Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, z’l:  Noach A Tale of Four Cities

Rabbi Sacks describes the founding of the first city by Cain as established with bloodshed.  He writes about Romulus and Remus, the former also guilty of fratricide.  Sodom was threatened with destruction by God for terrible crimes, but Abraham fought back.  Egypt – Joseph was falsely accused of a crime after refusing the advances of Potiphar’s wife.  The parashah addresses the story of Babel, where the residents attempted to build a tower that reaches to heaven.  Although this did not incorporate the same criminal activity, its attempt to justify a heavenly hierarchy on earth—the birth of polytheism.