1996: Avrom is 48 years old; Noach 940; 340 years after the Mabul.
Peleg dies at the age of 239 years.
To avoid destruction by an eventual new Flood, following Nimrod’s counsel, people start to construct a tower in Bovel, „whose top may reach to heaven”
(Beraishis 11:4).
Their intention is to escape, from the top of the tower, being already independent of gravitation, with a ship to the Moon (חנ 'פ ,ןתנוהי תרות).
They also want to erect an idol on top of the tower, to wage war against the Eternal (ח"ק ןירדהנס ;ו ,ח"ל ר"ב).
1 Leah: according to modern opinions, the name is supposed to mean ’wild cow’.
2 Rochel: the name means ’ewe’.
3 Gacham: the name is supposed to mean ’flame’.
4 Tachas: according to modern identification, it is presumabely Tihessi, mentioned in Egyptian texts, North of Kadesh on the Orontes river.
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As no stones can be found in Mesopotamia, they burn bricks (ד"כ א"רדפ). „And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar” (Beraishis 11:3).
They build the tower up to 70 mils (ca. 70 kms!) high (ד"כ א"רדפ).
Apart of Avrom, it is only Noach, his son Shem and his great-grandson Ever who do not take part in the construction of the tower.
When Avrom tries to convince people not to revolt against the Eternal, they renounce his call for teshuvoh reminding him of his chidlessness.
Thereafter, Avrom curses them: „Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues; for I have seen violence and strife in the city.” (Tehilim 55:10).
It is only Shem’s son, Ashur, who heeds to Avrom’s words, and leaves Bovel.
As a reward, the Eternal promises him four towns. Subsequently, Ashur builds the four towns (Beraishis 10:11-12; א"ר תנשמ):
► Niniveh (הונינ);1
► Rechovos Ir (ריע תובוחר):2 Mishon on the Eufrates (ןשימד תרפ; י אמוי).
According to others this is Paltias Karto (אתרק תאיטלפ ’the wide roads of the city’; י"וגרת) / Platoyoso deKarto (אתרקד אתיטלפ; ימלשורי םוגרת);
► Kolach (חלכ):3 Borsip on the Eufrates (ףיסרובד תרפ; י אמוי).4 According to others this is Paryos (תוירפ) / Charyas (תיירח; י"וגרת) / Charyos (תירח; םוגרת ימלשורי)5;
► Ressen (ןסר):6 town situated between Kolach and Niniveh, Talassar
1 Niniveh: see below.
2 Rechovos Ir: cf. Ass. rebit Nina. Meshan or Messeneh, the island surrounded by the two rivers and the Royal Channel, near Basra, on the lower course of the Tigris.
3 Kolach: on the East-Bank of the Tigris, at the North-Eastern corner of the river, 35 kms South of Niniveh, ASSUR-NASSIR-APLI II (883-859 BCE) founds a new capital in 883 BCE, called Kalhu. Today Nimrúd.
4 Borsippah: important town in Southern Mesopotamia, South of Babylon, always dependant of the latter since 2100 BCE, the periode of the 3rd Dynasty of Ur. Today Birs-Nimrúd.
5 Paryos/Charyos: one of the two is presumabely a copist’s error. It can be Chadiyoth in Assyria.
6 Ressen: the name of the Assyrian town situated near to Niniveh can take its origin from Ass. resh eni
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(י"וגרת ;רסאלת);1 Ktesiphon (ןופסיטקא;2י אמוי).
According to others (י"וגרת), Nimrod is coming out of the Land Shinear, he reigns in Ashur and builds the four towns. This tradition, in apparent contradiction with the text of the Torah, can be explained by the grammar: out of that Land [i.e. the Land Shinear] came out [i.e. Nimrod, to go to] Ashur, and built the towns; that is the reason why Assyria [Eretz Ashur] is called (Michoh 5:5) Nimrod’s land (ן"במר).
Accompanied by seventy angels, the Eternal descends on earth (Beraishis 11:5-7), and confuses the language of the people speaking until then exclusively loshon hakodesh. Thus he separates the peoples: seventy different languages for the seventy different peoples (however each of the seventy languages conserves elements of loshon hakodesh, ד"צ), and each has an angel, a heavenly
„representant” (ד"כ א"רדפ).
