A Taste of Torah - Noach

In Noach, this week's Torah portion, the legend of Noah and the Ark is followed by the story of the Tower of Babel. In the narrative, the people all band together to create a tower that will reach heaven. They indicate that their intention is to make a name for themselves. They want to be remembered. But according to the midrash, in building the tower, the people become more concerned with the structure and lose sight of their connection to one another. As bricks fall, they become enraged at how their loss delays the project, but when people fall from the tower, no one seems to care.

The people of the Tower of Babel do make a name for themselves, in the end. Their tower does not reach heaven, but they are remembered for losing sight of what really matters, the people who are in our lives. We often focus on how much we can acquire, how much we can do, but at Judaism's core is an intention to see how much we can be. We are, after all, human beings, not human doings.