One of Israel's largest construction companies, The Azrieli Group, has unveiled plans to build a building that will be the tallest skyscraper in the country. Its height will be 1150 feet, which will be laid on 91 floors.
However, besides the fact that this building will be the tallest in Israel, its striking resemblance to the Tower of Babel attracts attention. However, when familiarizing with the project, it turns out that the skyscraper will be much higher and larger. According to some rabbis, this project may be a testing of technology before the construction of the Third Temple.
The Azrieli Group, an Israeli real estate and holding company, has announced plans to build the tallest building in Israel in addition to the already impressive Azrieli Center complex in Tel Aviv. The Spiral Tower is expected to take six years to build, with an estimated cost of $ 666 million.
The new tower will take its place next to the iconic towers in the form of circles, squares and triangles, which today make up the Azrieli complex. By building the Spiral Tower, the Azrieli Group will surpass itself, that is, its current tallest building in Israel, the Azrieli Saron Tower, which is 782 feet high and 53 stories high. Its construction was completed just two years ago.
The building's unique design was developed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF), a New York-based architecture firm that has built five of the 10 tallest skyscrapers in the world. According to a company press release, the architects drew inspiration from nature and Jewish heritage.
“The tower has been designed and developed in a unique geometric shape never before seen in Israel, which is amazing to the eye and the imagination. The main task of the architects was to create harmony between the three already existing towers that form the Azrieli Center and the new tower - a one-of-a-kind structure that stands on its own. The tower's designers drew their inspiration from the curves of the snail shell, trying to mimic their natural shape. There are also parallels with the biblical scrolls, which are also traditionally unfolded from bottom to top."
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Some design critics have drawn comparisons between the elegant design presented by the developers and some of the images of the Tower of Babel mentioned in the Bible:
And they said, “Come, let's build us a city and a tower with a pinnacle in the sky to make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered all over the world. Genesis 11: 4
Traditional Jewish sources provide additional information. The Midrash (homiletic teaching) describes "an idol on top of a tower holding a sword as if he intended to fight God." The Midrash also reports that the structure was built on tall pillars designed to protect the tower from a flood.
Some modern scholars also associate the Tower of Babel with famous structures, in particular with the ziggurat of Etemenanki, dedicated to the Mesopotamian god Marduk, built by the Babylonian king Nabopolassar in 610 BC.
Indeed, the Spiral Tower is very similar to the ziggurat, an ancient structure from the Middle East, built as a terraced junction of successively receding levels. In addition, like the Towers of Azrieli, each ziggurat was part of a larger complex that included a courtyard, storage rooms, bathrooms, and living quarters around which the city was built.
However, Rabbi Yisrael Rosenberg does not see any similarities between the Spiral Tower and the ziggurat: “The main sin associated with the Tower of Babel was not the actions of the builders, but their intentions, the desire to challenge the heavens. And the goal of the builders and architects of Azrieli Tower is to build a tower in the name of heaven, since the building symbolizes the Torah scroll.