Shabbat-Table Torah Talks

Shabbat-Table Torah Talks: Parashat Noah

By Rabbi Ralph Tawil

Different Languages Different Thoughts

Purpose: The purpose of these talks is to have your family and guests reflect together on important and relevant issues that arise from the weekly Torah portion.

Method: With this portion one might try reading section by section the story and ask for reactions from the table as to how they feel about each of the events described. Alternatively, you can ask if there are any questions from the group. (You could encourage younger members of the group by saying that there are definitely some questions in this section - maybe you could find some of them.) Do not answer the questions during the reading; ask everyone to remember their questions. You should also review and summarize the questions and can use some of them to start the discussion. You may follow the breaks below or use your own breaks if they seem more logical.

Objective: The objective of this talk is to generate a feeling of appreciation for diversity--of language, of ideas, of people.

Text: If most of your children or guests can read Hebrew even if they cannot understand it, then one could read the Hebrew of the verse before reading the translation offered here. The translation used below is that of Everett Fox found in the Schocken Bible. Fox followed the method of the Buber-Rozensweig translation of the Torah into German that tried to capture some of the sounds of the Hebrew, as well as the meaning, at the cost of the syntax of the German. Fox's translation is a fine example of this approach in English.

(For younger groups you could tell the story in words that they can best understand, while looking at the translation.)

Now all the earth was one language and one set of words.
(Is this good? How do you think the world would be if that were the case today?)
And it was when they migrated to the east that they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said, each man to his neighbor: Come-now! Let us bake bricks and let us burn them well-burnt. So for them brick-stone was like building-stone, and raw-bitumen was for them like red-mortar.
(This last line translates the building technology of Mesopotamia, where bricks and bitumen abound, to that of the land of Israel, where at that time, stones were the primary building material.)
Now they said: Come-now! Let us build ourselves a city and a tower, its top in the heavens, and let us make ourselves a name, lest we be scattered over the face of all the earth!
(Give a couple of minutes to analyze this. Why would they want such a thing--to be together and not scattered?)
But Adonay {Hashem, the Lord, God--use whichever is comfortable to you--RT} came down to look over the city and the tower that the humans were building. Adonay said: Here, (they are) one people with one language for them all, and this is merely the first of their doings--now there will be no barrier for them in all that they scheme to do!
(Reactions. How does God view the people's unity? What is wrong in their actions? Answer: God disapproves of the people’s actions because it violates one of God’s wishes and blessings, namely that the people should fill the earth. As it is written (9:1) "Now God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: Bear fruit and be many and fill the earth!")
Come-now! Let us go down and there let us baffle their language, so that no man will understand the language of his neighbor. So Adonay scattered them from there over the face of all the earth, and they had to stop building the city.
(The spectacle of incomplete ziggurat (a multi-staged temple tower that dominated Mesopotamian landscapes) must have been known by the people. Such a ruined ziggurat could have also been the result of attack and destruction by another nation. For example, the Hittite raid on the city around 1600 BCE. —Sarna)

What results when people do not speak the same language? What can result from the much more trying situation when people speak the same language but mean different things by the words they say? (Stifling confusion, hatred, misunderstanding). How can we overcome the problem of the multiple meanings of words when we are discussing issues? (Being on guard that your partner in the discussion might be and probably is using his words somewhat differently than you are and ask questions that help clarify his precise meaning. Be aware that maybe that is the reason that you are not being understood by him.)
Points for further discussion:

God apparently wanted the people of the earth to fill the earth. As a natural result of being dispersed different languages would develop and with different languages come different perspectives. God wanted man to have varied perspectives on things and to have these perspectives in the very fabric of thought that is language. When the people seek to have a uniform perspective they are going against God’s wishes and are prevented from doing so by God. The mixing up of their languages is the very result that would have occurred had they dispersed of their own accord.

What is the benefit of different perspectives? (To get a better and more realistic sense of complex reality. Two eyes are what gives us depth perception. A neat way of illustrating this is to hold up one finger at arm's length in front of your face. Close one eye and then the other and repeat several times. The finger appears to move—but it does not really. Where is the finger "really"—it depends on your perspective. The full sense of where the finger is can only be perceived when both eyes are used.)

Different languages give different perceptions.

Charity vs. Sedaqqa

When we give to needy people what are we doing - charity or sedaqqa? What is the difference? Charity derives from the Latin word for love and caring. [ charity \Char"i*ty\, n.; pl. Charities. [F. charit['e] fr. L. caritas dearness, high regard, love, from carus dear, costly, loved; asin to Skr. kam to wish, love, cf. Ir. cara a friend, W. caru to love. Cf. Caress.] 1. Love; universal benevolence; good will.]

Sedaqqa derives from the Hebrew word for justice. Although love might be a more intense emotion, justice is more widespread and therefore obligating to more people. If I am giving charity I might give it to people that I could feel love towards. Being an agent of social justice by giving sedaqqa is a much more universal obligation.

Goodbye vs. Shalom

What to we say when leaving someone? "Goodbye," which is a contraction of "God be with you,"; or "shalom," "peace," which derives from "shalem," which means "whole" or "complete." Grandma always told me "allah ma’ak," which also means "God be with you."

Good-by \Good`-by"\, Good-bye \Good`-bye"\, n. or interj. [A contraction of God be with ye (God be w[i^] ye, God bw' ye, God bwye).] Farewell; a form of address used at parting. See the last Note under By, prep. --Shak.

Application

How can we apply the lesson of appreciating different perspectives in our lives? What does it mean practically? How does good and careful listening play a role? How does genuine interest in another’s opinion play a role?