Tall buildings and Abraham

This discussion topic came as a surprise even to me. Each time we learn new things, either trying to research the topic of interest or developing original ideas, something new and unexpected will come up. At that stage, there are the choices of either opening your mind and following a newly opened path (surely trying to verify as much as you can on the way) or dismissing the newfound information completely. Actually, there is always a third choice – there is always the so-called grey area, where the majority of my knowledge is positioned.

If anything, my preference is not to call it a grey area, but rather a colourful and happy place, where new knowledge is exciting and opens my mind to new horizons. Since at this stage my interest lies with Biblical stories, looking into the building of the tower of Babel was the interest. We grow up knowing about the story regardless of our religious education. This is what one can call a classical story, and in the story itself, there is a lot of critical knowledge which can be used to assess the current situation.

Please allow me to elaborate on it. One of the topics we are all discussing nowadays is borders. If we are talking about personal borders, we will talk about the freedoms and responsibilities each person or group has. In my mind, we have to remember that responsibilities come first, so freedoms can be applied. Furthermore, we have to always keep in mind that every person was created by the Divine, and all the freedoms and responsibilities will come from Him alone.

Should we go more global, the idea of borders will be the basis for immigration, local people, refugees, wars and peace, import and export and so on. However, we are all acutely aware that there was a time in this world when people could travel from one place to another looking for what we refer to as greener pastures. We think it was an idyllic lifestyle; however, this assumption is far from the rosy picture in our imagination based on historical knowledge and common sense. Dwelling on the positive and negative lessons of the tower of Babel, we gain a clear understanding of the things we are ready to carry forward as well as mistakes we do not want to repeat.

Coming to the step of the building process of the tower itself, we need to understand that this was not your typical construction site. As previously discussed, people involved were rebelling against the very power of the Almighty, pretending to be independent in the process and even the materials they used. Additionally, we have had a discussion about Nimrod as a character, where we saw his strengths and weaknesses (and the way he was trying to cover them up).

So the people started at a good place to help support heaven (ambition, but still acknowledging the existence of higher realms) and, through “meaningful” and “productive” meetings and discussions, are ready to rebel. What do you think would be one of the critical moves in the project? To minimise the value of human lives. Only in that precondition can people be treated as another resource. This had to start with wiping out the borders and denying the creation of each and every person as individuals with their own mission in this world. Thus, this was another huge step in rebellion against the Almighty.

Although not much is written for us in the Bible about the building site of the huge project, with all the background knowledge we have, it is clear that the conditions were brutal by any standard. It is not surprising that the same conditions had a very different impact depending on the person who was involved in the building of the tower. For sure, there were people so tired and disappointed at the way society treated them like slaves that they would collapse under such pressure. This is not a judgement, but rather a fact.

In reality, the majority is what we came to call a silent majority. Some of them just didn’t care – it is just another job to do. And if people die, blaming the victim is a common attitude. This might be from the position of not caring, or just borderline depression or scoring brownie points with the leadership or a combination of all of the above.

Yet there are people who would rise heads and shoulders above the situation. One of the people of that great magnitude was Abraham. He lived at the time of the building of the tower, and our tradition will tell us stories about the interactions between Abraham and Nimrod – something to discuss further at a later date.

For now, it is clear that sometimes building tall towers can become an important time to forge the character that rises above the situation to ensure that the glory of the Divine is shining through their lives.