11:1 “ויהי כל הארץ שפה אחת, ודברים אחדים”
“And it was that the whole earth was of one language, and unique words.” It would seem that the Torah is telling us something good about the Dor Haflagah, in that they had some sort of Achdus. The Torah does not delineate what the sin of the Dor Haflagah was. Why not? The following Divrei Torah will expound on this topic and support the P’shat offered in the closing paragraph.
אור גדליהו – Bereishis Rabbah 38:6 - 11:1
“ויהי כל הארץ שפה אחת, ודברים אחדים” – The Torah does not delineate the sin of the Dor Haflagah, yet from the words of Chazal, we can glean the root of the sin of the Dor Haflagah. What we can get from the words of the Midrash are, “אני ולא אתה”. The Dor Haflagah wanted their actions to cause Hakodosh Boruch Hu to agree to their evil actions, and that they should be able to act as they wanted to without fear of retribution, as happened to the Dor Hamabul. It says in the Sefer Torah Ohr, that the Dor Haflagah was using the names of Tumah, and they wanted to make them theirs.
Although they didn’t really learn from the downfall of the Dor Hamabul, there was one thing that they learned – they realized that the main downfall of the Dor Hamabul was that there was a lack of Achdus amongst them. In the Dor Hamabul, each person did as he desired, even if it infringed on the rights of others, as Chazal tell us about their stealing habits. Thus, the Dor Haflagah rallied all the people together, that there should be Achdus amongst them, so that they not be destroyed like the Dor Hamabul. On the outside it appeared that there was Achdus amongst the Dor Haflagah, as the Posuk says, “עם אחד ושפה אחת לכלם ” – however there is an important message here for all future generations, that the wicked don’t really ever have Achdus. Although to the outside it appears that there is Achdus, in actuality there is really פירוד, separation, for it is evil which has no connection to the Mekor, to Hakodosh Boruch Hu, and thus at the end the separation will be visible. This is as Dovid Hamelech says, “יתפרדו כל פועלי און” that in the end – from the Achdus of wicked, separation will sprout. This was what we were shown by the Dor Haflagah.
We see this in the Midrash regarding Eisav, who was the root of evil, he did not have any Achdus, not even within himself. The Dor Haflagah sought to use Achdus for evil, to use it for the side of Tumah to conquer the side of Kedusha. This Achdus had no Kiyum. It wasn’t until Avrohom Avinu, who came and turned Achdus back to the side of Kedusha, as the Posuk says, “אחד היה אברהם ”. Although Avrohom Avinu was one individual, he still had a connection to Achdus, as he took all his powers and made them one, and he brought together as one - the Elyonim and the Tachtonim, the upper spheres of the world and the lower spheres, by making Hakodosh Boruch Hu known in the world. The proper way of Achdus is, “אני ואתה” - “I and you”. The Dor Hamabul was, “אני או אתה” – “I or you”, as there was no Achdus, while the Dor Haflagah was, “אני ולא אתה” – “I and not you” – they wanted to have nothing to do with the Ribbono Shel Olam. It wasn’t until Avrohom Avinu who said, “אני ואתה”, as it says by the Parshah of Milah, “אני הנה בריתי אתך...ואתה את בריתי תשמור”.
