“Then commenced [huḥal]” – Rabbi Simon said: In three places this term is stated as an expression of rebellion: “Then commenced the proclaiming of the name of the Lord”;21The generation of Enosh proclaimed the name of God in order to desecrate it, in rebellion against Him. “it was [heḥel] when man began” (Genesis 6:1);22“The children of the great men saw the daughters of man, that they were fair, and they took for themselves wives, from whomever they chose” (Genesis 6:2). “he began [heḥel] to be a mighty one in the earth” (Genesis 10:8).23Nimrod.
They raised an objection: But is it not written [as well]: “This is what they began [haḥilam] to do”? (Genesis 11:6).24Building the Tower of Babel. He said to them: He struck upon the head of Nimrod and said of him: ‘This is the one who incited them to rebel against Me.’ 25The rebellion of the Tower of Babel and that of Nimrod are one and the same, so there are still only three cases. Rabbi Levi said: This26The Tower of Babel. is analogous to a woman who said to her husband: ‘I saw in a dream (ḥalom) that you are divorcing me.’
He said to her: ‘Why in a dream? Here it is for you in reality.’27That generation feared that they would be dispersed (Genesis 11:4), and so it came to be in fact. Rav Aḥa said: You made idolatrous objects of yourselves and called your own names [as divinities].28This is what is meant by “then commenced the proclaiming of the name of the Lord.” I, too, will call the seawater by My name29To act as my agent. and eradicate those people from the world.
Rabbi Abahu expounded: The ocean is higher than the rest of the world. Rabbi Elazar ben Menaḥem said: Is this not an explicit verse? “He who calls forth the water of the sea and pours it upon the face of the earth”? (Amos 5:8). This30Rabbi Elazar ben Menaḥem’s question. was a rhetorical question.
It is like something that is poured from above to below.31The description here of “pouring” water from the sea onto the land implies that the sea is higher. “Who calls forth the water of the sea” is written twice,32It also appears in Amos 9:6. corresponding to the two times that the sea rose and inundated the world.33Once in the generation of Enosh and again in the generation of the Dispersion (Jerusalem Talmud, Shekalim 6:2).
Until where did it reach the first time and until where did it reach the second time? Rabbi Yudan, Rabbi Abahu, and Rabbi Elazar in the name of Rabbi Ḥanina: The first time it rose until Akko and until Yafo,34Originally the Mediterranean Sea did not extend that far. and the second time it rose until the rocky peaks overlooking the Barbary Coast. Rabbi Ḥananya and Rabbi Aḥa in the name of Rabbi Ḥanina: The first time until the rocky peaks overlooking the Barbary Coast, and the second time until Akko and until Yafo.
That is what is written: “I said: You shall come this far and not continue, and here the foam of your waves will be set” (Job 38:11). “You shall come this far and not continue” – to Akko, “you shall come this far and not continue.” “And here (ufo) the foam of your waves will be set” – in Yafo, “the foam of your waves will be set.” Rabbi Elazar said in the name of Rabbi Ḥanina: The first time it rose until Calabria, and the second time until the rocky peaks overlooking the Barbary Coast.