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Parashot Chukat And Balak: Numbers 19:01-25:07
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"Smart Ass"
One definition of a smart-ass is one who can sit on a falafel and tell you the type of oil in which the chickpeas were fried. In this double portion we will read, among other things, about another kind of smart-ass; Balaam's talking donkey.
A close inspection of these two portions will show repeated juxtapositions of opposites. There is a subtle interplay of antinomianism, where good becomes evil and evil becomes good, and where the holy becomes defiled and the defiled becomes holy. This shifting takes place through kavenah (intention).
The first of these two parashot, Chukot, begins with the law of the Red Heifer. This d'var Torah series discussed many aspects of this strange ritual in the special Shabbat called Parah (heifer), which preceded Pesach.
The Torah story is now 38 years after the Exodus. Aaron and Miriam will die in this portion, and Moses is told that he will be dead in two years. Moses has taught the Jews that they become impure when coming in contact with the dead. Now he will teach them to become pure again, they must burn this perfect-looking red cow and sprinkle themselves with its ashes. However, the person doing the sprinkling becomes impure.
To explain this paradox, the Midrash sites examples of how evil fathers begot good sons, that is, Abraham from Terach, Ezekiel from Ahaz, and Josiah from Ammon. The Talmud reminds us that we are forbidden to drink blood because it is the source of life, but that we are allowed to drink milk, which is a baby's source of life (Tractate Niddah 9A). King Solomon said about this paradox in Proverbs 7:23, "I said I would be wise but it is far from me."
Rashi writes that when Numbers 19:14 says the cow should have no blemish; it means that it should be perfectly red in color. If there were two black hairs on it, the cow was disqualified. He then states that a Jew's perfection is disqualified by even a hairsbreadth of dishonesty or deception.
When Miriam dies, the portable well told of in Talmud Bavli Tractate Ta'anit 9A dries. The Jews, and this is the new generation, again rebel because of the lack of water. The old generation who griped and moaned is dying off, but their children sound just like them. God tells Moses to speak to a rock and ask it for water. Moses, who just lost his sister and is burnt-out by this job he never wanted, angrily strikes the rock twice. Water flows. God punishes Moses by telling him he will die in the wilderness and will not go into the Promised Land.
Recall that in Exodus 17:2-6, Moses also strikes a rock for water when God commands him to do so with his staff. This time God tell Moses to take his staff and speak to the rock. Maybe God was setting Moses up, giving him confusing instructions and giving him a way out of playing nursemaid to the Israelites. Ramban writes that this is the same rock from the Exodus story and the Hagar and Ishmael stories (Gen. 21:19).
The parasha is named for statutes (chuk) that were to be obeyed traditionally even if not understood. The word is related to "l'chakei," which means, "to engrave or impress." Moses improvised on his own personal chuk. God punished him perhaps as a lesson to the Israelites to obey the Torah to its very letter.
Aaron is given an almost immediate death. Aaron does not hit the rock, yet he is punished. The Talmud teaches that Aaron's sin is not blessing God when the water gushes out. This non-blessing seemingly causes the Israelites to think that the water comes from Moses and not from God.
The new generation did not witness the miracle at Sinai, the miracles in the desert, or the greatest miracle; the Exodus from
The Israelites are again short on faith. They rebel over food as their parents did. God gives them a plague of poisonous snakes. Moses prays for a cure. Gods tell Moses to make a brass statue of a snake on a pole. If an Israelite looks at this image of a snake he will be cured from the bite of the real snake. One of our Ten Commandments is not to make any graven image. Our golden calf was forbidden, but this brass snake is allowed.
So far in our parasha we have learned of ashes that purify what was defiled and defile what was pure. We have read of a well that dried up when a righteous woman died and a rock that became a well when God was disobeyed. We are told that praying to a graven image of a snake will cure poisonous snakebites that came from praying – albeit complaining – to God for food.
There is a Talmudic doctrine of "mitzvah ha ba'ah ba-averah" – fulfilling a commandment by transgressing it. This is a concept of redemption through sin. Wherever great holiness exists, there is also great evil. The Talmud teaches that a body of a dead religious Jew gives more defilement to someone who touches it than a nonreligious person's body. The Ba'al Shem Tov, founder of Hasidism, wrote, "Evil is the throne of Good."
