Truth is whatever the authorities tell you it is.

And that brings us back to the Tower of Babel.

The problem wasn’t that people were working together. Cooperation is a wonderful thing. The problem was that unity had become enforced uniformity. Individual judgment and freedom of thought had been sacrificed to the demands of a centralized authority.

The generation of the Flood had too little restraint. The generation of the Tower of Babel had too much control.

One society was destroyed because everybody did whatever he wanted. The other was dispersed because everybody was expected to think and act alike.

The Torah teaches us that neither extreme is acceptable.

A healthy society needs laws, moral standards, and respect for the rights of others. But it also needs freedom of thought, room for disagreement, and limits on the power of those who govern.

The lesson of Parshat Noach is that civilization cannot survive without order, but neither can human freedom survive when order becomes absolute control.

Something to think about.