Questions & Commentary on Parashat Balaq
1. What is the purpose of Bil‘am's oracles about Israel? What can we learn from this?
David Nichol
Our sidra this week is full of paradox and
irony. Bil‘am himself is a contradictory character. Nechama Leibowitz points
out that he is probably more sorcerer than prophet, as evidenced by the wording
of his encounters with God, along with his attempts to "manipulate" God to
curse Israel (e.g. the building of seven altars in Numbers 23:1). While he
speaks eloquently of subservience to God - "Though Balaq were to give me his
house full of silver and gold, I could not do anything, big or little, contrary
to the command of the LORD my God" (Numbers 22:18) - the Moabite nobles only
need ask him twice before he accompanies them to Balaq's side. Bil‘am describes
himself as one who sees clearly ("whose eye is true," Numbers 24:4), yet he
does not see the angel of the LORD standing in the road to kill him, only being
saved by the perceptiveness of . . . his donkey.
Israel
is also portrayed in ironic fashion, wandering in the wilderness, hungry
(Numbers 21:5), thirsty (20:5), complaining at every turn. They have had
divisions (16:1-3), defeats (14:45),
and rejections (20:18-21). Even
snakes (21:6) are joining the fray, biting away at the ranks of Israel.
There have been some recent victories, but only recently they felt like
"grasshoppers" compared with the people they were to conquer (13:33). Yet for some reason Balaq, the king of
Moab, fears them so much that he feels the need to hire Bil‘am to curse Israel.
This may in fact be the operative paradox in our sidra.
Here is a stubborn, ungrateful people who seemingly had little to commend them.
Our ancestors were miraculously given food and water in the desert. Their shoes
did not wear out, and they saw miracles and wonders without parallel, yet they
fought against being redeemed at every turn. One could say that perhaps Bil‘am,
gazing down from the mountain on the hordes of Jacob that "hides the earth from
view" (Numbers 22.5), was too far away to see the ugly side. The sages connect
Bil‘am's words with Israel's
moral virtue, but even at the end of the sidra, Israel
is descending into immorality and idolatry, and the LORD punishes them with
plague. Would Bil‘am's oracles have been different if he got to spend a few
weeks among those tents of Jacob that from afar appeared so . . .
"goodly?"
But we cannot forget that Bil‘am was not speaking
his own words. Rather, he was seeing Israel
as the LORD truly saw Israel,
through eyes of love - love that transcended the sins and inadequacies of the
newly (or barely?) redeemed. Not a blind
love, but a love that saw the germ of goodness in the people, the beauty of
their humanity, and perhaps even an inkling of their potential.
If God sees potential in the dwellings of Israel,
it is not fully realized yet, even in our day. But it is no less true. Bil‘am's
final oracle, the most eloquent and powerful, gives us a hint that what he sees
through the Ruach Elohim (Numbers 24:2) is not yet realized:
What I see for them is not yet,
What I behold will not be soon:
A star rises from Jacob,
A scepter comes forth from Israel;
It smashes the brow of Moab,
The foundation of all the children of Seth.
Surely the future glory of Israel
is wrapped up in this scepter from Israel,
the Mashiach, the branch sprouting from the son of Jesse/Yishai,
who will bring glory to Israel
and justice to the whole world. All this would be difficult to glean from the
chapters surrounding our parasha, replete with the rebellions and
punishments of a stiff-necked people. But the seeing eye perceives more.
If this hidden glory is perceptible in Benei
Yisrael while wandering in the wilderness fresh out of slavery, it stands
to reason that it is true among us even now. Just as that glory is obscured in
the wandering narratives by the complaining and rebellion, the glory and beauty
hidden in the Jewish people and the whole body of Mashiach is often
obscured by our own fractiousness, selfishness, and petty disagreements. Even
looking within at our own congregations, it is often easier to see failings and
dysfunctions than to perceive righteousness and power. But wrongly so.
May we, like Bil‘am, be given open eyes to see past
the difficult aspects of living attached to a community, and behold the image
of God in his people - even those we see every week!
2. Why does this parasha,
one in which the primary focus is on Israel's being blessed by God, end with
God's command to have thousands of the people slaughtered for worshiping Baal?
Benjamin Ehrenfeld
One of the primary themes of this parasha is
God's complete control over decisions regarding the survival of God's people,
and ultimately, who plays what role in that process. All of creation is subject
to God's decrees. In fact, God's authority extends so far as to allow the
gentile diviner, Bil‘am, to be responsible for blessing the people of Israel,
while they are whoring with Moabite women. God must make it known to the
nations of the world that Israel
is blessed, but also needs to make the people of Israel
aware that they must maintain allegiance to God alone. God would not allow
Balaq to have Bil‘am curse the people in the divine name because this could
lead to arrogance on the part of the kingdom
of Moab. At the same time, God
would not have Moses bless Israel
before Balaq while the people were steeped in idolatry. Yalkut Shimoni
points out that "God said: Let Moses,
who loves them, rebuke them; and let Bil‘am, who hates them, bless them." In
other words, it is fitting for the enactor of discipline to be one who loves
the people, and for the one who is arrogant, to be forced to acknowledge the
chosen people of God.
