TORAH SPARKS ניצוצות תורה
פרשת בלק
PARASHAT BALAK
July 9, 2011 – 7 Tammuz 5771 – ז’ תמוז תשע"א
Annual: Numbers: 22:2 – 25:9 (Etz Hayim, p. 894; Hertz p. 669)
Triennial: Numbers: 22:2 – 22:38 (Etz Hayim, p. 894; Hertz p. 669)
Haftarah: Micah: 5:6 – 6:8 (Etz Hayim, p. 915; Hertz p. 682)
Prepared by Rabbi Joseph Prouser
Baldwin, New York
Balak, the king of Moab, fears the Israelites and their divine mandate, so through a series of invitations he engages Balaam to curse the people of Israel. Balaam is an enigmatic admixture of heathen prophet, true believer, and instrument of Providence. Reflecting either sincerity or self-promotion, Balaam explains that he can do and say only what God instructs. En route to his prophetic task, an angel of God blocks the road, standing before the donkey on which Balaam is riding, visible to the donkey but invisible to Balaam. The beast turns from its path, injuring Balaam’s foot against a wall. The bruised Balaam execrates and beats his miraculous mount, which talks back to him, reproving him for his merciless blows. The angel finally reveals himself to Balaam, explaining that the hapless animal had in fact saved Balaam from divine wrath, because his mission to curse Israel is contrary to God’s will.
Balaam meets again with Balak and his subordinates, who sacrifice with their hired prophet at seven altars constructed for the occasion, before sending Balaam to execute his appointed task of cursing Israel once again. On three separate occasions, Balaam approaches Israel to carry out his mission of malediction, only to pronounce a series of blessings for the Chosen People… culminating in the famous pronouncement: Mah tovu: “How goodly are your tents, O Jacob.” As an expression of the beauty and significance of Balaam’s blessing, the verse customarily is placed at the very top of a column of print in the sefer Torah, one of only five instances in which a column begins with a letter other than vav.
Balak reproves Balaam for failing in his task. The prophet repeats his earlier disclaimer: he can only act as instructed by God. Balaam proceeds to
prophesy a bright and hopeful future for Israel, and then both Balak and Balaam return home.
Alas, the destiny of national greatness foreseen by Balaam must wait. Moabite women entice the Israelites into licentious liaisons and idolatrous worship of Baal- Peor at Shittim. Predictably, God responds with sharp anger, commanding the execution of the ringleaders in this wayward incident. An Israelite man brazenly flaunts his affair with his Midianite paramour, before a tearful Moses and Israelite community. The priestly Pinchas – son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron – summarily executes the lustful couple – apparently in flagrante delicto – impaling them with a spear. His zealous ire meets with God’s approval: a plague, which has taken 24,000 Israelite lives, is thereby stayed.
Theme #1: “Nothing Up My Sleeve!”
“Lo, there is no augury in Jacob, no divining in Israel: Jacob is told at once, yea
Israel, what God has planned.” Numbers 23:23
Study: Derash
“In biblical religion, sorcery in any form was, by definition, deemed ineffectual since all events were under the control of the one God. It was also deemed heretical
since any attempt to alter the future purported to flout and overrule the will of God.”
Jacob Milgrom, JPS Commentary
“We defy augury. There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ‘tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all.” William Shakespeare, Hamlet
“And such is the way of all superstition, whether in astrology, dreams, omens, divine judgments, or the like; wherein men, having a delight in such vanities, mark the events where they are fulfilled, but where they fail, though this happen much oftener, neglect and pass them by.” Sir Francis Bacon
“People are always looking for the single magic bullet that will totally change everything. There is no single magic bullet.” Temple Grandin
“Being a parent is too complicated and emotional a task for magical techniques and miracle cures.” Ron Taffel
Questions for Discussion
The phrase here translated as “what God has planned” is rendered in the King
James Version as “what hath God wrought” – quoted by Samuel Morse in 1844 as the first message sent using his new invention, the telegraph. What aspect of the biblical verse or its context might have motivated Morse to select it?
Temple Grandin and Ron Taffel contrast magic – that is unreasonable, quick fixes – with the moral imperative for thoughtful, sustained, responsible action. What
aspects of the biblical narrative might suggest that this insight is behind the disdain
for “augury in Jacob”? In what other endeavor – besides parenting – is the desire for magical techniques especially problematic?
Earlier in his prophetic career, Moses had produced “signs” that were repeated by
Pharaoh’s magicians. Is there a moral or spiritual distinction between Moses turning his staff into a snake and the magicians doing the same?