Other five occasions when the Eternal descends on earth:
► Sdom (Beraishis 18:21),
► Mitzrayim (Beraishis 46:4),
► the burning bush (Shemos 3:8),
► Sinai (Shemos 19:20),
► when He shows Himself (Shemos 34:5; א"מ-ט"ל ,ה"כ א"רדפ).
As people are unwilling to do teshuvoh, the Eternal punishes them:
► those who only want to escape from a new mabul, will be dispersed;
► those who want to wage war against Him, will be changed in apes and
meaning 'the head of spring'.
1 Talassar: Til Assuri on the right bank of the Tigris, cf. 2.Melochim 19:12.
2 Ktesiphon: the town was built on the left bank of the Tigris, in front of Seleukeia. After the destruction of the latter by the Romans in 165 BCE, the winter residence of the Parthian kings. Its New Persian name is Tissifún, popularly called Tak i Kisrah ’the throne of Chusrau’.
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demons;
►those who want to use the tower also for idolatry, will have their language confused (ח"ק ןירדהנס ;הגולפה רוד).
According to others (י"הס):
► those who want to use the tower for idolatry, will be changed in apes;
► those who want to attack heaven with arrows, will die of each others’ hands;
► those who want to wage war against Him, will be dispersed.
He does not destroy them all like the generation of the mabul, because – although they revolted against Him – at least they lived in peace and unity with each other, and the destruction of the generation of the mabul was due to their mutual hatred (ט ,א"י ג"הדמ).
The half of the Earth is destroyed by the waters of the Ocean (ר"ב). According to others (ד"כ א"רדפ), people unable to communicate, to understand each other, kill each other: the half of the population.
The lower third of the tower is swallowed by the earth, the upper third is burnt down, the middle of it remains for a reminder (י"הס ;ט"ק ןירדהנס י"שר).
At this time extraordinary creatures live on the different parts of the Earth (ד"הס):1
► androginoses (סוניגורדנא; ’hermaphrodites’);2
► in Scythie:3 people with only one eye, creatures with a human face but with
1 Cf. the miraculous beings of the Greek mythology, e.g. the kentaurs (sons of the image of Ixion and Hera; or the sons of Kentauros the son of the image of Ixión and Hera) their body is human but their feet are of a horse; they lived on the mountains of Thessalia, etc.
2 Androginos: the Talmudic word is composed of two Greek words: Gr. anér, andros ’man’ and gynes
’woman’. Cf. Platon’s concept of the ancient „androgyn” nature of humans.
In Greek mythology, Hermaphroditos is the son of Hermes and Aphrodit, with whom a nymph of Karye, Salmakis, falls in love. When he renounces, the nymph seizes him while taking a bath in her lake.
On her demand, the g-ds convert them into one being with one body but two sexes. And the lake weakens the virility of those entering it.
3 Scythie: name given by the ancient Greeks to the Southern part of today’s Russia between the rivers Danube and Don, occupied between the 12th-2nd centuries BCE by the nomad Scythians of Iranian
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feet of a horse, called stiri; creatures which are wolf during summer and human during winter, which bring human sacrifices to the stars;
► in India (ודוה):1 people without a mouth; people with tails; creatures with body of a horse and head of a ram with hornes on their heads which light. Also creatures with human heads but with body of a lion, having three ranks of teeth;
people without neck, who have their eyes on their back; people with only one foot but with very wide palm thus being able to run very quickly;
► in Arabia: small people, their wives have children at the age of five; at the age of eight they are already old; they are continuously in war with their neighbours;
► in Ethiopia (Cush): people living in caves, who eat snakes; they do not speak, only give voices;2
► in Romania:3 people dressed in fish-skins.
Noach’s dispersed grandchildren build towns named after the founders’ names (their own names or that of their children): until now they lived only in the Land Shinear, it was there that they constructed the Tower, and after its destruction they are dispersed by the Eternal (י תבש י"שר):
► the five towns of the Pelishtim: Azah (הזע), Ashdod (דודשא)4, Ashkelon (ןולקשא)5, Gas (תג), Ecron (ןורקע; Yehoshuah 13:3);
origin; their name is also of Iranian origin.
