Parshat Balak: Numbers 22:1 – 25:9 By: Rabbi Denise L. Eger
Our Torah Portion Balak is named after the king of Moab and centers around the tale of King Balak engaging the prophet–wizard and shaman, Balaam son of Peor to curse the Israelites. The King of Moab had heard of the gathering strength of the Israelite tribe that had crushed his neighbors on their way to the Promised Land. Balak wants Balaam to manipulate the God of the Israelites through his magical divinations and thus protect the Moabite kingdom from the advancing Israelites.
Balaam the wizard/shaman has great powers. He is clearly able to do things that ordinary people cannot. He is able to speak with animals and they with him as evidenced by the donkey speaking to him in this portion. Although the portion attributes this miracle of the speaking donkey to God, Baalam seems unfazed by communicating with the animal. He doesn’t appear astonished that an animal could speak his language! Balaam is one of the many kinds of animal diviner. This type of shaman is common to the pagan religion of Baal throughout the ancient Near East.
And although he is not an Israelite the power of God will prevail over this foreign prophet. This is comparable to the power of God over Pharaoh. Balaam does experience the Divine voice and God does make God self known to Balaam on many occasions in this Torah portion but only to do God’s bidding. So too in Exodus God sent the plagues upon Egypt to render the divinity of the Egyptian throne mute. Remember this is a new generation of Israelites. This is the generation who grew up in the desert—dwelling at Kadesh for 38 years. The local kings of Moab and Edom may not have heard of the defeat of Pharaoh at the hands of Israelite God who smashed their deities by ten extraordinary plagues. So now, the God of Israel will take on the pagan religion of the region and the local gods and goddesses by controlling one of the greatest pagan prophets. And So Balaam who was hired to curse the Israelites and manipulate the God of Israel instead blesses Israel and is controlled in his words and deeds by the God of Israel! And Balaam knows this. He tells the King of Moab “I can only repeat faithfully what Adonai puts in my mouth” (Num. 23:12).
Four times Baalam looks over the people Israel from the mountains and hills of Moab and four times Baalam blesses the people Israel and prophesies about the doom of Moab and the success of the Israelites.
We learn from this week’s portion however a valuable lesson. The King of Moab was fearful of the “other.” He was fearful of the stories of the Israelites and what they would do to him and to their land. The Israelites only wanted to pass through Moab on their way to the land of Israel that was covenanted to them by their God. They had requested the opportunity to pass through Edom and the other places but the Israelites were attacked and so they fought back successfully. Imagine if Moab or Edom had gone to meet them in the spirit of friendship. Imagine if the king of Arad or the king of the Amorites had welcomed the weary desert travelers and traded with them as they made their way north rather than meet them with fear and warfare. Perhaps if they, the descendants of Esau had embraced the descendants of Jacob the way their ancestor did—then the cycle of violence and hatred between neighboring nations might have ended so long ago.
But fear and suspicion of our neighbors has way of perverting peace and justice. Thus God took a curse in the mouth of Baalam and turned it to a blessing of peace: “How beautiful are your tents O Jacob, your tabernacles O Israel” (Numbers 25:5).
Perhaps if we too could learn to embrace our neighbors and learn that there might be enough to go around. If we could learn the hospitality of Abraham and Sarah and the embrace of brothers who were once estranged—Esau and Jacob—then perhaps we could all learn to live in peace.
The blessing will be in trying. The curse will be if we do not.
Posted by Jimmy at July 7, 2008 04:06 PM