What is the problem with magic? Its ineffectuality? Its heresy? Its self-selecting and delusive nature? Its tendency to distract us from more direct or meaningful communications from the Divine?
In light of Jewish theological objections to magic, what observances, superstitions, and folk customs present spiritual perils to the traditional Jew?
If you could change one thing about yourself (or someone else, or your
community) with a magical technique or miraculous cure, would you? If so, what would it be?
Theme #2: “No Escaping That For Me!”
“He saw Amalek and, taking up his theme, he said: A leading nation is Amalek;
but its fate is to perish forever.” Numbers 24:20
Study: Derash
“Who was the Amalek that was Germany? Germany was the cradle of the
civilization of culture – science, art and music. In the death camps, the Nazis played the music of Wagner and Beethoven… We must understand that there is no contradiction between sophisticated culture and immorality and bestiality.” Rabbi Azarya Berzon, Rosh Yeshiva, Michlelet Mevaseret Yerushalayim
“The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed; and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other people have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or
have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no
slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are
mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?” Mark Twain, “Concerning The Jews,” Harper’s Magazine, 1899
“I think it must be apparent to every thinking mind that the noblest of all professions is that of teaching, and that upon the effectiveness of that teaching hangs the destiny of nations.” David O. McKay, 9th President of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints
“Actions are the seed of fate; deeds grow into destiny.” Harry S Truman
“Civilized society is perpetually menaced with disintegration through this primary hostility of men toward one another.” Sigmund Freud
Questions for Discussion
Mark Twain’s historic observation is compelling, even if his estimation of the
Jewish condition is very generous. What does explain the downfall of “great”
nations? The survival of the Jewish people?
Specifically, to what do we attribute the destruction (or disappearance) of the
Amalekites? Endemic hostility (a la Freud)? Inattention (or misguided attention) to the educational process (a la McKay)? Their collective actions and national behavior (a la Truman)? Why does their fate, prophesied here, not specify what will lead to Amalek’s downfall?
As Rabbi Berzon demonstrates, Amalek has had spiritual and moral disciples throughout history. What is the connection between becoming a leading nation and
self-destructive corruption? What might have earned Amalek this description in the biblical period?
The Jewish community always has valued education, the sciences, culture. What correctives does Jewish tradition provide to prevent its often highly cultured
adherents from moral corruption? How well are they working? How might they be
reinforced? What similar correctives are at work in the broader societies in which we are participants?
If indeed it is education that will safeguard the Jewish People from suffering the fate of Amalek (and Rome, and Babylonia), how might we – our families,
households, congregations, movement – more constructively contribute to the destiny of our nation?
Historic Note
Balaam’s famous blessing of Israel, mah tovu (“How goodly are your tents, O
Jacob…”), read in parashat Balak on July 9, 2011, concludes: “God who freed Israel from Egypt is for them like the horns of the wild ox. They shall devour enemy nations, crush their bones, and smash their arrows… Blessed are they who bless you, accursed they who curse you!” On July 9, 1976 (35 years earlier to the day), Uganda asked the United Nations to condemn the state of Israel for its hostage rescue raid on Entebbe Airport. (It should be noted that in the last 35 years, there has been a dramatic regime change in Uganda. The nation ruled by the despotic Idi Amin is now a free and robust – if nevertheless troubled – democracy. The indigenous Jewish community (known as the Abayudaya), which was terribly persecuted under Amin, has since flourished, and has established close ties with the world-wide Jewish people and the Conservative movement.
Halachah L’Maaseh
“There is no augury in Jacob.” In his final book, Sefer Ha-Mitzvot Ha-Katzar
(The Concise Book of Mitzvot), the Chofetz Chayim (Rabbi Israel Mayer Ha-Kohen
Kagan) lists those commandments still practicable in the 20th (and by extension,
21st) century. Several relate to prohibited acts of augury or magic. Forbidden augury
(relying on portents) includes, for example, saying “If X happens to me, I shall do
Y” – as in flipping a coin to make a decision!! (Prohibitive Commandment #165). The Chofetz Chayim defines forbidden conjuring as, among other things, identifying lucky and unlucky days (or months or dates) – Friday the 13th, for example, or May weddings (Prohibitive Commandment #166)! Among prohibited acts of divination he includes entering a trance to predict the future, or using stones or crystals for that purpose (Prohibitive Commandments #167-168). He points out that although such prohibitions are binding on the person doing the magic, the rabbis also prohibited
consulting the practitioners. Casting spells and charms, particularly those using special phrases and languages reserved for that purpose, is banned under Prohibitive Commandment #169.