Throughout the parasha, many who felt they
had control, find that they do not. Three times, Bil‘am's ass has control over
his ability to pass the "Angel of the Lord." Three times, Balaq's attempts to
find a place that is beyond God to force Bil‘am to bless the people fail. Midrash
Rabba expounds Numbers 25:6 as follows: "All Israel
wailed aloud, as for it says, ‘And they stood weeping.' Why were they weeping?
Because they became powerless at that moment." Even the Israelites, and their
leaders have lost control outside of God.
Balaq is forced to recognize that this people who
"hides the earth from view" (Number 22:5, 11) has done so because God has
chosen them. The earth has been taken from his sight because he can no longer
see it as being under his control. No land he moves to, no gifts he offers
Bil‘am, nor any of his many sacrifices will change God's decree. Bil‘am is
forced to recognize that God can use his angel (Numbers 22:22-35), Bil‘am's own voice (Numbers 23:7-11, 18-26;
24:3-25), and even Bil‘am's ass (Numbers 22:28)
to make known the divine decrees. Bil‘am has no power over God. The Israelites
were not freed so they could worship alien gods. They were not blessed for any
other reason than they were going to be representatives of God in this world.
God, in this situation, gives Moses no other authority other than to issue the
decree to kill all of the transgressors in front of the entire community
(Numbers 25:4-5). God will not allow Israel
to make a mockery of the divine blessing.
The answer to the question is: Even though Israel
is blessed, and chosen, by God, it is God who does the blessing, and the choosing.
Furthermore, Israel
must never forget what they were chosen for, and blessed to become: to be a
"Holy Nation" (Exodus 19:6). Sometimes it takes the blessing from a gentile
sorcerer and harsh judgments by God through the leaders of the Israelites to reveal
to both Israel
and the nations who God is.
Leah Vaks Mark 15:1-15 - The Right Choice
In our besora passage, we face a moment of
remarkable tension, perhaps the most climactic point in the whole narrative. We
have seen the hero of the story, Yeshua "the Anointed," fall into the hands of
his antagonists, the Sanhedrin and the Priesthood. The one accused of claiming
to be "king of the Jews" makes no attempt to prove his title. Instead, he
passively accepts his condemnation. But his opponents cannot get rid of him
just yet; they must overcome two potential obstacles: the will of the Roman
authority above them, Pilate, and the will of the masses, our Jewish people.
Yeshua's liberation seems to hang on these two unpredictable variables. The
timing is favorable toward our hero: The Festival of Freedom has come and
Pilate feels compelled to please the crowd by releasing a prisoner of their
choice. He also sees through the false accusations brought against Yeshua by
the priests and does not feel compelled to satisfy their envious scheming. With
Pilate on his side, Yeshua can only hope that we, the masses, will make a
petition for his life. And why wouldn't we? We are the folks who have heard
Yeshua teaching in the Temple, have
experienced his spiritual healings, and have welcomed him into Jerusalem
as the Messiah only a week earlier. We have every reason to vote for Yeshua and
ransom him from death. All we have to do is to call out his name before Pilate.
But instead, we call out the name of Bar-Abba, a militant
revolutionary against the Romans. In the parallel passage in Mathew, early
manuscripts record that the first name of this Bar-Abba figure was also Yeshua
(see NRSV translation and note on Matthew 27:16). The name Yeshua (taken from
the longer form Yehoshua) means "God saves" in Hebrew. And Bar-Abba means "son
of the father" in Aramaic. Both our hero and his literary foil carry in their
very names the hope of God's salvation and both have titles which represent a
relationship of "sonship" to the Father. So we, as the Jewish audience, are
naturally conflicted. We are confronted with the choice between releasing
Yeshua Bar-Abba or Yeshua, the King of the Jews. The former promises a
revolutionary solution to the Roman occupation; the latter prophesies an eschatological
end to all ungodly governments. We have only a short time to make up our minds
and place our bets. The unwanted candidate must be eliminated. He cannot remain
in competition with the messiah of our choice. Which Yeshua should we liberate?
Which one should we crucify?
Two thousand years ago we made the wrong choice.
We embraced a revolutionary vision which ultimately failed and which brought
about the Romans' destruction of the Temple and our people's longest exile. Meanwhile, the
spiritual vision, though crucified, did not die forever. The "unwanted
candidate" was vindicated by resurrection and reclaimed his throne. The hero of
the story not only was liberated from death, but used that death to atone for
the very people who condemned him. And since then, the "King of the Jews" has
continued to campaign for the hearts and wills of our people and of all peoples
everywhere. To vote for Yeshua, the divine Messiah, is our choice every day.
Every day we have the potential to crucify him anew. Do we choose political
expediency over moral integrity? The path of anger and confrontation rather
than the way of peace-making and humility? Do we seek contentment in a picture
of Yeshua who easily accommodates our current lifestyles; or do we embrace the
continual challenge of the Yeshua who calls us to partake of his suffering and
his liberation for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven?
Learning 
