[Avodah] tower of Bavel

[Lisa Liel]

On Fri, 19 Oct 2007 13:31:37 +0200, "Eli Turkel"
<eliturkel at gmail.com> wrote:

>>The Gemara in Shabbos 10b says that at the time of Lot's escape, 
>>S'dom was 52 years old and Tzoar was 51. Rashi there states the 
>>following: "Sdom preceded (Tzoar) by one year), as it explains that 
>>Sdom was 52, because you must say that the builders of the tower 
>>were in Shinar, and there was no population in the world except in 
>>that Bik'ah, as it writes "And the entire Land was one language.... 
>>and it was when they travelled from the east... and from there they 
>>dispersed to other places when they were scattered and they built 
>>themselves cities; and from the time they were dispersed until Sdom 
>>was destroyed it is but 52 years, for at the end of the days of 
>>Peleg is when the dispersion happened, as it says in Seder Olam...
>>calculate the years of Peleg and it comes out that the year he died 
>>in was Avraham's 48th year, and when Sdom was destroyed that was 
>>the 99th year of Avraham...
>>
>This contradicts the various theories that only a few people were in
>Shinar at the time of the dispersion. Thus, we return to my question 
>that Ur of the Chaldees seems to be older. Furthermore it implies 
>that Charan and Egypt were just beginning when Abraham visited them
>i.e Tzohar is not just that city but all of Egypt including the 
>Pharoh dynasties were less than 51 years old. It also eliminates the 
>ancient Sumer, Akkadian etc dynasties not to speak of China.

Fair enough.  But how does Ur of the Chaldees appear to be older? 
And what is the problem with Egypt of the Pharaohs starting around
the time of Avraham?  And why do you think it eliminates the ancient
Sumer and Akkadian dynasties?  I don't know enough (hardly anything)
about China to be able to address that, but I do know that there's no
problem with Egypt, Sumer and Akkad.

If you're thinking that the Ur III dynasty is Ur Kasdim, I would have
to differ with you on that.  The Ur III dynasty, according to the
work I've done, postdates the Exodus, which occurred during the
Akkadian dynasty of Sargon and Naram-Sin.  And since we left Egypt at
the end of the Egyptian Old Kingdom, I don't see why the beginning of
the Old Kingdom couldn't have been roughly coeval with Avraham's
visit.

Lisa

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