Parshas Noach By Rabbi Shmuel Gluck: The story of the Dor Haflaga, the genera꛶ on that a壺 empted to build a tower to reach the heavens, is an enigma. There’s no indica꛶ on in the Torah as to what was wrong with their intent and what their Aveiro was. (The most common explana꛶ on, as described in the Medrash, is that they a壺 empted to reach the heavens to ba壺 le Hashem.) Their punishment doesn’t shed light on what they did. They were dispersed across the land and taught different languages, but otherwise were unpunished. The Akeida explains that their goal was to live in unison, like the Malochim in heaven. If that was their inten꛶ on, what was wrong with it? The Akeida explains that the mistake was by a壺 emp꛶ ng to restrict themselves to a single group, they limited their individuality, and their ability to grow to their maximum poten꛶ al. Everything was about community. All individual growth would be limited to the growth of the group. The “end goal’ was to live in harmony, ignoring spiritual goals and the individual’s responsibility towards those goals. Instead, people must take advantage of both their individual, and of group’s strengths, taking the most out of each one. The perfect balance may be difficult. Some people and groups demand that everyone follow exac꛶ ng behaviors. Many individuals pride themselves on “doing their own thing”. Instead, people must affiliate with a group to ensure a minimal amount of performance, such as Davening with a Minyan. This is done by conforming (to a degree) to communal peer pressure. However, they must also remember that their strengths may be different from those of the group. The author can be contacted at s
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