The whole world spoke the
same language, the same words (Bereishit 11.1).
Rashi: שפה אחת the same language — The Holy Tongue (Hebrew) (derived
from Midrash Tanchuma, Noach 19).
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"Upon my tongues continual slanders ride, The which
in every language I pronounce, Stuffing the ears of men with false reports.”
William Shakespeare: The prologue spoken by rumour to henry
iv part two.
When I heard
about the concert back in January, I immediately bought tickets. After all, it’s not every day that one is treated
to the sight and sounds of an artist with the musical pedigree of Graham Nash, former
member of both The Hollies and of course, Crosby, Stills and Nash. The icing on the cake being the addition of his
friend Peter Asher whom he has known for over six decades. It was even advertised as ‘Graham Nash - More Evenings of Songs &
Stories with Special Guest Peter Asher’. The location being the auspicious London Palladium
and the event was nearly sold-out.
So off we
went on the Northern Line from Edgware and made our way to the theatre, braving
the rain in the process. We took our seats
and thoroughly enjoyed Peter Asher’s performance which (slightly misquoting the
famous advertising slogan) ‘did exactly what it said on the tin’.
We were entreated
to light-hearted stories, self-deprecating humour, songs and even the rare opportunity
to hear Paul McCartney’s original demo of ‘World Without Love’, the famous number
one hit which he had originally sung with his late lamented friend, Gordon Waller.
He completed
his set by entreating us to sing the last verse of that song alongside him and the
other two accompanying musicians. Forty-five
minutes of pure joy. He left to a rapturous
applause by the audience.
Following
the interval, Graham Nash came on and played a couple of songs. When it came to the third, he introduced it by
telling us that his father had fought in the Second World War and this had influenced
his decision to write the upcoming song.
He then started to talk about the fact that we now have social media and
its connection to current conflicts. He briefly
referred to the Ukraine War (choosing not to mention anything about Putin) and proceeded
to talk about Gaza, declaring that he believed that ‘the Israelis were committing
genocide against the Palestinians’. This
was greeted by a rapturous clapping following, after stunned silence by boos, including
from yours truly. I turned around to Stephnie
and told her that we were leaving. We left
the auditorium and met with a few people in the lobby which I believe were both
Jewish and Gentile, all stunned and angry at the spectacle that we had just experienced. When we spoke with the staff of the Palladium
in the entrance hallway, they were shocked and told us that they couldn’t understand
why so many people were leaving the theatre, granted that Nash was playing for another
hour.
A cursory
search for Graham Nash on Google comes up with the following:
Graham Nash is a proponent of peace through his music, activism,
and social commentary, which often advocate for peace, social justice, and environmentalism.
That a so-called
‘proponent of peace’ felt the need to espouse an ancient antisemitic blood libel
(being cheered on by an enthusiastic audience) is proof-positive to the dangers
of what can happen when ‘the whole
world speaks the same language, the same words.’
Not in the
Plain of Shinar in ancient Mesopotamia (Modern Day Iraq) but in the heart of the
West End of London. 5000 km or approximately
3,100 miles away.
The generation
which built the tower is descended from the sons of Noach and is known as Dor Haflaga,
or the ‘Generation of the Towers’. Led by
the evil King Nimrod, who infamously tried to have Avraham Avinu, the world’s first
monotheist and our Founding Father, executed by throwing him into a furnace, led
a campaign to ‘build us a city and a tower with its top in the heavens’. In other words, to dethrone Gd.
Sixty years
ago, on Shabbat, 22nd October 1955, Rabbi Norman Lamm ztl, former President
of Yeshiva University delivered a powerful sermon entitled, ‘The Generation of the
Tower and a Towering Generation’ and I quote the following edited extract:
In this morning’s Sidra we read of the generation of Noah
and the evil lives they lead. Their punishment,
as it is recorded in the Torah, was complete destruction – except for Noah and his
family – in the Great Flood. Following that
episode, we read of another generation following in the footsteps of the first. This is the dor ha’haflagah – the Generation
of the Tower. The people of this generation
had evidently failed to learn from the tragic lesson that its predecessors had been
taught. They were a people marked by arrogance
and haughtiness.
Remember friends, that the Torah does not describe merely
poetic myths. We have substantial corroboration
of that episode from the science of archaeology. We know that the Mesopotamians of about 3,600-3,800
years ago began to dwell in big cities and in them to build tremendous pagan temples. These temples were constructed as high towers
as a sign of the equality of the builders with the pagan gods they worshipped. In their writings, some of which we still have,
they boast to building into the heavens, even as is recorded in today’s Sidra. (See Kasuto, Me’Noach ad Avraham, for all
this information).
