Balak

Balak – Leanne Stillerman

Leanne is a proud South African Limmudnik, and the co-chair of programming for Limmud Johannesburg 2010. Leanne has studied at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, and maintains an interest in Jewish text. She is a clinical psychologist by training.

At the opening of parshat Balak, Bnei Yisrael are encamped at the plains of Moab in the desert. They have recently emerged victorious against the Emorite people, after being refused peaceful passage through the Emorite lands. Their formidable victory against the Emorites and their seemingly inexplicable exodus from Egypt have inspired fear in the now neighbouring Moabite people, who join with their king, Balak, in enlisting the help of Bilaam, a seer from Mesopotamia with reported powers to bless and curse. The people of Moab approach Bilaam in the hope that he will curse Bnei Yisrael, and that this curse will weaken the nation and assist the Moabites in chasing them from their lands.

The text suggests that the people of Moab's plan to curse is motivated by no less than terror of dispossession by a nation they perceive as mightier and more numerous than themselves. The text uses the phrase "vayagor Moab" (Bamidbar 22:3), which, in its plain meaning, is translated as "And Moab became terrified". The Midrash Rabba comments on the root of the word "vayagor", and suggests that the people already saw themselves as "gerim" - strangers - in their own land; they already visualized their own expulsion at the hands of Israel. 

The text conveys the way in which the Moabites perceive B'nei Yisrael as an almost supernatural force, which they cannot hope to confront without external help. The metaphors used by the Moabites reflect a sense of the people of Israel as an almost non-human mass; the Moabites exclaim: "Now this horde will lick clean all that is about us as an ox licks up the grass of the field," and Balak refers to them as having "covered the eye of the earth", a phrase used to describe swarms of locusts. Whether seen as a herd of oxen or a swarm of locusts, it is clear that the perceptions of the people hover between super-human and sub-human. It is here that our text provides us with a classic xenophobic narrative, reflecting a fear of dispossession and a characterization of the "other" as less than human, a narrative which has repeated itself throughout human history.  

The text describes the way in which Bilaam continues to attempt to curse the people through techniques of divination, despite signs which suggest that his attempts will be blocked. The first night when Bilaam is visited by Balak's messengers, God visits him in a dream and tells him" "you will not curse this people, for they are blessed." However, Bilaam does not convey this message to the messengers. Instead, he simply tells them to return to Moab, because "God will not let me go with you". Bilaam does not play the role of a true prophet, conveying the divine message, and fails to suggest that God opposes this mission altogether. Had Bilaam conveyed the message, he might have facilitated an authentic dialogue, and assisted the Moabites in perceiving the people of Israel more accurately. Instead, the narrative suggests that Bilaam resists an awareness of what is, attempting to manipulate and alter reality.

It is only at the end of the narrative, when Balak takes Bilaam to the final vantage point from which he hopes Bilaam will curse the people, that Bilaam sees "that it is good in the eyes of God to bless Israel". At this point, the text tells us, Bilaam does not go out to seek divinations, as he had on previous occasions. Instead, he looks out towards the wilderness, and then lifts his eyes and sees the people encamped according to their tribes. It is only at this point that Bilaam encounters "ruach Elokim" – the spirit of God. On the previous two occasions, God placed a blessing in his mouth, which he forcibly delivered. This time, the blessing flows freely from Bilaam through his encounter with God. Bilaam has finally surrendered his attempts to manipulate reality according to his perceptions, and turns to a genuine perception of what is, which leads to the famous blessing, "mah tovu ohalecha Ya'acov, mishkenotecha Yisrael". Perhaps, in part, this narrative challenges us to drop our preconceptions of reality and the "other", and genuinely listen and see the signs around us.