Unity recovered from exile

איתא בזוה"ק בפסוק הן עם אחד כו' ק"ו שאלו הרשעים הי' להם סיוע מהאחדות אנן או חברייא כו' כ"ש שהאחדות מסייע לעבודת הבורא ית' ע"ש.

It is brought in the Zohar HaKadosh on the pasuk, "Behold, they are one people [with one language]" (Bereishis 11:6), a kal vachomer (a fortiori argument): if these resha'im (wicked ones) gained such help from their achdus (unity) — "Are we [the chevraya, the companions] not at least like them?" — then all the more so does achdus assist the avodah of the Creator, blessed be He. See there.

The Zohar derives a powerful lesson from the generation of the Dispersion. If even wicked people, united for an evil purpose, drew such strength from their unity that Hashem said "nothing they plan will be withheld from them," then certainly unity among those serving Hashem brings far greater power for good.

וי"ל עוד ללמוד מזה הק"ו שהם הי' להם האחדות ואעפ"כ ע"י שהי' כוונתם לרעה והי' כנסי' שלא לש"ש וקשר רשעים. ניטל מהם כח האחדות כמ"ש אם ה' לא יבנה כו' עיר כו' מכש"כ בנ"י הגם שהמה מפוזרים ומפורדים בגלות אעפ"כ ע"י שלבם לשמים ניתן להם האחדות.

And one may add a further lesson from this kal vachomer: they had unity, yet because their intent was for evil — a gathering not for the sake of Heaven (lo l'shem Shomayim) and a bond of resha'im — the power of their unity was taken from them, as it is written, "If Hashem will not build a city [its builders labor in vain]" (Tehillim 127:1). All the more so Bnei Yisrael — even though they are scattered and dispersed in galus, nevertheless, because their hearts are turned toward Heaven, unity is granted to them.

The Sefas Emes turns the argument around. The unity of the wicked ultimately collapsed precisely because it was built for a corrupt purpose; without Hashem, no structure endures. Bnei Yisrael are the opposite: though physically scattered in exile, their hearts are devoted to Hashem, so a true, enduring unity is given to them from Above.

כי מדה טובה מרובה.

For the measure of good is greater [than the measure of punishment].

Chazal teach that Hashem's capacity for reward and good always exceeds the capacity for the opposite. If the wicked gained strength from unity, the good that flows to Bnei Yisrael from their unity is immeasurably greater.

ונזכה לבנין עיר הקודש מתוך פיזור הגלות ובאמת כמו שהי' בכלל העולם שהקב"ה רצה שיהי' להם האחדות.

And may we merit the building of the Holy City out of the very scattering of galus; for in truth, just as it was with the world at large, that the Holy One, blessed be He, desired that they have unity.

The redemption is not despite the dispersion but emerges from within it. The Sefas Emes draws a parallel to the whole world: Hashem's original will was that mankind be united.

רק ע"י החטא נתבלבלו הלשונות.

It was only through the sin that the languages were confounded.

The fragmentation of humanity into separate tongues was not the original plan — it was a consequence of the sin of the dor haflagah (the generation of the Dispersion), who misused their unity.

והוצרך להיות התיקון ע"י שזכו בנ"י בזכות האבות למצוא האחדות.

And the tikkun (rectification) had to come about through Bnei Yisrael meriting, in the merit of the Avos, to find that unity.

The repair of the world's shattered unity was entrusted to Bnei Yisrael, who, through the merit of the Avos, are able to recover the lost achdus.

וכל שהי' בכלל ויצא ללמד. על הכלל כולו יצא כמ"ש במ"א.

And whatever was included in a general rule and then singled out to teach something, was singled out to teach about the entire general rule, as discussed elsewhere.

Using one of the hermeneutical principles of the Torah, the Sefas Emes hints that Bnei Yisrael, though singled out from among the nations, were chosen in order to elevate the whole of mankind — to teach about the entire "klal," the whole world.

ולכן תיקנו בנ"י העולם בקבלת התורה שחזר להם בחי' עם אחד ושפה אחת.

Therefore Bnei Yisrael rectified the world through kabbalas haTorah (the receiving of the Torah), whereby the aspect of "one people and one language" was restored to them.

At Har Sinai, the unity lost at the Tower of Bavel was restored — Bnei Yisrael stood "like one man with one heart," and so the original ideal of "one people, one language" returned through the Torah.

וכמו כן בפרטות בנ"י בעצמם אחר שלא זכינו לעבוד את ה' כראוי בהיותינו בא"י באחדות ונתפזרנו בגלות.

And so too on the individual level with Bnei Yisrael themselves: after we did not merit to serve Hashem properly, in unity, while we were in Eretz Yisrael, and we were scattered into galus.

The same pattern repeats within the history of Bnei Yisrael. Because we failed to serve Hashem in unity while in our land, we were dispersed into exile — mirroring the dispersion of the nations.

צריך להיות התיקון שנזכה לתקן עצמנו ולמצוא שרש האחדות מתוך הפיזור וכמו ענין תיקון כל בעל תשובה ע"י שחוזר ומקרב עצמו מתוך הריחוק.

The tikkun must be that we merit to rectify ourselves and to find the root of unity from within the very dispersion — like the rectification of every baal teshuvah, who returns and draws himself close out of his very distance.

Just as a baal teshuvah does not erase his distance but transforms it into the very means of drawing close, so Bnei Yisrael are meant to discover the root of their unity precisely from within the scattering of galus. The exile itself becomes the path back.

זה תיקון החטא שנתרחק מדביקות וקירבות שהי' לו מקודם:

This is the rectification of the sin — that one became distant from the deveikus (cleaving) and closeness that he had previously.

The essence of teshuvah is repairing the distance that sin created, recovering the deveikus to Hashem that was lost — and doing so specifically by working through the estrangement itself.

Summary: Drawing on the Zohar's kal vachomer from the generation of the Dispersion, the Sefas Emes teaches that unity built for evil cannot endure ("If Hashem will not build a city…"), while the unity of Bnei Yisrael, whose hearts are turned to Heaven, is real and lasting even amid the scattering of galus. The fragmentation of the nations, and our own exile, are not the end of the story: just as the baal teshuvah turns his very distance into the means of return, Bnei Yisrael are destined to discover the root of achdus from within the dispersion itself, rebuilding the Holy City out of galus.