fr 1 - L.5
26 Friday, July 6, 1984
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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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Parashat Balak
On the Road to Moab
BY JOSEPH G. ROSENSTEIN
Special to The Jewish News
After hearing reports of
the conquest of Sihon, king
of the Amorites, and Og, -
king of Bashan, Balak, king
of Moab, resolves on a
non-military option. He
seeks out Balaam, who is
evidently a renowned magi-
cian, and employs him to lay
a curse on the Israelites.
The reader might now ex-
pect a replay of the duel be-
tween Moses and Aaron and
Pharaoh's magicians —
with victory going to the one
whose power comes from
God — or possibly an out-
stretched arm casting
Balaam to the depths of the
sea (as with Pharaoh's
army) or of the earth (as
with Korah).
What happens, however,
is quite different, for
Balaam turns out to be a
rather ambiguous char-
acter. On the one hand, he is
a prophet for hire, a profes-
sional who demands and
gets a fortune for his serv-
ices. On the other hand, he
is a prophet of truth, whose
words echo reality. And the
simple truth, the truth that
he knows in his heart, is
that the Israelites are al-
rea4 blessed by God.
Nevertheless, hoping for
riches and glory, Balaam
accepts the contract and
sets out for Moab. He ear-
nestly wants to curse the
people but senses that they
are under God's protection.
He tries again and again to
find a gap in that protection,
a window of vulnerability,
but is unable to do so. And so
each of his curses become
blessings.
.
Traditional commen-
tators have been hard on
Balaam. He is seen aé the
embodiment of evil, as a
man who persists in defying
God, who ignores God's dis-
pleasure by traveling to
Moab, who seeks to prevent
the unfolding of God's bless-
ing to the Israelites., Each of
his attempts to curse Israel
is foiled only when God
overpowers him and con-
I verts his curse into a bless-
ing.
The words of Balaam that
we recite daily, "How goodly
are thy tents, 0 Jacob, thy
tabernacles, 0 Israel," can
be included in the prayer-
book precisely because they
are not Balaam's words but
the words of God.
While this is consistent
with the text, it is not an
interpretation which can
teach us very much. An evil
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Joseph G: Rosenstein is
chairman of the National
Havurah Committee and a
professor of mathematics at
Rutgers University.
sorcerer, who loses his free-
dom of choice and becoaes
simply a funnel for the
words of God, is no closer to
us than a Pharaoh. Such a
Balaam we have little in
common with. But Balaam
as a character in conflict is
someone with whom we can
identify.
There are two realities in
which he lives, each of
which pulls him in different
directions. One reality is
that of the "real world" in
which we strive for power,
for status, for wealth, for
survival. All of us seek to
learn, or like Balaam have
already mastered tech-
niques for manipulating the
world around us for our own
ends.
But there is another
reality, a world which we'
Parashat Balak:
Numbers
22:2-25:9. MiCah
5:6-6:8.
can see when we step back
from our everyday lives and
let go of our bags of tricks,
there is a voice which we .
can hear, a voice calling us
to live in accordance with
God's will.
Though the voice is
strong, the real world is
compelling, and, like
Balaam, we all set out on
expeditions which con-
tradict the truths that we
know in our hearts. Imagine
Balaam on his ass chuckl-
ing to himself about how he
had rejected Balak's first
• emissaries and thereby
extracted from him a dele-
gation of higher-ranking of-
ficials with a more substan-
tial offer. That voice that he
had heard the night before
— the voice which reminded
him that Israel is blessed --
had been forgotten.
Though forgotten, the
voice cannot be suppressed.
The truth it speaks will be
heard. We feel a malaise, we
sense that though our lives
have been going according
to our plans, something is
amiss. And so, like Balaam
on his journey to Moab, we
wander off the path, we find .
ourselves in tight places.
Finally, there comes a point
where we are stuck, when
the only alternative is to lis-
ten to the voice, to see the
angel of the Lord: And
Balaam then understands
that all of his machinations
are for naught, that he must
speak the truth, the words
that God wants him to say.
Why then does he go on?
For the same reason that we
go on. We are not allowed to
escape from the real world,
but must live in it. The
angel tells Balaam to con-
tinue on the road to Moab, to
go on with his life, but to
remember the truth, and to
speak that truth. And so he
does. He tells Balak again
and again that his mission
is impossible, but Balak
keeps trying for a curse. Yet
each time Balak sets the
stage, Bataam expresses a
blessing, for he is now a man
-who "hears the words of
God."
After a while the vision
fades, the voice is still —
"and Balaam returned to
his place." The challenge is
then to keep that vision be-
fore our eyes, to keep the
voice in our hearts, when we
walk in the many paths that
constitute our lives. Did
Balaam meet that chal-
lenge? Pointing to the inci-
dents reported sub-
sequently, our commen-
tators concluded that he did
not. Will we meet that chal-
lenge? That is not up to the
commentators.
Copyright 1984, National
Hauurah Committee.
Neteuri Karta
threat revealed
Petach Tikvah (ZINS) —
The head of Petach Tikvah's
municipal council has been
threatened with excom-
munication and "damna-
tion in hell" if he continues
to allow restaurants and
theaters to remain open on
the Sabbath, the ultra-
Orthodox Neturei Karta
sect reported.
In their message to David
Taboury, the Neteuri Karta
remained the council chief
that when a similar decree
was ignored by former
council chief Gershon
Agron in 1957, the former
Thief died a few months la-
ter.
Dinner benefits
VI Southfield •
A dinner to benefit Young
Israel of Southfield will be
held at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 9 at
Young Israel of Oak-Woods.
Sy Kleinman,. comedian
and raconteur, will enter-
taint
There is a charge for the
dinner. For information ,
contact Myra Selesny, 354-
3494. The community is in-
vited.