After the Flood human society beings to rebuild itself. The population grows, migration occurs, and people engage in the task of constructing a city for themselves. Interrupting what seems like a relatively normal progression of human activity, Gd comes to scatter the people, thereby putting an end to their building. What is the crime of the Tower of Babel that provokes such punishment from Gd?

Our class recently read an evocative piece by Judy Klitsner from her book Subversive Sequels in the Bible (The Jewish Publication Society, 2009). Klitsner presents the story of Babel in a new and fascinating light by bringing an excerpt from the 19^th-century Lithuanian commentator Naftali Tzvi Yehdua Berlin, known as the Netziv. In his commentary Ha-amek Davar the Netziv gives his own take on the crime of the builders of Babel. Often, and as is interpreted by the great medieval French exegete Rashi, the crime of the tower of Babel is that the people were rebelling against Gd by building a tower to reach the heights of heaven. The Netziv, however says that the purpose of the tower of Babel was not to reach to heaven, but rather to serve as a look out tower so that the small group of builders could survey and control all the people of the land. He draws on the textual phrase “devarim ahadim” or singularity of speech among the people and paints the picture of a totalitarian-like state where no one was allowed to deviate from the party line. As Klitsner sums it up, “The great Tower of Babel was nothing more than a watchtower that was meant to keep foreign ideas from flowing in and people from fleeing out.”

The articulation of the Netziv resonates for me. It makes sense that, as humanity began to take shape and grow, a natural inclination was for differing ideas, language and action to develop. Differences can be difficult to understand and therefore viewed as threatening. Because of this, it seems understandable that during these early stages of humanity’s development some group of people desired to create a uniformity of thought and action. In order to manifest this uniformity, it became necessary to create enforcement mechanisms. A tower was built, watchpersons were put in place, and Gd is forced to undo this stifling of individuality and creativity.

Right now I am reading Dave Eggers’s Zeitoun (Vintage Books, 2009). It is a true story recounting one man named Zeitoun’s experience of Katrina. For those who haven’t read it: Zeitoun decides not to follow the mandatory evacuation and to stay behind in New Orleans to help look after his property and to help others struggling in the city. He owns a small canoe and in the days after the flood he paddles around finding those who need assistance. In the initial days after the storm he brings food to starving dogs, rescues disabled people from their homes and provides assistance to any who seek it.

In the part I am reading right now, Zeitoun is arrested by some sort of military body for no legitimate reason and is handcuffed, threatened, coerced, strip searched, and locked up in a makeshift outdoor jail and then a maximum-security prison. When he asks a guard why he has been arrested he is mocked and called an Al-Quaeda operative. In the days after he is locked up hundreds more are treated similarly and thrown into the Guantanamo-like makeshift jail and eventually brought to the prison as well. The stories he recounts described horrible, inhumane treatment that strips the “prisoners” of their dignity and humanity. The only crime that most of these people had committed was remaining in New Orleans after the mandatory evacuation. After they are arrested not one thought is given to their circumstances, to their need to contact family to let them know they are still alive, or to the people they had been helping and saving in the days before.

I cannot pretend to grasp he state of utter confusion and fear during those first few days after Katrina that drove people to various states of temporary insanity. But it is so striking this human tendency to lock up, control, and coerce one another in the face of fear. This army was so terrified and therefore had such a need to suppress and control that it locked up any individual it found on the street and forced them into identical jail pens, wearing identical uniforms, eating identical food. We are become so afraid of one another, so distrusting of our unique ways of thinking and acting that our automatic response becomes to oppress and control.

Individuality can be scary. This is especially true as the human population continues to grow and problems like the environmental crisis, failing schools, crime, drugs, violence, and war in our world mount. We each hold such different ideas of how to solve these problems that sometimes, in a state of exasperation when we see no hope of moving forward with a common solution, ideas of totalitarianism may float through our minds.

This desire to control and force uniformity comes up all the time. Just the other day I was in the cab on a short ride from the hotel I was staying in to the airport. The cab driver was playing a conservative talk radio show during the ride. During those few minutes in the cab I went from a state of disinterest and exhaustion to an intense anger and frustration at the opinions and sentiments I was hearing from the radio host. “This must be stopped!” I thought, “No one should be listening to this!” In my head I screamed, “Turn this OFF!” I wonder, then, just how far does appreciation of diversity and individuality go?