July 18 • 2019 23
jn
spirit
torah portion
A
talking donkey? Middle school
metal shop class? What do they
have in common? Read on.
In this week’
s Torah por-
tion, we read a most strange
and amusing story. Bil’
am, the
prophet, has been hired by
Balak, the Moabite king, to
curse the Israelite nation. En
route to carry out his mission,
Bil’
am is frustrated that the
donkey, on which he is riding,
suddenly stops.
Bil’
am, unaware that his
donkey is looking at an angel
holding a sword, hits his don-
key three times.
Suddenly the donkey turns
to Bil’
am and asks: “What have
I done to you that you have beaten me
these three times?”
This cute story turns out to be a
metaphoric message from God to
Bil’
am. Just as God can cause the
donkey to speak, all the more so God
can cause the prophet to say blessings
instead of curses.
Beyond the context of this story, the
mouth of Bil’
am’
s donkey is mentioned
in Pirkei Avot 5:6 as one of the items
God created in the twilight period at
the conclusion of the sixth day, just
prior to the first Shabbat.
Consider the significance of this
message. God’
s creation of the world
consisted of six complete days of work,
followed by 24 hours of rest.
Our workweek and observance of
Shabbat are a bit different. In order to
avoid violating the Shabbat, we add
a minimum of an hour to our week-
ly holy day. We begin Shabbat prior
to sundown on Friday, and we don’
t
conclude until darkness arrives on
Saturday night.
Even the “workaholic” Sabbath
observer is unable to work six com-
plete days and instead ceases work
prior to the onset of twilight.
But God is different. And so God’
s
miraculous and mysterious creation
contains an even more miraculous and
mysterious time period: the twilight
as the first Shabbat is about to arrive.
During these waning minutes of cre-
ation, God produced a series of special
items, among them the mouth
of Bil’
am’
s donkey and the first
set of tongs.
We recognize that an actual
talking donkey is miraculous.
Remember that Shrek’
s pal and
Mr. Ed (I know, he was a horse,
but a talking one, nonetheless)
are fictional characters.
But, what’
s miraculous or
mysterious about tongs?
Here is where I am taken back
to middle school metal shop
class. To make tongs or similar
projects, the metal had to be
made “red hot” to be bent into
its desired shape.
A red-hot metal rod cannot be held
in an unprotected human hand. The
only way to do such a project is to hold
the hot metal with a pair of tongs.
So far, so good, but how did the first
tongs get made? For a human, another
set of tongs had to have pre-existed.
Or, we can conclude that the human
creator of the first set of tongs sacri-
ficed his/her own hands, which surely
would have been destroyed beyond
recognition from the burns.
A final possibility is that the first set
of tongs was created by God, during
the twilight period just prior to the
onset of the original Shabbat. After
that, thanks to God’
s generous gift,
new tongs can be made by anyone who
desires.
Here, then, is a lesson from Parshat
Balak. Think hard about what gifts you
possess that come wholly from God,
starting with your health and your
miraculous body. Think about the
wonder of the natural world and how
you benefit from it each and every day.
We are eternally grateful that God was
wise and kind enough to provide us
with tongs and so much more. ■
Rabbi Elliot Pachter is the rabbinic adviser at the
Frankel Jewish Academy and rabbi emeritus
at Congregation B’
nai Moshe, both in West
Bloomfield.
Our
Miraculous
Gifts
Rabbi Elliott
Pachter
Parshat
Balak:
Numbers
22:2-25:9;
Micah
5:6-6:8.
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