Balak: Squint, and You'll Miss It

The Torah is filled with terrific humor. We don't always see it, perhaps
because we aren't looking for it, but it's there. In some stories, the characters are intentionally funny, and in others they just happen to be, without even trying. This week's reading includes one of my favorite stories, inspired by the comedy of Laurel and Hardy.

The evil king, Balak ben Zippor, calls upon a powerful non-Jewish prophet (yes, the Biblical world had some of those) to curse the Israelites. The prophet, Bilaam, makes it ABUNDANTLY clear to Balak
that he can only speak the words that God puts in his mouth (i.e. 'I can't guarantee a curse'). And THREE times, Balak tries to bring Bilaam to various look-out points where he can see the Israelites. They offer sacrifices, they set the stage, and... each time, Bilaam offers a beautiful blessing. As you can imagine, Balak gets more and more furious every time. You can almost see the steam coming out of his ears, a la Oliver Hardy, as he looks ready to bark at Bilaam: "Well , here's another nice mess you've gotten me into!"

My favorite moment is right after Bilaam's first blessing. Balak is VERY annoyed, but he calms himself down and suggests moving Bilaam someplace else, to try the curse a second time. Balak, in true, pathetic, fall-guy fashion, states: "Come with me to another place from which

you can see them - you will see only a portion of them; you will not see all of them - and damn them for me from there" (Numbers, 23:13). How could Balak possibly have thought this would work? A different view of the Israelites is going to change things? Maybe if Bilaam only sees part of the encampment, and if he squints a little, he can 'fool' God and sneak in a little curse. How ridiculous is this suggestion?? But I think there's an interesting teaching that we can all learn from this rather silly moment in our story.

We do this too. We try to avoid facing reality, preferring to hem&haw, make excuses, deflect and deny, and maybe even squint a little to keep from staring the truth in the face. Bilaam's blessings aren't vague or confusing, or even generalized. He overtly and resoundingly praises the Jewish people, and he even - and this is really important - speaks directly to Balak, saying things like: "Up, Balak, attend, give ear to me, son of Zippor! ... My message was to bless; when God blesses, I cannot reverse it" (23:18,20).

The message is so obvious, it is almost ludicrous that Balak keeps trying to make this work! But sometimes it's hard to read the writing on the wall until you're hit over the head with it (very heavy letters...). Perhaps we all need prophets to scream the truth in our faces to see what must be done. What is your truth, that's waiting for you to stop avoiding eye contact? What will it take for you to abandon excuses? I can't answer this for you, and neither can Bilaam. But it may be time to open your eyes wide, cause it's hard to keep squinting all the time. It's exhausting, isn't i? And after a while, it can really start to hurt.

Photos in this blog post:

1. CC image courtesy of twm1340 on Flickr

2. CC image courtesy of Rebecca Barray on Flickr

3. CC image courtesy of _tar0_ on Flickr

4. CC image courtesy of Delano on Flickr