Rufus Miles, an academic and government administrator from the 1930’s through the 1960’s, said, “Where you stand depends on where you sit,” or how we see the world depends on our perspective. In this week’s Torah portion, Balak, the King of Moab, is terrified of the oncoming Israelite host. He fears they will conquer and destroy the Moabite kingdom, so he hires Bala’am, a prophet for hire, to curse the Israelites.
Bala’am happily takes Balak’s money but can’t find it in himself to curse Israel. God comes to him into a dream and tells him not to. Then an angel, visible to his donkey but not to him, tells him not to and finally, when he sees the Israelites encamped he is moved to praise them, “How goodly are your tents Jacob; your dwelling places Israel.” (Numbers 24:5)
King Balak goes away unsatisfied with Bala’am’s work and Bala’am will soon die. Balak can only see Israel as a threat, and Bala’am, despite his desire for riches, cannot satisfy him. But what if their worldview were different? What if they had listened to what God was telling them, that Israel is chosen, that they will be a blessing to those who heed them? Then this story might have had a very different outcome. But it is hard to rise above our fears; to see blessings that may be hidden from us by our limited vision. Imagine how our lives and our world would be transferred if we moved from a place of fear to a place of faith. We might see everything differently.
When we face a serious challenge, how do we see it? Perhaps more importantly, when facing that challenge, how do we see ourselves? Are we up to it, or do we wilt in the face of it? The news these days are filled with deep and complicated problems: a loss of faith in our democracy and the seemingly irreconcilable divide between right and left, climate change, the war between Israel and Hamas (and Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iran), the rising tide of extremism and prejudice (including, but not exclusively, antisemitism). It might be easy, or tempting to look at these serious, perhaps existential problems, and decide to stick our heads in the sand or to throw up our hands in despair. It may be tempting, but that guarantees a bad outcome and there is an alternative.
This is the situation the Israelites find themselves in this week in our Torah portion. God commands Moses to send 12 spies to scout the Land of Israel and bring a report back to the Israelites. Their report is encouraging, “We came to the land you sent us to; it does indeed flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.” (Numbers 13:27) But then they add this warning, “we saw the Nephilim [a race of giants, DK] there—the Anakites [another race of giants, DK] are part of the Nephilim—and we looked like grasshoppers to ourselves, and so we must have looked to them.” (Numbers 13:33) In other words, the land is very good but we have no chance of conquering it. Not because of the giants who live there, but because they lack the self-confidence, or perhaps the faith, to believe they will prevail, particularly when God has promised the Israelites they will prevail.
It is at this moment, when the Israelites give in to their fear and lack of faith, that God decides that they all must wander in the wilderness until the generation of slavery dies off. Only their offspring will be allowed to enter the Land of Israel. In other words, they imagine a catastrophic outcome and create a self-fulfilling prophecy, dooming themselves to a life of wandering.
Fear is a powerful emotion, it holds great sway over us. But no one accomplished anything great through fear. If we want to address the problems of our times we must not act like ten of the spies, who saw themselves as grasshoppers and gave away their agency. We must be like Joshua and Calev, who despite seeing the same thing the other spies saw, said, “Let us by all means go up, and we shall gain possession of it, for we shall surely overcome it.” (Numbers 13:30) The opposite of fear is not courage, but faith: faith in God and faith in our own capacity to overcome the problems of our world and create a better one. Let us have the faith of Joshua and Caleb.
Balak, Numbers 22:2-25:9; Parashat HaShavua for Shabbat, July 20, 2024
July 20, 2024 by tbhrich • Drashot
Rufus Miles, an academic and government administrator from the 1930’s through the 1960’s, said, “Where you stand depends on where you sit,” or how we see the world depends on our perspective. In this week’s Torah portion, Balak, the King of Moab, is terrified of the oncoming Israelite host. He fears they will conquer and destroy the Moabite kingdom, so he hires Bala’am, a prophet for hire, to curse the Israelites.
Bala’am happily takes Balak’s money but can’t find it in himself to curse Israel. God comes to him into a dream and tells him not to. Then an angel, visible to his donkey but not to him, tells him not to and finally, when he sees the Israelites encamped he is moved to praise them, “How goodly are your tents Jacob; your dwelling places Israel.” (Numbers 24:5)
King Balak goes away unsatisfied with Bala’am’s work and Bala’am will soon die. Balak can only see Israel as a threat, and Bala’am, despite his desire for riches, cannot satisfy him. But what if their worldview were different? What if they had listened to what God was telling them, that Israel is chosen, that they will be a blessing to those who heed them? Then this story might have had a very different outcome. But it is hard to rise above our fears; to see blessings that may be hidden from us by our limited vision. Imagine how our lives and our world would be transferred if we moved from a place of fear to a place of faith. We might see everything differently.
When we face a serious challenge, how do we see it? Perhaps more importantly, when facing that challenge, how do we see ourselves? Are we up to it, or do we wilt in the face of it? The news these days are filled with deep and complicated problems: a loss of faith in our democracy and the seemingly irreconcilable divide between right and left, climate change, the war between Israel and Hamas (and Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iran), the rising tide of extremism and prejudice (including, but not exclusively, antisemitism). It might be easy, or tempting to look at these serious, perhaps existential problems, and decide to stick our heads in the sand or to throw up our hands in despair. It may be tempting, but that guarantees a bad outcome and there is an alternative.
This is the situation the Israelites find themselves in this week in our Torah portion. God commands Moses to send 12 spies to scout the Land of Israel and bring a report back to the Israelites. Their report is encouraging, “We came to the land you sent us to; it does indeed flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.” (Numbers 13:27) But then they add this warning, “we saw the Nephilim [a race of giants, DK] there—the Anakites [another race of giants, DK] are part of the Nephilim—and we looked like grasshoppers to ourselves, and so we must have looked to them.” (Numbers 13:33) In other words, the land is very good but we have no chance of conquering it. Not because of the giants who live there, but because they lack the self-confidence, or perhaps the faith, to believe they will prevail, particularly when God has promised the Israelites they will prevail.
It is at this moment, when the Israelites give in to their fear and lack of faith, that God decides that they all must wander in the wilderness until the generation of slavery dies off. Only their offspring will be allowed to enter the Land of Israel. In other words, they imagine a catastrophic outcome and create a self-fulfilling prophecy, dooming themselves to a life of wandering.
Fear is a powerful emotion, it holds great sway over us. But no one accomplished anything great through fear. If we want to address the problems of our times we must not act like ten of the spies, who saw themselves as grasshoppers and gave away their agency. We must be like Joshua and Calev, who despite seeing the same thing the other spies saw, said, “Let us by all means go up, and we shall gain possession of it, for we shall surely overcome it.” (Numbers 13:30) The opposite of fear is not courage, but faith: faith in God and faith in our own capacity to overcome the problems of our world and create a better one. Let us have the faith of Joshua and Caleb.