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| The Tower of Babel by Marten van Valckenborch (c. 1600) |
The three things I want to fit together for Parsha Noach (http://www.jtsa.edu/PreBuilt/ParashahArchives/jpstext/noah.shtml)
1. The word "tevah" means "ark," but it also (archaically) means "word".
The world was saved because Noah, his family, and lots of animals and birds hopped onto the same word and floated together for a few months.
What was that word?
2. "The Dream of a Common Language" is:
A collection of poems by Adrienne Rich (1947-1977)
andThe dream destroyed at the Tower of Babel
.
3. Why chase that dream?
Common language does not lead to common understanding.
Of all the
- miscues
- miscommunication
- "That wasn't what I meant!"
- gaffes
How many of them are due to a true language barrier? How often do we converse back and forth in English but cannot make ourselves understood.
Go ahead. Build Babel again -- a lot of good it would do.