Letters from rabbi to president: Babel to the White House

A unique relationship has existed for some time between President Bill Clinton and Rabbi Menachem Genack. The relationship, literary in nature, resulted recently in the publication of an interesting work of 100 essays that were sent by the rabbi to Clinton, many written by the rabbi, and an almost equal number written by many prominent contemporary thinkers reflecting upon the issues of the day, both spiritual and civic.

“Letters to President Clinton: Biblical Lessons on Faith and Leadership,” published by the OU Press, reflects upon Rabbi Genack’s desire to acquaint Clinton with a vast array of moral issues. At times, it succeeds in eliciting a response that both demonstrates Clinton’s personal concern and his knowledge and appreciation of biblical literature.

Given last week’s Torah reading of the saga of the Tower of Babel, I chose to share with you an essay authored by Rabbi Genack and sent to Clinton in 1999 wherein he shares with the then president his take on this rather bizarre chapter of world history. Consider the following observation:

“We may speculate that the post-Flood generation, seeing the disaster that an anarchistic society had brought, moved in the opposite direction. It created an Orwellian, homogenous, centrally controlled society, substituting the centripetal force of totalitarianism for the centrifugal force of anarchy. The individual

was of little value; only the faceless mass was significant.”

This observation was not replied to by Clinton, and this left me pondering as to what his unstated reaction was to this most political of observations on a biblically recorded event.

This brief yet perceptive essay by the rabbi finds its sentiments and impressions reflected in other writings that I wish to share with you. Each has an anti-totalitarian political theme that I am certain is not taught in our schools, as yet.

In 1999, Bar Ilan University published an essay by Prof. Israel Laulicht entitled, “The Generation of the Tower of Babel — A New Era in World Management.”

In this essay, the professor cites the following from the Netziv’s impression of this biblical saga:

“In Ha’amek Davar, the Netziv said that the generation of the Tower of Babel wished to establish a dictatorial regime to keep a close guard on the people and their actions, i.e, the tower was supposed to be a sort of control tower. Thus, ‘making ourselves a name’ meant surveilling and controlling everything.”

Further on in this same essay we find the Sforno cited on this very same matter.

“If you see human beings setting about to realize a certain idea which is founded on a lie, using coercion and pressure to concentrate their power, i.e., using totalitarian means, you should know that in such cases there is no longer any room for righting the wrong. But as long as there are differences of opinion in the world. …There is hope that one day the one and only truth will emerge victorious.”

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, in a recent essay, “Individual and Collective Responsibility” teaches us the following:

“The Flood tells us what happens to civilization when individuals rule and there is no collective. Babel tells us what happens when the collective rules and individuals are sacrificed to it.”

Further on Rabbi Sacks extends this teaching of contrast with a further example of contrast:

“There is even a hint of this in the parallelism of language between the builders of Babel and the Egyptian Pharaoh who enslaved the Israelites. In Babel they said, ‘Come (hava) let us build ourselves a city and a tower … lest (pen) we be scattered over the face of the earth.’ In Egypt Pharaoh said, ‘Come (hava) let us deal wisely with them, lest (pen) they increase so much. …’ The repeated, “Come let us … lest” is too pronounced to be accidental. Babel, like Egypt, represents an empire that subjugates entire populations, riding roughshod over identities and freedoms.”

Rabbi Michael Hattin in his essay, “The Tower of Babel” [Yeshivat Har Etzion], also makes sharp note of the totalitarian streak that permeates this whole sad episode. It is from this observation that he comes to teach us the following:

“In our own lifetime, we have started to see the effects of globalization and for the first time in human history, physical distances can now be bridged by technology and cultural isolation overcome by communications. At the same time, humanity is slowly coming to the awareness that our world is but a small blue sphere suspended by a tenuous thread against black immensity of interstellar space.

“The liberating forces of globalization have thus paradoxically created the possibility of self-destruction. If nations do not soon learn to cooperate on matters of global importance, a list that grows longer every day with the constant perceived shrinkage of space and time, then we are doomed.

“Yet, at the Tower of Babel we learned that what is needed is not the erasing of borders and the adoption of a pervasive universal culture, but rather a respect and love for contrasts, and the recognition that humanity and its service of G-d can only be enriched by diversity.”

Rabbi Genack’s valuable observations concerning the totalitarian legacy as evinced by those who ruled over the tower, which he shared with an American president, will someday, hopefully, resonate, in response, in written form by Clinton, and be shared with others as well as to be reflected upon by many others likewise, world wide.

Thus, will the teachings of all those cited, as well as that of Rabbi Menachem Genack, come to fruition, as the legitimate lesson to be learnt by all, from the sad episode of the Tower of Babel.