Parashat Balak Numbers 22:2-25:9

Dear Friends,

In the Torah it tells us that a Moabite can never convert and become a real part of the Jewish community. From the Jewish standpoint this is a severe approach. In contrast, the Talmud tells us: The righteous of all nations have a place in the world to come. In other words, if you are a good person, you do not have to be Jewish to get into heaven (or whatever good things follow this life). Perhaps this week’s Torah portion, Balak, can give us some insight into why the Moabites are so reviled (in addition to be the result of incest).

It seems that Children of Israel, having come out of Egypt as slaves, are learning the art of war, and getting good at it. So good in fact, that the people along the way in our journey are afraid of us. This takes us back to Pharaoh who was worried that we, as resident aliens, would join with his enemies, defeat him and then leave Egypt, depriving him of his throne and Egypt of a valuable resource. This in turn reminds me of how the Soviet Union treated her Jews. They were oppressed, not allowed to truly practice Judaism, and yet were not allowed to leave.

Balak, the ruler of the Moabites, did not want the Children of Israel to pass through his land so he hired Bilaam to curse them. Since we had a destination already set for us, the Promised Land, we were not going to stay in Moab. All our ancestors wanted to do was pass through. Seemingly that was too much for Balak, and we are instead supposed to be greeted with a curse, something meant to destroy us. Yet, when it was time, Bilaam was not able to utter a curse, but instead blessed our ancestors. To this day, his words are often repeated at the start of a Jewish Worship Service: Mah Tovu Ohalecha Yaakov, How goodly are your tents O Jacob, your dwelling places O Israel.

This is a great lesson for us even today. What may have been meant to be, or seemed to be, a curse, has the potential to become a blessing. The very difficult times in my life have ultimately made me a better rabbi, and perhaps more importantly, a better person. Can this happen everytime something bad occurs? No. It requires wide open eyes, an inquisitive mind, and often the perspective that only time can provide. If we can remember the times when there was no, or not a lot of money in our pockets, we can not only be more grateful for what we now have, but have real empathy for those who are not as fortunate as we might be now. The lessons that we integrate into our being, can help us comfort those around us who are in the same circumstance that we experienced. We can offer them the possibility of what the future might hold.  

It was the tradition in Judaism to empty our pockets of money on Friday afternoon so that we would not even touch money on Shabbat. This also gave us the opportunity to gauge how much spare money we might have to give to Tzedakah, and thus help to ease someone else’s anguish, let alone elevate our own soul. It was, and still is, a great way to leave the work week and enter into the sanctuary of Shabbat. It is always a wonderful feeling to come to the end of the week with a sense that we have brought some good, some comfort into the world. May this be such a week for all of us, and may it lead us into a Shabbat Shalom.

Rabbi Marv
rabbischwab@bethelsp.org