At the turn of the present century, the very tower of which
the Bible speaks was discovered, in ruins, by a German archaeological expedition. It was clearly an impressive and imposing structure. These tremendous towers served both to express
and inspire these Babylonians to imagine themselves a superior race, a ‘herrenvolk’.
Ultimately, the cities and the towers were destroyed and all further construction
was frustrated. If later today you will reread
that part of this morning’s portion, you will observe the terrific sarcasm with
which the Torah describes the entire episode.
Just one example: the name Bavel (or Babel or Babylon) given to that
place by G-d. This is a sarcastic pun, because
the Mesopotamians themselves called their city Babel because in their language the
name was derived from the words Bab-Ili, meaning the Gate of the G-d – or
in the plural, Bab-Ilani meaning the Gate of the Gods (whence: Babylon). However, in Hebrew the name Babel is similar
to the root Balol which means ‘confusion’. So the Torah tells us that what these mortals
thought was their gate to their own goodness, was nothing more than the confusion
of their poor minds…
https://lammlegacy.org/the-generation-of-the-tower-and-a-towering-generation-1955/#
These words
could have been written in a contemporary setting. How many people in the field of politics, media
and entertainment, who see themselves as ‘Herrenvolk’ arrogantly peddle the lies
spewed out by Hamas and its supporters? Nash
is just one example of how ‘arrogance and haughtiness’ lead to the perpetuation
of comments that have not a single grain of truth. The kind that led to the terror attack in Manchester
earlier this month, where the same language of hate is used throughout the world.
To the point
where even music, which has the power to erase the differences between nations and
ethnicities, becomes itself a victim of this malaise.
And yet, Rabbi
Lamm continues:
Despite the sarcasm and bitterness and ridicule which the
Torah heaps upon this Generation of the Tower, the indictment of this generation
is not complete. Just compare these two generations,
that of the flood and that of the Tower: The Generation of the Flood was, with the exception
of Noah and his family, completely and utterly destroyed; the generation of the
Tower was not destroyed at all – it was merely punished by internal dissension and
great exile and dispersion. Why is it that
the generation of the Tower was treated with such comparative leniency despite their
sins of arrogance?
Our Rabbis gave us the answer, based upon a clue in the
Bible itself. Our Torah mentions vayehi
kol Haaretz safah achass – all the world was one language, meaning of course
that there was unity, cooperation, friendship.
And therefore, dor hamabul al yedei shehayu shetufim begezel lo nishtaira
meihem pleitah, aval eilu al yedei shehayu ohavim zeh es zeh nishtayrah meihem pleitah. There is something that can be salvaged from the
Generation of the Tower, something of lasting and permanent value, and that is:
love, friendship.
What our Rabbis got from this episode of the Generation
of the Tower was that every generation can become a Towering Generation if it learns
that love; that even if people are arrogant and G-dless and criminal, they can escape
heavenly wrath if they will learn to love G-d’s creatures. The only way of nishtaira meihem pleitah,
of surviving a world of coldness and treachery and mass-production and bold projects
which obscure the individual is through ahavah (love).
In this 21st
Century in which we live, we are experiencing something that has not been accessible
to our ancestors, that of a ‘common language’ which is spread throughout the world
and a means by which to transmit this. The
language is, of course, English and the tool we use is the Internet. Even though English is spoken by approximately
1.46 – 1.5 billion (which constitutes 18%) of our global population, it is regarded
as the most spoken language (including non-native speakers). The internet enables non-English speakers to translate
the language into their native tongues.
It is the
accepted ‘currency’ throughout the world’s air, sea and rail routes and even on
the International Space Station (alongside Russian)!
We are truly
at a time when historians will note that ‘the whole world spoke the same language,
the same words.’ It is the just a case of
which ‘words’ we choose to speak and what the impact of continuing to misuse this
gift will have on how our communities both locally and internationally.
Sadly, despite
the fact that we speak one common language, we are deeply divided. Instead of harmony, we have disorder; instead
of homogenous, we have heterogenous; instead of unity, we have dissension; instead
of ‘Us’ we have ‘I’ and instead of tolerance, we have intolerance. Instead of hate, we should have love for, as our
Rabbis taught ‘all G-d’s creatures’.
As Abraham
Lincoln famously said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
Let us reframe
the use of language to bring people together.
I have no problem with musicians or anyone else expressing a personal viewpoint
in the appropriate location but the term ‘know your audience’ is as relevant in
front of an audience who paid hard-earned money for a pleasant evening out, as a
teacher standing in front of a class or a Rabbi delivering a sermon to his community.
If we can speak the same language with the same words and bring people together, we have proven that we are not the Dor Haflaga, the Generation of the Tower but one who builds towers of love, mutual respect and understanding between individuals, communities and nations. Now there’s an idea for a song that we can all join in with, Graham Nash.
Shavuah Tov.
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