According to the Netziv, the Tower of Bavel was to serve as a watchtower, from which guards would ensure that the city's population would remain within its walls. Herein lies the sin of the generation: the quest for a monolithic, homogenous population where no foreign ideas or lifestyles may be legitimized.
Yesterday we discussed the tower of Bavel, emphasizing that the participants in this project misused the precious power of communication granted them. In retribution, the Almighty stripped them of this ability and had them speak different languages. We did not, however, address perhaps the more basic question of why God so strongly condemned the ambitious project of a city with a tower in its midst. Should man avoid industrialization? Had God ever issued a command ordering specifically rural civilization?
As we know, many commentators, most notably Rashi (11:1), point to the tower's construction as the crux of the problem. The plan of a tower "with its head in the heavens" implied a challenge of sorts to the Almighty. "The heavens belong to God, and the earth He gave over to man" (Tehillim 115:16; from hallel). Attempting to reach the heavens meant an effort to overstep man's bounds and intrude upon the Almighty's turf.
The Netziv (Rav Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin of Volozhin) offers a much different, novel approach to the incident of the tower of Bavel. He sees little significance in the expression, "with its head in the heavens," understanding it instead as an obvious exaggeration meant simply to denote impressive height. According to the Netziv, the tower was to serve as a watchtower, from which guards would ensure that the city's population would remain within its walls. Herein lies the sin of the generation: the quest for a monolithic, homogenous population where no foreign ideas or lifestyles may be legitimized. The builders are described as having "the same language and the same words." They held certain beliefs and worked on assumptions that they wished to impose on all mankind. They sought to design an insular community that would not allow the intrusion of any foreign cultural elements.
The Netziv views such a quest as a direct violation of one of God's first commands to Noach after the deluge: "abound on the earth and increase on it" (9:7). Man was specifically enjoined to fill the earth, to spread to all geographic regions and establish different communities that can live harmoniously with one another. The Netziv adds that during the period prior to the destruction of the first Temple, Benei Yisrael formed conflicting, insular factions, each of which viewed itself as safeguarding the nation's peace and stability while warring incessantly against the other groups.
God feared the same result after observing the construction of the city and tower of Bavel. If people form such confining societies with no interest in, or tolerance for, others, wars and bloodshed are inevitable. He therefore forced diversity upon mankind by dividing them according to dialect. People would now have to acknowledge the existence of varying societies and differing cultures, such that they can fulfill the command, "abound on the earth."