The Meaning of Things

The introduction to the account of the Tower of Babel is the verse:

And the whole earth was of one language and of uniform words.                                                       Genesis 11:1

At first glance, one would assume that having all mankind united by a single language is a very positive factor. Yet six verses later, we read of God’s decision to  “confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech”.

The Torah is teaching us a lesson which it teaches many times and in many ways: things, in and of themselves are neither good nor bad. What gives value to things is the way in which we use them.

This lesson was taught in a Midrash on an earlier verse of the parasha. Following the flood, Noah planted grape vines, made wine and got drunk. The Midrash comments that the vine originated in the Garden of Eden. Similarly, the tree planted by Abraham for everyone’s benefit (Genesis 21, 33), was taken from the Garden of Eden. As my father commented, there are those who take the Garden of Eden and transplant it on earth, and others who take the Garden and completely defile it. The Garden of Eden can provide that which benefits man as well as that which causes him to sin and suffer.  What is crucial is the question of how man uses  that which comes from the Garden.

There is another lesson in the contrast between Abraham and Noah. Noah planted for his own benefit, Abraham for the benefit of others. The “Garden of Eden” is more likely to be found in a setting that looks after the needs of others than in a selfish situation.

“The meaning of things lies not in the things themselves, but in our attitude towards them.” Antoine de Saint Exupery