This window is centered on an image of the
tower of Babel. The image is based on the story told in the book of genesis and
reads as follows: "The whole world spoke the same language, using the same
words. While men were migrating in the
east, the came upon a valley in the land of Shinar (ancient Sumer in southern
Mesopotamia which is considered the oldest civilization on earth) and settled
there. They said to one another, "come let
us mold bricks and harden them with fire." They used bricks for stone and
bitumen for mortar. Then they said, "Come let us build ourselves a city
and a tower with its top in the sky, and so make a name for ourselves;
otherwise we will be scattered all over the earth." The Lord came down to
see the city and the tower that the men had made. Then the Lord said: "If
now, while they are one people, all speaking the same language, they have
started to do this, nothing will later stop them from doing whatever they presume
to do. Let us then go down and there confuse their language, so that one will
not understand what another says." Thus the Lord scattered them from there
all over the earth, and they stopped building the tower. This is why it is call
Babel, because there the Lord confused the speech of the entire world. It was
from that place that he scattered them all over the earth. The main point of
this story, based on the traditions about the temple towers or ziggurats of
ancient Babylonia, was to illustrate man's increasing wickedness, shown here in
his presumptuous effort to crate an urban culture apart from God. The sacred
author inspired by God reveals the secret or real motif for building these
zuggerats was not to worship or praise God, but for self- empowerment -to make
a name for themselves.
Above the central
image is the Star of David. Above that is the great proclamation (shema) given
to Israel by Moses: Hear O Israel the Lord thy God is One... Below the central image is the Holy
Name of God in Hebrew letters YHWH, which translates in I AM WHO AM.