July 11th: Balak
THIS WEEK IN THE TORAH
Rabbi David E. Ostrich
There is an old joke about a fellow who goes to the local Rabbi and asks if he can become a Kohayn. Inasmuch as Priestly status is hereditary—passed down from father to son and going all the way back to Aaron the High Priest, the Rabbi tries to explain that one cannot be made into a Kohayn. The man is persistent and asks if a $10,000 donation to the synagogue will make the transformation possible. The Rabbi is both shocked and perplexed and tries explaining again. “I cannot make someone into a Kohayn. Either you are or you are not.” The man thanks the Rabbi but does not relent. “What if I were to make a $20,000 donation to the synagogue? Would that help?” Trying to maintain his composure, the Rabbi again explains the hereditary and Halachic facts. Undeterred, the man continues, “Rabbi, what if I made a $25,000 donation to the synagogue and a personal gift to you of $20,000?” The Rabbi hesitates and then says, “I’ll see what I can do.” At this point, the man breathes a sigh of relief: “This is wonderful. My father was a Kohayn. My grandfather, alav hashalom, was a Kohayn. And now I can be one, too.”
There are those who think that they can cajole, pressure, or even bribe people in authority—police officers, judges, politicians, and even clergy—to get what they want, and our Torah portion this week gives an early example.
King Balak of Moab is scared out of his wits at the approaching Israelites and, rather than making friends with them, decides to have them cursed. He sends emissaries to a well-known Prophet, Balaam son of Zippor, and offers him the job: “There is a people that came out of Egypt; it hides the earth from view, and it is settled next to me. Put a curse upon this people for me. (Numbers 22.5-6)
King Balak thinks that a Prophet can be hired and directed, but Balaam knows better. As a Navi/Prophet, he can only announce what God tells him to say. So, when he hears the king’s proposition, Balaam says that he will have to sleep on it—and see what the Lord says. The Lord answers him in a dream: “Do not go with them. Do not curse that people, for they are blessed.”
The king does not accept Balaam’s refusal and sends more messengers and more incentives. Though they offer great riches for cursing the Israelites, Balaam explains that he can only prophesy messages from God. He does agree, however, to ask God again—something God apparently does not appreciate. In this next dream, Balaam is given permission to accompany the Moabites but is reminded that he must only prophesy what God tells him.
This is when God starts playing with Balaam and utilizes a miraculous creation. As Balaam is riding along on his she-donkey, God places a sword-bearing angel in their way, but only the donkey can see it. Balaam does not understand why his donkey keeps deviating from the path and gets angrier and angrier. Finally, when the angel blocks the way completely, the donkey sits down and refuses to budge. Furious, Balaam beats his donkey and threatens to kill it. “Then the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth, and she said to Balaam, ‘What have I done to you that you have beaten me…? (Numbers 22.28) Then the Lord opens Balaam’s eyes, and he sees what the donkey has been seeing all along. Chagrin and remorse ensue, Balaam learns his lesson, and he ends up blessing the Israelites instead of cursing them:
“Mah tovu ohalecha, Ya’akov, mish’kenotecha, Yisrael!
How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob, your dwellings, O Israel!” (Numbers 24.5)
The Book of Numbers also records several additional prophecies of Balaam, indications that he has a continuing relationship with God. In fact, as the Midrash explains, Balaam eventually achieves a rank parallel to Moses. Moses is God’s Prophet for the Israelites, while Balaam is God’s Prophet for the Gentiles. God wants all people to know the Divine Will, and thus God appoints and communicates through Prophets for both Israel and God’s other nations.
Prophets are not the same as Rabbis. Prophets merely repeat what God speaks to them, but Rabbis work with a less direct set of instructions. Though the Torah and the Talmud are full of God’s wisdom and wishes, humans must apply the holy texts to the practicalities of life—and this involves interpreting God’s words so that we can live just and Jewish lives. In the Talmudic discussions of Halachah (Jewish Law), the principles and general rules are always considered in the context of the cases under review. In these case-by-case discussions, the Rabbis weigh how best Halachah is to be applied—and often find that differing circumstances make adjustments necessary.
An excellent example comes from Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and the way he used to discuss and teach rebbe-craft—how Rabbis rabbi. Let us say that two women come to the local rabbi to ask about the kashrut of an egg with a blood spot. The Halachah says that a blood spot in an egg renders it non-kosher, but how big does a spot/dot have to be before it is officially a blood spot? When the questioning woman is wealthy, the rabbi may be more inclined to be strict and identify it as a blood spot and disqualify the egg. But, when the questioning woman is poor, the rabbi may be more inclined to rule that the spot is not big enough to be disqualifying. At one level, the Halachah is definitive. However, at another level, the Rabbi is aware of the women’s relative abilities to access more eggs. Since the wealthy woman can easily buy another egg, it is better to err on the side of caution. But, since the poor woman may not be able to cook dinner if the egg in question is not kosher, the Rabbi considers the case with compassion and is more inclined to be less cautious and more flexible.
This is not to say that there are no Halachic standards, but the ritual rules are understood as means to an end: techniques for living in the Presence of God and for finding a balance between justice and compassion.
Next week, we shall continue this conversation and look at:
(1) How the “case law” approach of the Talmud and Responsa Literature leads to interpretations that combine both the general rules of Halachah and the particular needs of individual situations.
(2) How differences of opinion in the ancient Halachic texts of Torah and Talmud result in differences of opinion in modern Halachic rulings. We shall also mention the phenomenon of “rabbi shopping,” where people search for Rabbinic authorities who agree with them.