Heaven Is Not Above Babel

Abstract

After the Ark the people built Babel, a fortified town with a tall tower in the centre. The Book of Genesis tells us the size of Noah’s Ark, 132 meters in length, 22 in width, 13 in depth, while it only says about Babel that the top of the tower was supposed to reach the heavens. Based on this indication, some traditions have imagined great heights for the tower, perhaps based on memories of the pyramids of Egypt, or the giant ziggurat of Babylon, much larger than those of the ark that had saved the fathers and mothers of the builders of Babel. The companies of those who build in response to a call and to save themselves and others are not, in general, greater and more powerful than the companies of those who build to create empires. There are many meanings that have, over time, layered on Babel and should be traced into the Babylonian exile (Babel) and into the memories of the “building blocks” of the slavery of Egypt, and into the eternal critique of idolatry. The myth of Babel tells that blessing and fruitfulness lies in the popular new worlds, and in the variety and biodiversity of languages, and so cultures, talents and vocations. The corolla of the flower is only fruitful if it disperses its spores.

Many, many years were passed in building the tower. It reached so great a height that it took a year to mount to the top. A brick was, therefore, more precious in the sight of the builders than a human being. If a man fell down, and met his death, none took notice of it, but if a brick dropped, they wept, because it would take a year to replace it. So intent were they upon accomplishing their purpose that they would not permit a woman to interrupt herself in her work of brick-making when the hour of travail came upon her. Moulding bricks she gave birth to her child, and, tying it round her body in a sheet, she went on moulding bricks.

(L. Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews).