In the compendium of foundational myths that open the Hebrew Bible, one tale seems to be oddly out of place: the story of the Tower of Babel. Daniel Gordis’ reading of the Tower of Babel narrative reveals it to be an eloquent argument in favor of the ethnic-cultural commonwealth as an indispensable condition for human freedom and self-realization. This is an idea of far-reaching consequences. For if this reading is correct, it demonstrates that the concept of nationhood—of a distinct group identity based on common language, culture,  land, and blood ties—was not a modern European innovation, as some scholars proclaim it to be, but rather an integral part of the Jewish tradition from its very beginnings.
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