A thought a day on each of the Torah readings of the year continues - parashat ha-yom!

For today, Noach, the second parashah of the Torah - instead of looking at the story of Noah, let's look at the other big occurrence in this section, the Tower of Babel, and God's response to the humans all working together to "build a name for themselves":

Gen. 11:6 Adonai said: Here, (they are) one people with one language for them all, and this is merely the first of their doings - now there will be no barrier for them in all that they scheme to do!
7 Come-now! Let us go down and there let us baffle their language, so that no man will understand the language of his neighbor.
8 So Adonai scattered them from there over the face of all the earth, and they had to stop building the city.
(Translation from the Schocken Bible)

What's the Elul lesson in this teaching? God loves diversity! Progress comes from each of us recognizing our unique assets and challenging ourselves to get along and work together despite our differences.