We have a saying around here: “People are stones, not bricks.”  There are few sentences that have had a bigger impact on our leadership style than this one.

It started when my friend, Rabbi Daniel Lapin, asked me to listen to his new CD about the story of the Tower of Babel. I agreed to listen, but skeptically. I’ve been studying that passage in Genesis for more than a decade, and (to be embarrassingly frank), I didn’t think I had anything more to learn. I was wrong.

One of the problems with these passages from the Old Testament (for Jews, the Tanakh) is that a great deal of their meaning is tied up in their original Hebrew. There are shades of meaning that simply don’t show up in English translation. All too often, modern Christians deal with this problem, by simply imposing our own ideas onto the text. Unable to see the nuances imbedded in the Hebrew, we simply turn these profound stories into mini-morality plays. But Genesis through Deuteronomy are called “Torah” (that is Law, or Instruction) for a reason – they give us wisdom that we need to solve problems. Not just personal problems, but problems of nation-building.

Rabbi Lapin taught me how the story of Babel is a perfect case study in what not to do when building a family, a business, or a nation. Susan and I use its insight (especially the one about bricks and stones) around this little business (and tiny nation) of Bowyer Media every day.

The CD is available now. Here’s a link.

I don’t have any financial stake in this. I’m telling you about it, because it’s the sort of thing that I think will appeal to you. If you do purchase the CDs, please send me an email and let me know what you think. I’ll pass your insights along. Maybe they’ll make the next set even better.