Skip to main content

Thought for the Day: Our Relationship with HaShem is Apparent even to Our Enemies

Learning again with my grandson this morning, I wanted to show him something about Bilaam's third attempt to curse Klal Yisroel. As I was looking through a chumash, he grabbed a siddur and said, "Zeidy, you don't need to search in the chumash, it right here in the front of the siddur." Nachas.

But let's take a moment to contemplate that fact. True enough, Bilaam was hired to curse Klal Yisrael, but he failed at every turn. HaShem was having none of that, and each attempt was turned to a blessing. Interestingly, by the way, the Gemara analyses Bilaam's blessings to uncover what his intent actually was. Be that as it may, why should any words uttered by the evil and vicious Bilaam be enshrined in our liturgy?

First, here is that amazing statement:
מַה־טֹּ֥בוּ אֹֽהָלֶ֖יךָ יַֽעֲקֹ֑ב מִשְׁכְּנֹתֶ֖יךָ יִשְׂרָאֵֽל/How goodly are your tents, Yaakov; your dwelling places, Yisroel!

Bilaam had no intention, of course, to bless our nation. We see from what came out of his mouth, in fact, that he was trying to attack from any angle -- both from our status as involved with worldly matters, as signified by the name  Yaakov, or from our more spiritual side, as signified by the title Yisroel. But what did Bilaam actually express? He saw a nation protective of human dignity even when camped in the dessert. He saw Shilo and the Beis HaMikdash; may be be rebuilt soon and in our days. Bilaam saw our shuls and בתי מדרשים/study halls.

The back story of this bracha, it seems to me, sheds some light on how it came to be so inspiring as to find its way into the beginning of our prayer books.

On this third and final attempt to curse Klal Yisrael, Bilaam sensed immediately that HaShem was still going to block him. Out of desperation, Bilaam had an idea: he would mention our sins in an attempt to provoke a negative response. In fact (see Targum Onkelos), Bilaam turned to the view where Klal Yisrael had sinned with the golden calf, he turned all of his attention to that egregious sin. Yikes! So what went wrong with his plan?

Imagine you have an employee who is usually pretty good, but steals from time to time. In fact, there was one time that he really took something valuable. You got it back, but you really don't trust him so much. Another employee, looking for a promotion, comes to you and reminds you about all the bad stuff the other guy did -- especially that one time that is still a sore spot. That might work, you know?

Now, though, imagine your child did something pretty despicable. Or your spouse. But you worked through things and you are now closer than ever before. The love that was always there has flourished. Now someone, anyone, comes from outside your family. Someone you know has always been jealous of your relationship. He brings up that very despicable event. First, he causes more pain than anger. Second, it is clear that he doesn't understand your relationship. Just telling him how much love there is will do nothing. Instead, you let him see how much love there is between you. Not just tell him, but show him. As he observes your interactions, it becomes so obvious to this vicious, jealous person -- now an enemy -- that he himself expresses the beauty of the relationship.

מַה־טֹּ֥בוּ אֹֽהָלֶ֖יךָ יַֽעֲקֹ֑ב מִשְׁכְּנֹתֶ֖יךָ יִשְׂרָאֵֽל/How goodly are your tents, Yaakov; your dwelling places, Yisroel!

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thought for the Day: Pizza, Uncrustables, and Stuff -- What Bracha?

Many years ago (in fact, more than two decades ago), I called R' Fuerst from my desk at work as I sat down to lunch.  I had a piece of (quite delicious) homemade pizza for lunch.  I nearly always eat at my desk as I am working (or writing TftD...), so my lunch at work cannot in any way be considered as sitting down to a formal meal; aka קביעת סעודה.  That being the case, I wasn't sure whether to wash, say ha'motzi, and bentch; or was the pizza downgraded to a m'zonos.  He told if it was a snack, then it's m'zonos; if a meal the ha'motzi.  Which what I have always done since then.  I recently found out how/why that works. The Shulchan Aruch, 168:17 discusses פשטיד''א, which is describes as a baked dough with meat or fish or cheese.  In other words: pizza.  Note: while the dough doesn't not need to be baked together with the meat/fish/cheese, it is  required that they dough was baked with the intention of making this concoction.  That is, even th
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: אוושא מילתא Debases Yours Shabbos

My granddaughter came home with a list the girls and phone numbers in her first grade class.  It was cute because they had made it an arts and crafts project by pasting the list to piece of construction paper cut out to look like an old desk phone and a receiver attached by a pipe cleaner.  I realized, though, that the cuteness was entirely lost on her.  She, of course, has never seen a desk phone with a receiver.  When they pretend to talk on the phone, it is on any relatively flat, rectangular object they find.  (In fact, her 18 month old brother turns every  relatively flat, rectangular object into a phone and walks around babbling into it.  Not much different than the rest of us, except his train of thought is not interrupted by someone else babbling into his ear.) I was reminded of that when my chavrusa (who has children my grandchildrens age) and I were learning about אוושא מילתא.  It came up because of a quote from the Shulchan Aruch HaRav that referred to the noise of תקתוק
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: What Category of Muktzeh are Our Candles?

As discussed in a recent TftD , a p'sak halacha quite surprising to many, that one may -- even לכתחילה -- decorate a birthday cake with (unlit, obviously) birthday candles on Shabbos. That p'sak is predicated on another p'sak halacha; namely, that our candles are muktzeh because they are a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור and not  מוקצה מחמת גופו/intrinsically set aside from any use on Shabbos. They point there was that using the candle as a decoration qualifies as a need that allows one to utilize a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור. Today we will discuss the issue of concluding that our candles are , in fact, a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור and not מוקצה מחמת גופו. Along the way we'll also (again) how important it is to have personal relationship with your rav/posek, the importance of precision in vocabulary, and how to interpret the Mishna Brura.  Buckle up. After reviewing siman 308 and the Mishna Brura there, I concluded that it should be permissible to use birthday candles to decorate a cake on Shabbo
Post a Comment
Read more