When Unity Becomes Dangerous | 10@9 | 2026.10.14

Good morning. Today is Wednesday, October 14, 2026. So we have this famous fascinating cryptic passage near the end of this week's Torah portion, the part of Noach concerning the Migdal Bavail, the Tower of Bavail. Their group of people, they build the town, they build this tower, God is angry, and God disperses them. As we asked yesterday, it's hard to understand what they did wrong, because it seems like it was ideal. There was tremendous octas, there was unity amongst them. What was wrong? I want to share today a different approach from what I shared yesterday, an approach that's based on the insight, the commentary of Rabbi Shamsher of Olharsh. The Torah says, by he called her aretz, Safa Akhas, everyone in this place spoke one language, Udvarema Khadim, and one way of speech. And again, that word, Akhad, which is connected to Akhtut, unity, one, it seems to be such a good thing. It sounds wonderful. How could that be a problem? And how is the outcome any better for Hashem to say, to say, let's disturb them, and let's divide them into different ways of speaking, in different languages, be mavalvel them, will confuse them, and then they'll move to different places. How is that any better? Rosham Shamsher of Olharsh says as follows. I'm reading from the English translation of his commentary. So the Torah said that they shared two things. The people who are doing this shared Safa Akhas and Dvarema Akhadim. So Raphers says that Safa Akhas means one language, the phonetic sameness of speech. Dvarema Akhadim is the sameness of the formation of words and sentences, which is brought about by mental agreement in the way that things and their relations are looked at. It's a similarity in patterns of thinking. Today we might use the phrase to refer to this to be talking points. When different people will use almost exactly the same words about a person or about an issue or about a situation, then what's clear is each of those people is not really thinking it through for themselves. They are simply parroting, repeating what their group says, and they often use the exact same words, not just that they're using the same language, English versus French or German or Hebrew, but that their minds are working the same way. And we see this so often today, especially in the political realm, but even in other areas of life. The problem with that is that relationships that are built on commonality of language and thinking, that's not Akhtas, that's not unity. That is tribalism. Tribalism is when we not only stick together, but we think together and we look down upon everybody else. We exclude everyone else who does not use the same phraseology that we use. So again, without getting into politics here, but if you don't use the phrase unpatriotic about someone or something, then you're not part of our group. If you don't use the phrase enemy of the people about a certain group or institution or situation, you're not part of our group. You have to use that phrase in order to show that you're thinking the same way as us. If that is the expression of the unity, that's not unity. That's tribalism and that is extremely dangerous. But it's a hard lesson to learn because this lesson, this problem is repeated throughout history. I would suggest even here in Quebec, if the issue is to preserve the French language, I understand that there are lots of ways to preserve the French language. And by the way, I'm not a good French speaker. I'm a mediocre French speaker. I wish I was a good French speaker. French is a beautiful language and it's a fantastic thing for everyone to speak French. And that's great. To protect French is great. To see French as a part of Quebec culture and to want to protect that, that's great. The problem is precisely at the moment where you start to look down upon those who don't speak French or who don't regard French as part of their culture. And you treat them differently and you don't give them the same rights that you give to others. Although they're all, we are all citizens entitled to the same rights. That becomes tribalism. And we must be honest to recognize that this exists in many other places, in many other realms, and if we are on us in our own community. There are many within our own community that act this way towards others outside of their group. Now, I understand the thinking behind this. They have a view that society requires for there to be peace, for there to be cohesion. Society requires needing the same language and the same behavior and the same point of view and the same ways of thinking. That's the only way we can get along with each other. But God says, no, that's not true. That's not the way that I created the world. That's not what I intended. Arab eyes in the Talmud express it as follows. Kashem Shepard Sufeya Menam Shavim, just like the face of every individual is different. You can identify a person by the differences between the way their face looks and somebody else's face looks. Okay, some may be more similar to others, but everyone has a unique face. So too, their natures are not the same. God creates human beings, not like coins that are stamped out identical one to the other. No. God means for individuals to be individuals each different from each other. And that means that there will be different languages and different values and different ways of expressing the same thing. If people are thinking for themselves, the people above El who are building this project didn't see this and they had this view of tribalism. They had this view. We can only be close to each other. We can only create a society. If we agree on the same values, if we agree to express our way ourselves in the same way, if we agree to have the same enemies and if we agree that we will characterize our enemies in this same way, that's the only way we can be a society. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King expressed this very, very powerfully. He wrote, I am convinced that men hate each other because they fear each other. They fear each other because they don't know each other and they don't know each other because they don't communicate with each other and they don't communicate with each other because they are separated from each other. The disaster of Migdal above El, the fact that God was so insistent that this is not the right way to create a society and it must be different. It must show us the fallacy and the danger in that type of thinking by giving into that fear of those who are different because when we don't know each other and we can't communicate with each other, we will come to fear them and we will come to hate them and we see this over and over and over again today, perhaps more than ever before. It is fine to prefer the company of your family over others. That's fine and that's normal. It's fine to prefer the company of your community over others. It's fine to prefer the company of people who speak your language over people who speak a language you do not understand. That's fine. That's normal. But the crucial question is how do you view those outside your group? Most importantly, can you speak with them even if you need a translator or even if you need to just speak a few words of their language and there are a few words of yours? Can you come to know them on a first name basis? Can you enjoy their company? Can you find the commonalities between you and them? And then most importantly, can you respect them and treat them with respect? If not, then we are just tribalists as doomed as those who built the tower above it. But if yes, if we can do that and perhaps it requires forcing ourselves to do that, but the Torah is clearly telling us we need to, if we can do that, then we have a chance. We have a chance to not be afraid. We have a chance to not hate. And that is clearly what the Torah wants of us as the McDalbavel and all of its participants were discarded as a failed social experiment. What God wants is something different. What God wants is for us to be able to communicate with others outside of our group, to be able to see the commonalities, to be able not to fear them and certainly to be able not to hate them. The only way we can do this is if yes, we build our own communities to be strong, but not to exclude by looking down upon, not to adopt the thinking of everyone around us, even using the same phraseology. Always remember the effort of McDalbavel is discarded as a failed social experiment and we dare not repeat it again. My friends, I wish you a great day and I look forward to seeing you soon in person.