1 India: the name takes its origin from the Persian form Hind of the Old-Indian name (Sindhu ’river’) of the river Indus.
2 Cf. the troglodytes.
3 Romania: it is more than unprobable, that it should mean the territory of actual Rumenia as at the time of the author of the „Seder haDoros" the entire Balcan peninsula was under Turkish rule, and also because a land called Rumenia never existed in history. Presumabely, the text means the Byzantine (East-Roman) Empire which considered itself and also called itself a legal continuation of the Roman Empire.
4 Ashdod: Philistine town on the Mediterranean coast, West of Yerusholayim, Ass. Asdudu, Ar. Esdúd.
5 Ashkelon: Philistine town on the Mediterranean coast, South-West of Yerusholayim, Ass. Isqalunah, Ar. 'Asqalan.
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► Chevron (ןורבח; צ אב 'פ ר"לי)1: it is built by Chom for his youngest son, Canaan (ב"כ ,ג"י רבדמב י"שר). According to others (ן"במר), the giant Arbah (עברא) living there builds the town for his son, Anok (קנע);
► Sdom (םדס), Amoroh (הרמע), Tzevoim (םיעבצ), Admoh (המדא), from Chom’s family in the Jordan-valley (ןדרי);2
► Seir (ריעש), Canaan’s great-grandson (see below);
► Ashur, Shem’s son (according to others, Nimrod, see above) builds the towns Ashur, Niniveh, etc.;
► Nimrod – still in the Land Shinear – builds the great Mesopotamian towns:
□ Bovel (לבב);
□ Erech (ךרא): Urikos (תוכירוא; י אמוי).3 According to others ( ,י 'ארב י"וגרת י), Hados (סדח).4 Again others say (ז"ל ר"ב) Choron;
□ Akkad (דכא):5 Netzivin (ןיביצנ; י ,י 'ארב י"וגרת) in Northern Mesopotamia (ב"ל תבש);
□ Calneh (הנלכ):6 Nofar Ninfi (יפנינ רפונ; י אמוי).7 According to others (י ,י 'ארב י"וגרת), Ktesiphon8 (Beraishis 10:10).
1 Cf. 2003.
2 Jordan: Arab Urdunn, of Semitic etymology, presumabely meaning ’a river running quickly down’.
3 Erech / Urikos: the South-Mesopotamian Uruk, Shumerian Unug, today Warka on the left bank of the Eufrates, 40 miles North of Ur.
4 Hados: presumabely Edessa. It can be interesting to remark that while according to modern scientific opinions these towns are to be looked for in the Babylonian region or South of it, the Targum, the Midrash and also the Talmud place all of them to North-Western Mesopotamia.
5 Akkad: Shumerian Agade ’crown of fire’, Akkadian Akkadi, Hebr. Akkad. Its place – and its identification with Akkad in Beraishis 10:10 – is still uncertain. New researches seek them in Ishan-Mizyad North of Babylon. Presumabely, the town was founded by SHARRUKIN I (ca. 2334-2279 BCE) as the capital of his empire.
6 Calneh: Babylonian town conquered by SARGON, possibly Kul-unu = Zirlab, its place is still unknown.
According to certain opinions, Kullanhou near Aleppo, conquered by TIGLAT-PILESSER III in 738 BCE;
others say, it is Kunulua South-East of Antiokh.
7 Nofar-Ninfi: the middle-Babylonian Nippur, Shumerian Nibru; today Niffer, on half-way between Erech and Babylon on the Eufrates.
8 Ktesiphon: it has to be remembered that the above quoted Talmudic place identifies Resen mentioned in Beraishis 10:11-12 with Ktesiphon.
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Nimrod reorganizes his empire and transfers his capital to Bovel.1 According to others (ז"נ 'פ ע"מ), Nimrod founds Bovel and builds the tower 135 years after the Mabul, in the year 1791.
