Words Without Borders

(1) Everyone on earth had the same language and the same words.

(2) And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.

(3) They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them hard.”—Brick served them as stone, and bitumen served them as mortar.— (4) And they 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.”

(5) ה׳ came down to look at the city and tower that humanity had built, (6) and ה׳ said, “If, as one people with one language for all, this is how they have begun to act, then nothing that they may propose to do will be out of their reach. (7) Let us, then, go down and confound their speech there, so that they shall not understand one another’s speech.” (8) Thus ה׳ scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. (9) That is why it was called Babel,*Babel I.e., “Babylon.” because there ה׳ confounded*confounded Heb. balal “confound,” play on “Babel.” the speech of the whole earth; and from there ה׳ scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

AND ABRAM PASSED THROUGH THE LAND. I will tell you a principle by which you will understand all the coming portions of Scripture concerning Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is indeed a great matter which our Rabbis mentioned briefly, saying: “Whatever has happened to the patriarchs is a sign to the children.”

(1) These are the lines of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah: sons were born to them after the Flood. (2) The descendants of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. (3) The descendants of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. (4) The descendants of Javan: Elishah and Tarshish, the Kittim and the Dodanim.*Dodanim Septuagint and 1 Chron. 1.7 “Rodanim.”

(5) From these the maritime nations branched out. [These are the descendants of Japheth] by their lands—each with its language—their clans and their nations.

The Episode of the Generation of Seperation

This story, as we have already seen above (pp. 98-99), provides a sort of completion and continuation of the history of Noah's sons in chapter 10, and explains how it happened that the peoples of the world, even though they come from the same family, speak different languages ​​from each other. However, his main intention here is not to give an answer to an academic question about the reality of languages. At its core it is indeed an etiological story, but within the Torah passages it does not serve a purely etiological purpose.

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An etiological myth , or an etiological story, is a story that comes to explain a custom, tradition, social norm or other natural or social phenomenon. In the book of Genesis , there are many etiological mythologies, such as the shape of the snake , which is explained as a punishment imposed on it by God for tempting Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge , the existence of different languages ​​is explained through the story of the Tower of Babel , and the rainbow , following the flood , is a divine sign so that there will not be another flood. see

With regard to the revelation at Sinai, Rabbi Yoḥanan said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “The Lord gives the word; the women that proclaim the tidings are a great host” (Psalms 68:12)? It means that

each and every utterance that emerged from the mouth of the Almighty divided into seventy languages, a great host.

And, similarly, the school of Rabbi Yishmael taught with regard to the verse: “Behold, is My word not like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that shatters a rock?” (Jeremiah 23:29). Just as this hammer breaks a stone into several fragments, so too, each and every utterance that emerged from the mouth of the Holy One, Blessed be He, divided into seventy languages.

...it says: “All the people were seeing the voices” (Exodus 20:15). Voice is not written here, but “voices.” Rabbi Yoḥanan said: The voice would emerge and divide into seventy voices for seventy languages, so that all the nations could understand.

...

Come and see how the voice would emerge to each one of Israel, each and every one in accordance with his capability; the elderly according to their capability, the young men according to their capability, the children according to their capability, the nursing babies according to their capability, the women according to their capability, and Moses, too, according to his capability, as it is stated: “Moses would speak, and God would answer him with a voice” (Exodus 19:19), with a voice that he could withstand. Likewise it says: “The voice of the Lord is powerful [bako’aḥ]” (Psalms 29:4). It does not say His capability, bekoḥo, but rather bako’aḥ, according to the capability of each and every one...

Another matter: “God spoke all these matters, saying” – Rabbi Yitzḥak said: What the prophets are destined to prophesy in each and every generation, they received at Mount Sinai, as Moses says to Israel: “Rather, with him who is here with us standing today [before the Lord our God], and with him who is not here with us today” (Deuteronomy 29:14). It is not written here, “standing with us today,” but rather, “with us today.” These are the souls [of people] who are destined to be created, which lack substance, in whose regard standing is not stated. Even though they were not there at that moment, each and every one received his due.....

Not only did all the prophets receive their prophecy from Sinai, but all the Sages who arise in each and every generation, each and every one received their [wisdom] from Sinai. Likewise it says: “These words the Lord spoke to your entire assembly (Deuteronomy 5:19).
“A great voice that did not cease” (Deuteronomy 5:19) – Rabbi Yoḥanan said: One voice that was divided into seven voices, and they were divided into seventy languages.

“Seventy shekels, in the sacred shekel” (Numbers 7:19), why? Just as the numerical value of wine [yayin] is seventy, thus there are seventy aspects to the Torah.

You should know therefore that G'd has granted permission to interpret the meaning of the verses by our using our intelligence in order to do research, even if, on occasion, the conclusions we arrive at seem to contradict the traditional interpretations of the mental giants of earlier generations. This is the meaning of the rule that שבעים פנים לתורה, that there are 70 ways to interpret the Torah. ... When it comes to the interpretations of the meaning of the written text of the Torah you find that the Amo-ra-im frequently disagree with the Tanna-im, the teachers of the Mishnah.

Author: Chaim Ibn Attar (Ohr HaChaim)

Written by Rabbi Hayyim ben Moshe ibn Attar (1696-1743), Or HaChaim is a classical commentary on the Chumash. Rabbi Hayyim was a Moroccan Kabbalist and Talmudist which is reflected in his commentary.

And why do they record the opinion of a single person among the many, when the halakhah must be according to the opinion of the many? So that if a court prefers the opinion of the single person it may depend on him. For no court may set aside the decision of another court unless it is greater than it in wisdom and in number. If it was greater than it in wisdom but not in number, in number but not in wisdom, it may not set aside its decision, unless it is greater than it in wisdom and in number.

§ Rav Kahana says: In a Sanhedrin where all the judges saw fit to convict the defendant in a case of capital law, they acquit him. The Gemara asks: What is the reasoning for this halakha? It is since it is learned as a tradition that suspension of the trial overnight is necessary in order to create a possibility of acquittal. The halakha is that they may not issue the guilty verdict on the same day the evidence was heard, as perhaps over the course of the night one of the judges will think of a reason to acquit the defendant. And as those judges all saw fit to convict him they will not see any further possibility to acquit him, because there will not be anyone arguing for such a verdict. Consequently, he cannot be convicted. §

Rabbi Yoḥanan says: They place on the Great Sanhedrin only men of high stature, and of wisdom, and of pleasant appearance, and of suitable age so that they will be respected. And they must also be masters of sorcery, i.e., they know the nature of sorcery, so that they can judge sorcerers, and they must know all seventy languages in order that the Sanhedrin will not need to hear testimony from the mouth of a translator in a case where a witness speaks a different language.

It also happened that King Ptolemy assembled seventy-two elders and placed them in seventy-two [separate] rooms without telling them the reason for which he had assembled them. He then went to each one of them and said to him, ‘Write for me [a translation of] the Torah of Moses your master’.

The Omnipresent inspired them and the mind of all of them was identical, so that each on his own wrote the [same translation of the] Torah, introducing [the same] thirteen alterations ...