SPIRIT
TORAH PORTION

82 | JULY 14 • 2022 

Achieving Healing 
Through Blessing
O

ver the last few weeks, 
the Supreme Court 
overturned Roe v. 
Wade, expanded gun rights and 
stripped the EPA of its ability to 
regulate greenhouse gas 
emissions. 
During that same 
time, Detroit set all-
time heat records twice 
in the same week; Robb 
Elementary School in 
Uvalde was slated for 
demolition and parents 
continue to grieve in 
every corner of this 
country. 
The Abbot baby for-
mula plant shut down 
again because of flood-
ing and another infant died 
from consuming their product. 
We are living in a reality where 
people are being forced to give 
birth into a world without 
enough formula to keep their 
babies alive. And if their babies 
do survive infancy, they’ll be 
staring down flood, fire or the 
barrel of a gun.
It has been an especially dif-
ficult stretch for those of us on 
the side of love and justice and 
we have every reason to curse. 
But just because we have the 
right to curse, should we?
In this week’s Torah portion, 
Balak, the Moabite king, has 
just seen the Israelites slay two 
nations on the way to Moab and 
is understandably worried that 
he and his people are next. To 
stave off the charge, he hires a 
reluctant prophet, Balaam, to 
curse the Israelites. But stand-
ing on a mountain overlooking 
the Israelite camp, the only 
words Balaam can muster are 
words of blessing. “I can only 
repeat faithfully what YHVH 

puts in my mouth,
” he says 
(Numbers 23:12), as he blesses 
the Israelites.
For real healing to take place 
in this country, never mind the 
world, at the scale and scope 
that the ills of this moment 
and the echoes of the past 
demand of us, I see no alter-
native but serious structural 
and systemic change to the 
deepest and most central 
system, the soul.
“
A revolution in values,
” 
as M.L. King said. But we 
can’t, I don’t believe, curse 
our way to that kind of col-
lective soul healing. Rather, 
our collective liberation 
precariously depends on 
our radical ability to bless each 
other up and out of this hor-
rific mess and onwards toward 
redemption. 
As we traverse the uncertain 
times ahead, may we remember 
our Divine calling, not just as 
humans, but as Jews. May we 
embrace our commandedness 
as a nation of priestesses, a tribe 
of holy imbuers, whose religious 
obligation is to sanctify even 
the most profane of circum-
stances. May we take up the 
daily mantle not only of social 
justice, but sacred justice; and 
may we rededicate our lives and 
ourselves to the incomparable 
pursuit of holy protest, showing 
up to help heal and transform 
this broken world into whole-
ness with our fiercest and most 
audacious Divinely inspired 
blessings in hand. 

Rabbi Nate DeGroot serves as 

national organizer for The Shalom 

Center, as part-time congregational 

rabbi for Temple Beth Israel in Jackson 

and as guest rabbi for Congregation 

Beth Israel in Flint.

Rabbi Nate 
DeGroot

Parshat 

Balak: 

Numbers 

22:2-25:9; 

Micah 

5:6-6:8.

Congratulations
Congratulations 

on

80 YEARS 

of service

to the Detroit 

Jewish Community 
from the Department 

of Michigan of the 

Jewish War Veterans 
celebrating 

127 YEARS 

of service 
to the nation.

