36 | JUNE 24 • 2021 

O

ur Torah portion this 
week tells the story of 
a Moabite king named 
Balak. He saw what the Israelites 
had done to the Amorites and 
how large the Israelite communi-
ty had grown. 
Terrified of what may become 
of the Moabites, he hired 
Balaam, a seer, to curse the 
Israelites. But nothing went as 
planned as God intervenes, first 
obstructing Balaam’s donkey 
from moving and then speaking 
through the donkey, instruct-
ing Balaam not to curse the 
Israelites. 
In the end, rather than offering 
curses, Balaam offers blessings 
to the Israelites, speaking words 

that are a well-known part 
of our morning liturgy: 
Ma tovu ohalecha, Yaakov, 
mishkenotecha Yisrael 
“How beautiful are your 
tents, O Jacob, your dwell-
ing places, O Israel.
”
At first read, this por-
tion seems fanciful and 
amusing. Yet, delving 
deeper into the text, we 
understand that this 
divine contest between 
the Moabite seer and the 
God of Israel serves as a 
reminder to the Israelites 
not to stray from their mono-
theistic beliefs, that no one is 
as powerful as the God that 
redeemed them from Egypt. 

Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell notes 
the irony of a seer who only truly 
sees when God opens his eyes. 
When that happens, Balaam 
saw so much more than just the 
Israelites he was sent to 
curse. He saw the tents 
that were homes and gath-
ering places for families; 
he saw the community 
that was created out of 
respect and trust; he saw 
a people who had forged 
their way through slavery 
and wilderness, seeking a 
place to call home. Noting 
all this, Balaam exclaims 
those familiar words, 
“Ma tovu ohalecha,
” once 
again opening his mouth 
to curse the Israelites and 
blessing them instead.
In this strange and challenging 
year, we are well accustomed to 
the notion of blessings and curs-

es. Yet today, I stood in our tents 
to watch our early childhood 
students read a story under one, 
to have a face-to-face meeting 
in another and to welcome a 
Jew-by-choice to our community 
in a third, and I experienced 
blessings. 
It has been a long, lonely, scary 
year, truly a curse. But as the 
weather warms, COVID num-
bers decrease and vaccinations 
increase, we are finding blessing 
in coming together under our 
tents to celebrate, to pray, to 
reengage, to gather. 
Our community is living the 
words of Balaam as we indeed 
find our tents, all our gathering 
spaces, beautiful and full of 
blessing. 

Rabbi Arianna Gordon is the director of 

education and lifelong learning at Temple 

Israel in West Bloomfield.

SPIRIT
TORAH PORTION
Of Blessings 
and Curses

Rabbi 
Arianna 
Gordon

Parshat 

Haazinu:

Parshat 

Balak: 

Numbers 

22:2-25:9; 

Micah 

5:6-6:8. 

W

e often wonder why 
God made a cov-
enant with 
a people who repeatedly 
proved to be ungrateful, 
disobedient and faithless. 
God Himself threatened 
twice to destroy the people, 
(after the Golden Calf and 
the episode of the spies). 
At the end of Parshat 
Balak, He sent them a plague. 
There were other devoted 
and religious peoples in the 
ancient world. The Torah calls 

Malkizedek, Abraham’s contem-
porary, “a Priest of God most 
high.
” (Bereshit 14:18). 
Yitro, Moshe’s father-in-
law, was a Midianite Priest 
who gave his son-in-law 
sound advice. When the 
prophet Yonah arrived at 
Nineveh and delivered his 
warning, immediately the 
people repented, some-
thing that happened rarely in 
Judah/Israel. 
Why then choose Israel? The 
answer is love. God loves Israel. 

He loved Abraham. He loves 
Abraham’s children. He is exas-
perated by their conduct, but He 
cannot relinquish that love. 
Where in the Torah does God 
express this love? In the blessings 
of Balaam. That is where He 
gives voice to His feelings for this 
people:
“I see them from the moun-
tain tops, gaze on them from 
the heights: This is a people 
that dwells apart, not reckoned 
among the nations.
” 
 “Lo, a people that rises like 
a lion, leaps up like the king of 
beasts.
”
“How good are your tents, O 
Jacob, Your dwellings, O Israel!”
These famous words are not 
Balaam’s. They are God’s — the 
most eloquent expression of His 
love.
Balaam is the most unlikely 
vehicle for God’s blessings. But 
that is God’s way. He chose an 
aged, infertile couple to be the 
grandparents of the Jewish peo-
ple. He chose a man who couldn’t 

speak to be His voice.He chose 
Balaam, who hated Israel, to be 
the messenger of His love. As 
Moses explains: “The Lord your 
God would not listen to Balaam 
but turned the curse into a bless-
ing for you, because the Lord 
your God loves you.
”
That is what the story is about: 
not Balak, or Balaam, or Moab, 
or Midian, or what happened 
next. It is about God’s love for a 
people, their strength, resilience, 
their willingness to be different, 
their family life (tents, dwelling 
places), and their ability to out-
live empires.
I believe all God’s acts have 
a moral message for us. God is 
teaching us that love can turn 
curses into blessings. It is the only 
force capable of defeating hate. 
Love heals the wounds of the 
world. 

The late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks 

served as the chief rabbi of the 

United Hebrew Congregations of the 

Commonwealth, 1991-2013.

The Message 
is Love

Rabbi Lord 
Jonathan 
Sacks

A WORD OF TORAH

