Parashat Balak: Blessing, Disaster and Kindness

Parashat Balak descends from the heights of prophetic poetry to the depths of sin, failed leadership, and punishment.

The story begins when Balak, king of Moab, is horrified at the sight of tens of thousands of Israelites massed along his border. He attempts to hire Balaam’s services to curse them and remove the threat. Balaam initially rejects his request, at the command of God, who clearly states, “Do not go with them. You must not curse that people, for they are blessed.” (Numbers 22:12; translation: RJPS, except as noted). But the messengers do not report Balaam’s complete answer to the king. Balak, for his part, mistakenly thinks that his offer was not generous enough and sends a more respectable delegation. Surprisingly, God seems to change God’s position, “If the men have come to invite you, you may go with them.” But only with regards to the journey. Regarding the content, God stands firm “But whatever I command you, that you shall do” (Num. 22:20).

Balaam is please and departs with Balak’s delegation. When the embarrassing scene with the jenny (i.e., female donkey) makes it clear that God is using him as an example, Balaam can no longer turn back. In real time, the many sacrifices and changes of locale have no effect. Balaam blesses: “How can I damn whom God has not damned? How doom when God has not doomed? …. Who can count the dust of Jacob, number the dust-cloud of Israel?”
Balak is furious, “What have you done to me?” (Num.23:8, 10, 11). Repeatedly.

From the perspective of Balak and Balaam, the mission failed. The people were blessed and the principle was established: “God is not human to be capricious, or mortal to have a change of heart”(Num. 23:19) or, in the simpler words of Deuteronomy (10:17): “For the Eternal your God… takes no bribe.” 

But we must be careful, loyalty to the covenant does not nullify divine morality or our accountability. Quite the contrary. The prophet Amos leaves no room for doubt, “You alone have I singled out of all the families of the earth—that is why I will call you to account for all your iniquities” (3:2). 

It turns out that Balaam knows that. He can’t curse Israel but — angry and frustrated — he can make them stumble.

It is no coincidence that after Balak and Balaam part ways that “While Israel was staying at Shittim, the people profaned themselves by whoring with the Moabite women, who invited the people to the sacrifices for their god. The people partook of them and worshiped that god.  Thus Israel attached itself to Baal-peor, and GOD was incensed with Israel.” (Num. 25:1-2).
A new low. Even when they sinned with the golden calf, the Israelites did not worship other gods. Rather, they imagined that a statue could represent their true God. In other rebellions, they expressed fears and weak faith or doubted the leaders, but did not descend to prostitution and idolatry.

The causation is not explicit in this chapter but later, in Numbers 31:16, we learn that Balaam exacted his revenge by advising the women of Moab to seduce the Israelites. His exact words do not appear in the Torah, but Rabbis reveal his logic: “The God of these hates lewdness, and they desire linen good. Let me give you some advice: Set up pavilions in the marketplace, and place prostitutes in them...” (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 106a; my translation). In another version, he advices them offer food because “they have nothing but manna to eat” (Avot de-Rabbi Natan, version A, 1:4; my translation). Was this the first time that our enemies learned our weaknesses and used them against us? It certainly wasn’t the last.

Balak’s advice succeeded and God brings a plague upon the Israelites.

Despite God’s command, Moses and the leaders of the people are weak and unresponsive. Chaos rages until Pinchas takes a spear in his hand and the portion ends with bloody violence and 24,000 dead.

Shocking.

But not all is lost. The covenant remains in force. In the haftara, the prophet Micah shows us the way. After explicitly mentioning Balak, Balaam, and the deeds of Shittim, the prophet clarifies again that God cannot be ameliorated with sacrifices, but rather 

“You have been told, O mortal, what is good, and what God requires of you: only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk modestly with your God” (Micah 6:8).

God’s mercy can be aroused and God’s anger softened not with ritual through justice and kindness.

Micah's words on the Torah Ark
of Hod veHadar

Do justice by conducting our personal and public lives according to principles of fairness and justice that do not give preference to the wealthy and powerful, and that distribute resources so that the basic needs of all are met.

Loving goodness is more than a pleasant inner feeling. It calls for active love: aiding the needy and weak in society with concrete assistance, feeding the hungry, providing for the homeless and clothing the naked; and being a supportive presence for people in vulnerable situations: the sick and injured, lonely and bereaved. ‎

Walk modestly with your God, without calling attention to ourselves and our acts, as Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote: “The greatest beauty grows at the greatest distance from the ego” (God in Search of Man, p. 404).

What is true on the national level, is also true on the personal level. (Bride and groom), you are entering a covenant of marriage under a chuppah that symbolizes a home that is open to the world. May you be wise enough to build your home on foundations of kindness, to each other,  to those around you, and to the world as whole. As the psalmist wrote, 

“The world is built on kindness” (Ps. 89:3, my translation).