His subjects call him henceforeward Amrofel (לפרמא; ד"הס ;ג"נ ןיבוריע):2 ’who ordered Avrom be thrown in the burning furnace’ (ד ,ב"מ ר"ב). According to others (י"הס), the name means ’his ministers and his people had been destroyed at the Tower’.
1997: Avrom is 49 years old; Noach is 941; 341 years after the Mabul.
Nochor dies at the age of 148.
Kedorloomer (רמועלרדכ),3 Chom’s descendant, king of Elom (םליע), subyugates the five towns of the Jordan Valley, thus forcing them to pay him tribute during 12 years (Beraishis 14:4). Earlier, he was one of Nimrod’s generals, after the construction of the Tower of Bovel and the dispersion what followed he went to Elom, became its king in revolt against his former sovereign.
5.3. Ur Casdim
1998: Avrom is 50 years old; Noach is 942; 342 years after the Mabul.
Avrom asks his mother to prepare food – a goat (Pessach ?; cf. Yitzchok’s blessing) – for his father’s twelve idols (ט"י ,ח"ל ר"ב).
1 Cf. the periode of the first Babylonian dynasty (ca. 1894-1595 BCE) which came to the power after the incursion into Mesopotamia of the Semitic Amurru tribes who destroy the reign of the Shumerian 3rd dynasty of Ur (ca. 2112-2004 BCE). Their outstanding ruler was HAMMURAPI (1792-1750 BCE). The Old-Babylonian Empire has been destroyed by the Hettite MURSILIS I (1620-1590 BCE).
2 Amrofel: modern opinions identify him with HAMMURAPI.
3 Kedorloomer: according to modern identification, in reality the king of Babylon, Acc. Kudar-laga(mar), cf. Lagamaru = the name of one of the Babylonian g-ds.
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When he observes that they do not touch the food, he brokes them with an axe except one, and places the axe in the hand of the biggest idol left intact.
When his father, Terach, queries about what happened, he answers that the statues started to fight over the food and the biggest broke the others.
Upon his father’ answer that these are but wooden statues unable to move etc., Avrom tries to convince his father to abandon the unsensed idolatry and return to the service of the Eternal (י"הס).
Later, when they go together to the royal palace to bring sacrifices there, Avrom brings together all the idols of the palace, and burns them (ח"כ ,א"י ג"הדמ).
Consequently, Terach denounces Avrom, his own son, to Nimrod (ט"י , ח"ל ר"ב).
As Avrom declares publicly that Nimrod is nothing else but a mortal human being (ח"כ ,א"י ג"הדמ), the latter has him imprisoned for ten years: he spends three years in Cuta and seven in Kardu (ודרק).1 Others say (ק"הש ;ו א"רדפ ;א"צ ב"ב) this in the opposite way: seven in Kuta and three in Kardu.
As Avrom is still unwilling to bow to the idol representing Nimrod, following the king’s order, he is thrown in a burning furnace heated previously for three days and three nights.
In the Torah, we do not find the name of the town where all this took place. One could think that in the royal capital, Bovel, eventually in Avrom’s birth-place, Cuta, or in Choron where he actually lived. According to the Talmud (א"צ ב"ב), Ur Casdim is Cuta, and received its name after the miracle which happened there. MENACHEM ben Shuruq renders Ur (רוא) as a deep situated place, a
1 Kardu: cf. Beraishis 8:4, where the Targums, in connection with the Flood, render the Mount Ararat-as Kardu. Kardu has also to be looked for in North-Western Mesopotamia: the kingdom Arorot is rendered by the Targums (to Yirmeyoh 51:27) as the kingdom of the Land Kardu; and the Talmud says (bYeva-mos 16a) that converts has to be accepted from among the Kardus. The name is the etymon of the name of today’s Kurdistan, of unclarified etymology.
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valley. This means that there was a deep situated place in this town, it was there that Avrom has been thrown into the burning furnace, and it was from there that the Eternal saved him („brought him out”, Beraishis 15:7;חכ ,א"י 'ארב ן"במר).
The Eternal personnally descends on Earth to save Avrom ( םיחספ י"שר ;ו א"רדפ יק
"
ח ).
A miracle happens: Avrom is not reached by the fire, not even his clothes are burnt.