In Kabbalistic terms, there is constant interplay between the sephirot of chesed (kindness) and gevurah (justice). The rabbinic kabbalists believed that the Messiah would also purify what is defiled and defile what is pure in order to break the kelippah (husks) surrounding the nitzotzot (holy sparks) to do tikun olam (repair of the world).
We are traditionally taught that in the Messianic age, man will be so pure that the Torah laws will not be needed and even pig meat will be kosher. Talmud Bavli Tractate Nazir 23B states, "a sin performed for its own sake is greater than a mitzvah performed for its own sake."
The Talmud Bavli, in Tractate Moed Katan 28A, states that the reason Miriam's death is mentioned right after the Red Heifer is to teach that "just as the ashes of the parah adumah (red heifer) atones, so does the death of the righteous atone." The idea of a rabbi dying for his generation's sins is a traditional Jewish idea and not a foreign one.
In Torah terms, and certainly in agreement with the Kabbalistic viewpoint, death is a technical term to describe transition. The Talmud Bavli, in Tractate Bava Batra 15A, asks how, if Moses wrote the whole Torah, was he able to write about his own death? The rabbis compromise and decide that Moses got all of the Torah from God, but taught these last few verses to Joshua, who wrote them down.
But, according to the Zohar, one can die and still walk the face of the earth. The snake in the
Evil, Rabbi Moses Chaim Luzzatto (the Ramchal) wrote, has only one purpose; to be uprooted completely. We are to work to remove evil from its existence. During the Messianic age, he teaches, God will remove all evil and the world will "perceive His Unity and His perfection like a blinding light." Our Aleinu prayer near the end of our daily service calls for this to occur.
The human embodiment of evil is seen in our second of two parashot. Balak is the King of Moab (modern Jordan). He fears for his kingdom because he has seen what the Jews have done to his neighbors Sichon and Og. So he hires Balaam the Prophet to curse the Jews. To Balak, Balaam is his secret weapon.
Balaam is called a prophet because he spoke with God. God tells Balaam not to accept Balak's employment (Num. 12:12). When Balak heard that Balaam would not come, he assumed the price he first offered was too low and increased it. Balaam made a counteroffer. God then tells Balaam he can go, but only to say what God tells him to say (Num. 22:20).
Balaam "arose early in the morning and saddled his donkey" (Num. 22:21). While Balaam is on his way to curse
"Whoever has three particular traits is counted among the students of Abraham, and whoever has three other traits is among the students of Balaam. He who has a good eye, humility and contentedness is a student of Abraham, while he who has an evil eye, arrogance and greed is a student of Balaam" (Mishna Pirkei Avot 5:22).
The Talmud Bavli Tractate Sanhedrin 102B reminds us that Abraham, when he was commanded by God to sacrifice Isaac, also "arose early in the morning and saddled his donkey" (Gen. 22:03). In Hebrew the word for saddled (yach'vosh) is related to the verb meaning "to conquer." The word for donkey (chamor) matches the word for physicality (chomer).
When Abraham saddled his donkey, he conquered his physical drives of fear and love for his son in the service of God. When he went up to
Abraham's name means "father of the nation." Balaam's name is from the contraction "bi-lo Am," which means "without a nation." Abraham was known for his moral integrity, kindness, and loyalty to God. Balaam was a hired gun whose loyalty went to the highest bidder. The rabbis also say that his name means "swallow" (bilaam) as no matter how many times he was humiliated, he would not swallow his pride and admit that he was wrong.
Talmud Bavli Tractate Eruvin 13B says that God can tolerate many things, but He despises the proud. The Zohar points out that the last two letters of King Balak's name and the last two letters of Balaam's name spell Amalek, the eternal enemy of the Jews. The remaining letters spell Bavel, the Hebrew name for
The Midrash teaches that Balaam was one of Laban's sons. That means Balaam was Jacob's bother-in-law. Balaam is the Children of Israel's uncle. The Midrash states that the stone wall that Laban and Jacob made to seal their truce is the same wall against which the donkey smashes Balaam's leg (Num. 22:25).
