Balak – Numbers 22:2 – 25:9 – The Torah portion (parashat ha shavuah) for Shabbat, Saturday, July 5
A blessing in Hebrew is a bracha. It is the building block of Jewish prayer. Maimonides (Egypt 12th century), said that every Jew should recite 100 blessings a day. This isn’t so hard if you pray the statutory services in the evening, morning and afternoon. Why this focus on blessings? One reason is that blessings can help us be fully present to the moment, such as when we say the blessing over bread before we eat. Another reason is that blessings help us focus on the needs of others, as when we ask for God’s blessing and healing for those who are ill. This week, King Balak of Moab hires the prophet Bila’am to curse the Israelites. But despite Balak’s promise of generous financial compensation, in the end Bila’am just cannot do it. When he sees the camp of the Israelites, he blesses them instead. We know this blessing, “How goodly are your tents, Jacob, your dwelling places Israel,” because we recite them at the beginning of every morning service. Blessings can be a reflection of reality, as in the case of Bila’am whose blessing recognizes the holiness of the Israelites or it can create a more positive reality like when we see the best in others when we bless our children, or bless one another.
Matot – Numbers 30:2 – 32:42 – The Torah portion (parashat ha shavuah) for Shabbat, Saturday, July 19
August 16, 2014 by tbhrich • Drashot
In Judaism words matter. After all, God created the universe through speech. God spoke and the universe came into existence. So what we say is important. We spent this year studying the Talmud’s rules regulating speech and learned how much the rabbis wanted us to avoid hurting other people through speech. This week, at the beginning of our Torah portion we read, “If a man makes a vow to the Lord or takes an oath imposing an obligation on himself, he shall not break his pledge; he must carry out all that has crossed his lips.” (Numbers 30:3) To the authors of the Bible and our rabbis spoken words were facts; they changed reality. So they took vows seriously. They encouraged people not to make vows, but if someone made a vow they were obligated to keep it up. Their word was their bond. In our society today we debase speech. We hide our meaning and our intentions behind vague and confusing words. Perhaps we would all be better off if we said what we meant and meant what we said… and paused and weighed our words before we spoke.