A blind prophet, an angel with a sword, and a talking donkey walk into a bar…
I look forward to reading the Parasha with you this week,
just to read it and enjoy the story. For once we have a comedy!
This week, our Torah takes on a completely new voice and
perspective; it tells a story from the point of view of a non-Israelite nation,
the Moabites. A Moabite King, Balak, sees our people encamped on his land, and
he has heard of our military victory against the Amorites, and he is afraid. So
he sends for a prophet, Balaam, to curse the Israelites. The curse turns into a
blessing, to the great disappointment of King Balak. Along the way, Balaam
tries to make his way to curse us, his donkey seems to understand things and
see things more clearly than he can. In fact, his donkey can even speak.
The Parasha also includes poetry, as Balaam attempts to
curse us three times, and instead, beautiful blessings flow in poetic form,
expressing assurance that the Israelites will be fertile and secure in their
future.
At the same time that the Torah seems to parody our enemies,
it brings a serious message. According to Etz Chayyim, that message is that
“God continues to watch over Israel
and extend Divine protection to them, despite their recalcitrant behavior and
lack of appreciation.” (p. 894)
The contrast with the previous few Torah portions is
striking. For weeks, we’ve read about nothing but the Israelites’ rebellious
behavior and God’s punishments. Here, when an outsider looks at us, we seem to
be doing well, our tents are “goodly,” and there is even a sense of peace and
respose in the poetry.
As we read this text together I’ll look forward to exploring
some questions –
What is the role of vision and seeing in this story and why
does Balak seem to think that if Balaam only sees a smaller portion of the
people, he’ll be more likely to curse them?
Why is this story in our Torah? And why at this point in the
book of Bamidbar?
No comments:
Post a Comment