Jacob and Balaam studied together. But Balaam also learned to be hateful and jealous of Jacob from Laban. Balaam was a gifted student of the occult. It is taught that he was the advisor to Pharaoh who suggested enslaving the Jews. Pharaoh's other advisors were Jethro, who advised against Balaam, and Job, who remained neutral. The Talmud teaches that Balaam was one of two men who knew "da'at Elyon," God's holy knowledge. The other man was Moses. The Talmud compares Balaam with Moses.
The Talmud teaches in Tractate Beracoth 7A that there is an instant each day when God is angry, and if you curse someone at that instant it will work. Balaam knew how to judge this specific time. This moment is "one fifty-eight thousand eight hundred and eighty-eighth part of an hour." This is one sixteenth of a second. What curse could be pronounced in such a short time? The rabbis answer "kelahm," which means, "destroy them." When does this time occur, they ask? During the first three hours of the day during a moment when the comb of a rooster pales as he stands on one leg, they answer.
Rabbi Yehoshua wanted to curse a heretic who was continually harassing him. The Talmud reports that he therefore tied a rooster to the foot of his bed and tried to stay up all night to watch when its comb turned from red to pale. But just before that moment came he dozed off. The rabbis conclude that God never wants us to ask Him to curse anyone.
The text called Eicah Rabbah Pesikta 2 states, "there never arose a philosopher the likes of Balaam son of Beor." The Midrash says, "Balaam was granted prophecy for the benefit of
Balaam is perceived rabbinically in the Midrash as the last of the prophets of the non-Jewish nations who received revelation from God. The Midrash says he surpassed Moses in the wisdom of sorcery. Balaam's donkey not only could see the angel with her fiery sword but also understood his intention and refused to go past him. Balaam, the great prophet, could not see the angel and beat his donkey three times for bowing to the will of God. This donkey not only could hear, understand, and speak, but also had a soul greater than Balaam's. Balaam was on his way to sin, and his she-ass was trying to redeem him. This was one smart ass.
Again in this parasha we see a juxtaposition of good and evil. We read about evil becoming good, about seers who are deaf and blind, and about farm animals that are astute and wise. Balaam's speaking donkey left him speechless. Balaam eventually blessed us instead of cursing us. He said, in words that we hear every Shabbat morning in our service, "How goodly are your tents, O Jacob, and your dwelling places, O Israel."
Rashi says that Balaam really wanted to curse our houses of Torah study and our prayer houses. Rashi says if one really wants to kill the Jews, one should destroy our synagogues and Torah study. Why does evil persist? Why did God give permission for Balaam to proceed toward his goal? The Talmud Bavli, in Tractate Avodah Zarah 3A, asks why, if God does not play games with his creations, did He not stop Balaam immediately? The Talmud Bavli answers, "In the way in which a person wants to go, God will lead him there." (Tractate Makkot 10B).
The Bible contains few examples of the application of curses, but expounds upon numerous blessings. The Jewish prophet Elisha cursed a group of school children who mocked him, and 42 of them were eaten by two bears (2 Kings 2:23-24). Also, we have discussed previously the curse of the Sotah ordeal in Numbers 5:11-29, where the words of a curse written on parchment are scraped into bitter water and given to a woman who is suspected of adultery, to drink.
Life really is not a battle of God versus man or good versus evil. Life is an eternal battle inside each of us between what we know is right and what we know is wrong. It is man's battle against himself. We all have the power to curse and the power to bless. The Zohar also teaches that the best way a Jew can rid himself of the Amalek, Balaam, Balak, and
When God tells Abraham to leave his home and go forth, he is promised that he "shall be a blessing" (Gen.12:2-3). When one dies we traditionally say, "zichrono/zicrona l'vracha – may he/she be remembered for a blessing." If Balaam's curses could be turned into blessings, perhaps we could turn our own personal adversities into opportunities for blessings as well.
At the end of parasha Balak we read that when Balaam fails to curse the Jews the Moabites send their daughters to entice the Israelites away from God. The men become attached to the idol worship of Baal P'or. The Talmud, in Tractate Sanhedrin 64A, explains that one worshipped this idol by defecating in front of it. One would clean one's self by using the nose of the idol for wiping.
