Babel and the Ethics of Technology

At first glance, the Biblical account of the Tower of Babel might appear to be a children's story with its simple moral, warning of the dangers of misapplied human ingenuity.

However, the Rabbinic tradition whispers a much deeper story - one that is still relevant in our time.

The Setup

Remember, shortly after the flood, the earth had been washed clean of impurity in an event that seemed to rewind the clock on creation a few chapters earlier. With the exception of fish, nearly everything else was exterminated in an effort to remove the tumah (impurity) of debauchery that had become normative on Earth.

More than just physical misdeeds, Genesis 6 also tells the story of the mixing of the upper and lower worlds through the Nephilim. While many wish to dismiss this idea through rational means, significant discussions in the tradition tackle this idea head-on.

Many cultures have some version of this story. Among the similarities, it is often recounted that some degree of higher-dimensional knowledge was passed down to humans, namely, high-tech weaponry that humans had not yet attained by their own means.

The ramifications of this mixing and advanced knowledge ultimately contributed to the drastic measures we read about in the Great flood. Not until the redemption will the nations be restored to pure language again, as we read in Zephaniah 3:9;

For then I will make the peoples pure of speech,
So that they all invoke G_D by Name
And render service with one accord.

Post-Flood

It always puzzled me - and often children will be the first to ask - how did the world fall back into such evil so soon after the flood?

Surely Ham's act against his father Noah was terrible¹, but how did we escalate so quickly into the story we're about to discuss? Immediately upon the settling of the Ark, we see evil acts occurring in each generation, culminating in the story of the Tower of Babel.

At the beginning of Genesis 11, we understand that the new world spoke one language². Rashi, among others, tells us that this was the Holy language, Hebrew³.

Indeed, speaking one language unified them, but not in the positive. Their unity seemed to be centered upon attacking the Creator through the building of a city and a tower.

So devious was their plan, that the end result was the confounding of language⁴, their dispersion, and that the nations were to be henceforth ruled by a Divine Council⁵.

This was an extremely significant punishment, one that still ripples throughout the world, causing untold problems for humanity. But was this necessary?

Here is where it gets really interesting. In his book, "Aliens, Angels, and Demons," Rabbi Ariel Bar Tzadok⁶ mines the Rabbinic literature to expand on these ideas from deeper within the Jewish tradition.