They Removed Themselves From the Ancient One of the World

Another interpretation: They removed themselves from the Ancient One of the world [mi-kadmono shel olam]. They said: We want neither Him nor His divinity. "And they found a valley" (Genesis 11:2). Rabbi Judah says: They all gathered to learn which valley could hold them. Rabbi Nehemiah says: "And they found" [recalls] "if it concerns the scorners, He scorns them" (Proverbs 3:34). "And they dwelt there" (Genesis 11:2). Every place where you find "dwelling," Satan leaps; every place where you find ease of spirit, Satan accuses; in every place where you find eating and drinking, Satan accuses. "And they said one to another" (Genesis 11:3). Who said to whom? Egypt said to Cush, and it was burned to burning: these nations are destined to be burned out of the world. "And the brick was to them for stone" (Genesis 11:3), [meaning] it prospered in their hands; one came to build one and he built two, one came to plaster one and he plastered four. "And they said, come, let us build us a city" (Genesis 11:4-5). Rabbi Yudan said: They built the tower; the city they did not build. They objected: but is it not written, "And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower"? He said to them: read what follows it. "And they ceased to build the tower" is not written here, but rather "to build the city." This tower that they built, a third of it sank, a third was burned off, and a third remained standing; and should you say it was small, anyone who climbs to its top sees the palm trees before it like grasshoppers. "And let us make us a name" (Genesis 11:4): Rabbi Ishmael taught, "name" here means nothing but idolatry. "Lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth": Rabbi Shimon ben Halafta said, "the mouth of a fool is his ruin" (Proverbs 18:7), "and the LORD scattered them abroad from there." "And the LORD came down to see the city": this is one of the ten descents stated in the Torah.