Q&A: Globalization and the Generation of the Dispersion
Globalization and the Generation of the Dispersion
Question
Hello Rabbi, I wanted to ask whether the story of the Generation of the Dispersion implies that the process of globalization is necessarily a negative one?
Answer
Absolutely not. And more generally, you can’t really learn anything from the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh). It can be interpreted in a thousand different ways, and in the end everyone reads into it what he wants and what he thought from the outset anyway. I’ve pointed this out here on the site more than once.
You can certainly think of several other interpretations of this passage. For example, maybe globalization is good, but it must not be directed toward evil purposes, or toward competing with the Holy One, blessed be He. After all, the sages in the midrash already speak about the reward of the people of the Generation of the Dispersion, who helped one another. They saw that as something positive.
The ridiculous little sermonic quips that compare the World Trade Center to the Tower of Babel, and other such nonsense and absurdities, are the responsibility of the preachers who say them—whether they are Jews or Muslims.
Elroi Cohen
See Or HaChaim on this passage