The Chesed of Failed Building

On the Slonimer Rebbe on Bavel (Gen. 11:1-9): When something falls apart for no apparent reason (i.e., G!d did it), the convention in classical midrash, and I would say also in the day to day life of the heart, is to look for what was wrong with the thing that fell apart. Why was it (I) negatively judged, that it (I) had to be stopped? The Slonimer implicitly critiques other midrashim for being so beholden to this pattern of analysis as to actually miss the text's p'shat in this case: the use of YHVH rather than Elokim in this passage indicates that G!d is acting in the function not of din, but rather of chesed -- suggesting that in fact there was nothing wrong with the intentions or the act of building the (in)famous tower.

So, when/why/how is it a Divine chesed to foil "the sons of men"'s perfectly upright and worthy plans? The Slonimer observes that this occurs when the particular combination of people behind the enterprise in question happen to be the wrong combination, so to speak: not necessarily wrong for their chosen cause, per se, but sharing in a common weakness that is amplified by their assembly together. Dispersal counteracts the amplification of raa. However, the Slonimer speaks at length to the necessity, even after dispersal, of people seeking knesset, as this is also the way that tzedek is amplified. He implies, as I put it, a sort of great cosmic Rubik's Cube: the prospect, that is, of ultimately building, in partnership with haShem, the particular knesset in which only tzedek, and no raa, is amplified. (See: galut and the pedigree of Mos/hiach, from the "ends of the earth.")

Incidentally, this matter of partnership is also indicated in connection with the Bavel Dispersion: In 11:7, haShem speaks in the "Royal We" ("let us descend"), which I believe functions to invoke partnership, just as when a spouse or a leader speaks in the same inclusive plural (see: Moshe's speech patterns leading up to the Thirteen Attributes Revelation).

So, a practical Mishkaneering lesson here could be something like: rather than seeking only to gather strength for any given social undertaking, perhaps the community should also look expressly to diversify its weaknesses.