Parshat Balak: Numbers 22:2 – 25:9
This week’s portion, Balak, is the story of the Midianite priest Balaam who was summoned by the Moabite king Balak to curse the Israelites. The Israelites were on their trek north encountering the local peoples and sometimes engaging in battle as they prepared themselves before crossing the river Jordan into the Promised Land. King Balak was nervous about the Israelites engaging Moab in battle as they had the Amorites and thus wanted all the protection he could muster including the protection of their gods.
Balaam the prophet resisted going under the orders of God who communicated with the foreign prophet until God finally gave permission for him to go with them. But only under the condition that Balaam will follow God’s commands. How interesting that this foreign prophet communicates with the One God!
Along the way Balaam learns an invaluable lesson from an unlikely source: his own donkey. This donkey (tradition teaches it was created in the magical moment before the first Shabbat) had its own visions and saw an angel of God along the way. Balaam the prophet could not see this angel and beat the ass mercilessly because it would stop and lean against the wall pressing Balaam’s foot thinking it just stubborn Balaam the prophet would keep hitting the ass. Finally God gave the donkey speech! And the ass inquires of Balaam ‘Look I am the ass that you have been riding all along until this day! Have I been in the habit of doing thus to you?” and Balaam answered no. (Num. 22:30). At that moment Balaam’s eyes were opened and he too saw the God’s angel in the road. The angel after scolding Balaam lets him proceed but reminds him that he will only say whatever it is that God or God’s angel will tell him. Balaam the foreign prophet becomes the agent of God.
When Balaam comes before King Balak, he wants Balaam to curse the Israelites. But each time out of Balaam’s mouth comes a blessing. The king says, “I called you…to damn my enemies, and instead you have blessed them these three times!” (Num. 24:10). The most famous of the three blessings that were given by the prophet Balaam is stilled used in the synagogue service today, “How fair are your tents, O Jacob, Your dwellings, O Israel.” (Num. 24:5).
But the metaphor of the talking ass sets up this second half of the story. Just as Balaam the prophet eyes are finally open to the angel of the Lord —so the King of the Moabites eyes are finally opened that God controls the blessings that are given. Balaam finally tells the king, “But I even told the messengers you sent to me, Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not of my own accord do anything good or bad contrary to Adonai’s command. What the Eternal says, that I must say” (Num. 24:12-13).
The angel of God caused the donkey to react and Balaam finally saw the holy power of God’s hand, now Balaam who has become an agent of God, opens the eyes of Balak to the blessings of God for the Israelites.
We learn from this story that God is the God of all not just the Jews. We learn from this story that sometimes we have to open our eyes to see what is really before us. And that we are shaped by God’s will for us. May all our curses turn into blessings!
Posted by Eric at June 29, 2009 03:42 PM