The rabbis teach that food grows from the "accursed" earth. By eating food, we take the good from it. Our body eliminates the bad. They teach that manna was from God and was pure good. Therefore, the Jews during their 40 years in the desert did not have to eliminate bodily waste. So service to Ba'al P'or was 100 percent evil. If one could worship in this way one could free himself to do any act. Hence in next week's parasha we will read about the orgy with the
A sad day on the Jewish calendar falls around the time of this Torah portion. It is called the Fast of Tamuz 17. It is the beginning of the three weeks of mourning ending with Tisha B'Av. Tisha B'Av is the 9th of Av. Tisha B'Av is when both
Tamuz 17 is when the Romans forced the walls of
We are traditionally taught that many tragedies befell the Jewish people on the 17th of Tamuz. Moses returned from
Our two parashot teach us that good and evil can be found paradoxically in what we have assumed to be evil and good. Evil exists in man, as God gave us the freedom to choose our actions. We can work to eradicate evil by choosing intentionally, with the force of kavenah, to make evil into good. We can, with kavenah, make the disallowed into the allowable. We do not have the power to keep bad things from happening to us. But we do have the power to decide how we will react to it. We cannot change the cards that are dealt to us or the way others behave. We cannot change the inevitable. However, we can control our attitude and the way we think about situations. If we make things awful, and make everything into a catastrophe, we will emote anxiously, angrily, fearfully, or jealously.
The Mishna teaches, "In a place where there are no leaders, strive to be a leader." (Pirkei Avot 2:06). We know wrong from right. Let our lives be for a blessing, even when we are cursed for doing so.
The Mishna teaches that God created Balaam's she-donkey right before the first Shabbat, along with Miriam's well. The Midrash teaches that God killed that multi-millennia-year-old talking donkey to spare Balaam the embarrassment of having people point to it and say, "There goes dumb Balaam's smart ass." God went to this great length to preserve the human dignity of a wicked character.
In this Haftarah, the prophet Micah (6:08) says that all God asks of us is to be just, do acts of loving kindness (ahavath chesed), and be humble. Let us try to live with Father Abraham's attributes of a good eye, humility, and contentedness and not Uncle Balaam's traits of an evil eye, pride, and jealousy. It is not always easy to do, but in both the short run and the long haul it is a healthier and a more spiritual way of living.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Arthur Segal
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Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
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member temple oseh shalom
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This message was by janellita@AOL.COM to the
SPIRITUALRENEWAL list at SHAMASH.ORG.
Shalom Rabbi Arthur;
I agree wholeheartedly on the idea of giving and being given. We cannot reply on institutions to help the poor, we must work individually to help those in need. Obviously, we cannot do it all, but as the wise rabbis proclaim, more will be given to those who give. G!d has given me the heart and wisdom of reaching out to the poor and needy, and I have always been so blessed.
Thank you so much for you wisdom. I appreciate all that you do. May G!d continue to bless you beyond understanding.
Love to you and Ellen.
Janell, Califonia
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This message was submitted by perlaabrams@HOTMAIL.COM to the
SPIRITUALRENEWAL list at SHAMASH.ORG. .
Hi Rabbi Segal:
I am absolutely in accordance with your midrash ... or just drash?
In Argentina there is soooooooo MUCH need from Jews and non Jews that it is important to share. If one doesn´t do it, our soul speaks in loud ways to our mind and emotions.
well, I do have a monthly amount that goes to AMIA which is the Jewish Federation here. and sometimes appears someone that is need of support, and also when and if I can, I give to that. ................ and the wheel keeps on turning.
Much love. Shabbat Shalom!!!!!!!!!!!! Perla, BA, Argentina
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This message was submitted by ravemet@GMAIL.COM to the
SPIRITUALRENEWAL list at SHAMASH.ORG.
Shalom R'Arthur:
Excellent words. I thought the story of the oven was fantastic.
Giving to organizations to spread the wealth is the lazy way out. Its allowing someone else to do the work of the faith. It also diminishes the gift as there are costs involved in community projects. O that we would listen to shema the voice of YHWH and obey.
Have a blessed Shabbat! Please be in prayer as I will be sharing at the homeless shelter on Sunday. And then at a Rosh Chodesh service on Tuesday night ..
Ps loved this weeks commentary on the parsha.
Rabbi Daniel
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In a message dated 6/21/2009 9:49:17 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, chigchoff@gmail.com writes:
Dear R'Arthur -I would like to contribute. Where would I send a check?Becca(I love your mailings. Your energy is amazing and uplifting. Thanks.)
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