“Therefore, its name was called Babel; because the Lord confounded [balal] the language of all the earth there, and from there the Lord dispersed them on the face of the entire earth” (Genesis 11:9). “Therefore, its name was called Babel” – one of Rabbi Yoḥanan’s students was sitting before him. He kept explaining something to him but he could not grasp it. He said to him: ‘Why are you having trouble grasping this?’ He said to him: ‘It is because I am away from my native land.’ He said to him: ‘Where is your land?’ He said to him: ‘I am from Bursif.’31A place in Babylon with a climate not conducive to studying Torah. He said to him: ‘Do not say that to me, but rather, from Bulsif’ – “because the Lord confounded [balal] the language [safa] of all the earth there.”