From the four corners of the world, about 900.000 people come to see the big event.
Avrom spends three days and three nights in the burning furnace, thereafter he comes out intact.
Those, on the other hand, who threw him into the burning furnace, and also those who wanted to pull him out following the kings order - about twenty people –, are burnt (י"הס).
Certains from among those presents are unwilling to believe that a miracle happened: they accuse Avrom’s brother, Horon, that he saved his brother’s life through magic (ח"כ ,א"י ג"אדמ ;ח"כ ,א"י י"וגרת).
Meanwhile, Terach, the father, in order to avoid punishment, accuses his other son, Horon, before the king, that it was he who proposed the new-born Avrom should be interchanged with a maidservant’s child and, later, to be hidden that the king could not have him killed (י"הס).
Seeing his brother saved, Horon lets himself to be thrown into the furnace.
His is burnt entirely: no miracle happens for someone who is ready to „sacrifice”
his life for the Eternal only when he is sure of being finally saved ( ;ט"י ,ח"ל ר"ב ל תבש
"
ב ). According to others (י"הס), Horon was thrown into the furnace together with Avrom, however, as his heart is not entirely dedicated to the
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Eternal, he was immidiately burnt.
His death, on the other hand, shows that Avrom has been saved through a real miracle and not through magic.
The parents, Terach and his wife mourne for Horon: they eat lentils (ה"ל א"רדפ).1 Nimrod and the princes of the country give lots of presents to Avrom, and send
him away. They also give him two servants: Nimrod’s son, Eliezer (רזעילא) and a second by the name Uni (ינע). According to others (ר"ב), Eliezer mentioned in the Torah is the same person with Chom’s son Canaan. Again others say (א"וגרת), he was from Damascus; or he was Nimrod’s servant, or the son of one of his concubines (ז"ט א"רדפ).
About three hundred people follow Avrom to serve the Eternal.
In the same year, a man named Bola (עלב) from the family of Shem’s son Ashur goes out from Niniveh together with his family in search of a new home. When they arrive to the Jordan-Valley, they settle near Sdom. There, they build a small town, and name it Bela: this is Tzoar (רעצ; י"הס).2
2000: Avrom is 52 years old; Noach is 944; 344 years after the Mabul.
Nimrod has an unpleasant dream: a man similar to Avrom comes out of the burning furnace and runs after the escaping king to kill him with his sword.
Unable to reach the king, the man throws an egg to Nimrod’s head. The egg suddenly turns into a hugh river, and all the king’s men and soldiers are drawn into it, only Nimrod escapes accompanied by three men dressed in his clothes and being thus similar to him. Then the river returns into an egg and a small bird comes out of it gougeing the king’s eye.
According to the interpretation presented by one of Nimrod’s counselors, Enoki
1 Cf. 2123.
2 Tzoar: small town at the South-Eastern edge of the Dead Sea, its name presumabely means
’insignificant’.
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(יקונא),1 the dream means that Avrom and his descendants are a real danger for the king’s house: he proposes to kill Avrom (י"הס).
However, Eliezer, who at that moment was at the royal court, informs Avrom about the royal plans: Avrom goes into hiding in Noach’s house for one month.
Terach secretly visits his son who convices his father they should leave Ur Casdim - Kuta (י"הס) or Bovel – and go to Eretz Canaan (ןענכ ץרא; ד"הס).
Avrom wants to ensure the security of his whole family, he does not want to rely himself upon miracles (ז"ע א"ח ש"לי).
Apart of Avrom’s wife, Soray, Avrom’s nephew, Lot, the son of his dead brother, Horon, also goes with them (Beraishis 11:31).
As they reach Aram-Naharaim (םירהנ םרא), the land where the descendants of Shem’s son Aram founded several empires, they do not feel the danger any mo-re: Terach settles with his family in the rich town, Choron.
Avrom travels across the country to propagate the knowledge of the Eternal and his belief among the people: he gains tens of thousands of followers ( 'ה ם"במר
וכע
"
פ ם
"
ה א
"
ג ).
He writes several books to prove the vanity of idolatry (ד"י ז"ע).
This is the end of the 2000 years of Tohuvabohu.