This year, I've decided to focus exclusively on Babel in these emails. I hope you enjoy.
If you'd prefer not to get emails on Babel, just let me know. If you have any friends who'd be interested in joining the conversation, feel free to introduce them to me, and to this list. - Abe
Oneness
i
There are two stories of how the nations came to be.
The first is this:
the children of Noah birthed families that birthed nations that took their places in the world
—each with its own language, in its own island.
In that story we learn of Peleg, whose name means Divided:
for in his days, the world was divided.
We learn of Peleg’s forbearers and his brother and his brother’s children.
We do not learn of Peleg’s children.
For all we know, Peleg had no children.
ii
The second story is the story of Babel.
That story begins when the whole land travels together.
The children of Noah are separate individuals.
They fan out into distinct lives, distinct families, their own islands.
We do not learn of the families, or even names, of the people of Babel.
They build their city so as not to be dispersed across the earth.
The people of Babel are truly one.
iii
After Babel, we learn of the children of Shem.
And we hear of Peleg again: Peleg is Shem’s descendent.
Peleg, we learn, has a son:
Serug, father of Reu, father of Nahor, father of Terah, father of Abraham.
iv
Peleg’s son only appears after we learn of Babel—
as if to say:
In the world of the Children of Noah, Peleg could have no son
and Abraham could not have been born.
To say:
Only in the world of the people of Babel
could these things happen.
v
Abraham’s life is a journey across nations,
something that is not possible in a world of islands,
something that is only possible if all nations, at their root, are one
—like the oneness of the people of Babel.
vi
God says:
Abraham will be the father of many nations;
through him, all the nations of the world will be blessed.
What is Abraham’s role, then?
Perhaps it is to awaken the oneness of the world
—the oneness that births Abraham
the oneness that destroyed itself at Babel—
and make it the oneness it could have been,
the oneness it was meant to be.
______
Shabbat Shalom,
Abe
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