This week’s parasha is “Balak”, from the book of Numbers. Balak is the king of Moab, and he is very, very threatened by the growing power of the Israelites; hence, he sends messengers to Balaam, a well-known prophet, to ask him to curse the Israelites.
When G-d learns that Balak has sent messengers to Balaam, he tells Balaam: “Do not go with them. You must not curse that people, for they are blessed.” But Balak does not give up easily. He sends even more messengers to Balaam, this time more distinguished than the previous ones. He pleads with Balaam: “Please do not refuse to come to me. I will reward you richly and I will do anything you ask of me. Only come and damn this people for me.”
The next day Balaam gets up, saddles his ass, and heads off to meet Balak. But G-d gets angry and sends an angel to block his way. The ass sees the angel standing in the middle of the road with a drawn sword, and heads off into a nearby field. Balaam gets angry and beats him. This happens two more times, until finally, the ass simply gives up and lies down. Balaam is furious and beats the ass with his stick. Then the ass begins to speak: “What have I done to you that you have beaten me these three times?” Balaam replies: “You have made a mockery of me! If I had a sword with me, I’d kill you.” The ass says to 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.” Only then does he see the angel with the drawn sword. Balaam offers to turn back, but curiously, the angel tells him: “Go with the men. But you must say nothing except what I tell you.”
Now, this whole story is very strange. Why isn’t Balaam able to see the ass? Some scholars have sug-gested that maybe the point is to show that Balaam, despite being a prophet, is so blind, that he can’t even see as much as his ass. But the most interesting explanation I’ve heard yet came from my thirteen-year-old nephew when he was giving the d’var Torah on this very parasha for his bar mitzvah. His explanation is that Balaam didn’t see the angel because he didn’t want to see. Sometimes people choose to block certain uncomfortable thoughts out of their minds. The example he gave was the Germans during World War II. Their Jewish neighbors were being driven from their homes, and the concentration camps were all around them – yet they were in complete denial about what was happening. They did not see because they did not want to see. I’ll leave it up to you to decide what the story means, but I have yet to hear a better explanation than this one.
Once Balaam arrives in Moab, he has Balak prepare an elaborate sacrifice. But when he tries to curse the Israelites, the words will just not come out of his mouth. Instead he finds himself blessing them! When Balak realizes that Balaam has blessed the Jews rather than cursed them, he is naturally very upset. However, as we’ve seen earlier, Balak is not one to give up easily. He has Balaam try two more times – without success.
This leaves us with even more questions: What exactly were Balaam’s motives? Did he actually want to curse the Jews? Did he bless them only because G-d literally put the words into his mouth? Or was he on their side all along?
The answers to this question are varied and complex. Many of the traditional rabbis believed that Balaam’s motives were evil, and that he did in fact want to curse the Jews. But later thinkers disagree with that opinion. They seem to think that Balaam started out by wanting to curse the Jews, but then had a change of heart. I personally prefer the second view. I like the idea that people can evolve and change, and that it’s possible to turn a curse into a blessing. The whole point of the Jewish religion is transformation, the idea that we can elevate the profane into something holy and turn evil into good.
I’ll leave you with these thoughts: Many people go through life in a state of denial where they literally can’t see what’s happening right in front of them. We could be talking about the Germans during World War II, or we could be talking about the spouse of an alcoholic in the United States today. Henry David Thoreau once said: “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.” In other words, many people would rather bury their heads in the sand than experience the world around them. Not only do they fail to see the bad things, but often, they don’t even see the positive things. Ask yourself these questions: Are there things happening in your own life that you aren’t seeing, because at some unconscious level, you don’t want to see? And, if so, what will it take for you to become more aware, more fully alive? What actions can you take each day to turn curses into blessings, to transform something evil into something good?
Shabbat Shalom!