Parshat Balak

Because the rabbis are both out of town, I got to give the d'var torah tonight. Here it is, for your edifying pleasure.

Anyone who is at all familiar with Torah has probably already figured out that it contains a lot of events which just don’t seem to happen nowadays–seas parting, divine plagues, angels speaking directly to humanity, and so on. But there is one particularly unusual event which occurs only twice in the whole Torah: an animal speaking to humans. One of the instances takes place near the beginning of the book of Genesis, the other takes place in the book of Numbers–specifically in this week’s Torah portion, Parshat Balak.

Out of curiosity, can anybody here name the kind of animal that talks in the book of Genesis? (Snake) Raise your hands if you knew it was a snake. (Lots of hands go up) Now, can anybody here name the animal that speaks in this week’s Torah portion? (Donkey) Raise your hands if you knew it was a donkey. (A few hands go up)

In spite of the fact that both stories feature a talking animal, however, they are very different stories. In the Genesis story, the snake convinces Eve to eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, for no apparent reason beyond a desire to stir up trouble. As a consequence, both Eve and the snake are punished by God. In the Numbers story, however, the king of Moab has sent for a man named Balaam to come and curse the Jews in the wilderness. As Balaam is riding his donkey to go meet the king, God sends a sword-wielding angel to block Balaam’s path. Although Balaam cannot see the angel, the donkey can, and she swerves to avoid it, infuriating Balaam so much that he begins to beat her. After this has happened three times, God gives the donkey the ability to speak. When the donkey asks Balaam what she has done to deserve a beating, he yells at her angrily for embarrassing him in front of the king’s messengers. The donkey then points out to him that in all the years that she has been his donkey, she has never before behaved this way. As soon as Balaam realizes that the donkey has a point, he too can see the angel. The angel lectures Balaam for beating the donkey, pointing out that if the donkey hadn’t disobeyed him, she would have survived but Balaam would now be dead. Balaam then apologizes for his actions, and the angel allows him to continue on his way safely, provided that Balaam will only say what God tells him to from now on.

Although these two stories are very different, they address the same topic: accepting advice. Thus, the talking animals represent two different kinds of advice. The snake of the earlier story is described as being clever. He can speak like a human being, and appears to be quite knowledgeable about the properties of the forbidden fruit. Nonetheless, in spite of his intelligence and knowledge, his advice is not good and results in calamity for Adam and Eve. On the flip side, the donkey is not described as possessing any unusual intelligence. She is simply an ordinary donkey; unlike the snake, she is not even normally capable of speech. Nonetheless, this seemingly stupid donkey is more observant than her human master. Whereas he can’t see the angel of God standing right in front of him, the donkey not only sees it but recognizes the danger it represents. Thus, she advises Balaam of the danger in the only way she can–by acting abnormally and refusing to walk down the path. But Balaam doesn’t take the hint, so God gives her the ability to advise him more directly. By ultimately listening to the advice of his donkey, Balaam’s life is spared.

These same lessons apply just as much to people today as to talking animals in biblical stories. As Eve and Balaam discovered, it is ill-advised to condemn or condone people’s behaviors simply because of who you think they are. A seemingly upright person can act with bad intentions just as easily as a seemingly immoral person can act out of the kindness of their heart, and a seemingly intelligent person can act for a stupid reason just as easily as a seemingly unintelligent person can act wisely. As Balaam discovered, it is never safe or smart to jump to conclusions. You may not be seeing the full picture. Similarly, when accepting advice from others, we can easily get ourselves in trouble by paying more attention to the messenger than to the message. As the Torah points out, simply because a person seems smart and articulate is no guarantee that he or she will always give you worthwhile advice. Likewise, just because a person is usually quiet and doesn’t seem particularly intellectual to you doesn’t mean that his or her advice should be automatically ignored.

This lesson is perhaps even more important for us as Reform Jews to absorb, as we are called upon to defend the relevance of our beliefs in the face modern biblical scholarship. Researchers have brought many of the traditional Jewish beliefs about the authorship of parts of the Tanakh into serious question. For instance, modern scholarship has shown that the Torah was almost certainly written by several different anonymous authors rather than by Moses, and that the Book of Proverbs is also a composite work and not, as traditionally believed, written by King Solomon. Some people, faced with these revelations, have questioned why we modern Jews continue to study the Tanakh at all if it is the work of various writers of unknown theological understanding. But to me, the proverbs are not wise because a wise man named wrote them; they are wise because their teachings make sense morally and intellectually. Likewise, the Torah is not great because a great man wrote it; it is great because many of the stories and laws within it contain pertinent moral lessons for our time. If the message is good, why does the messenger matter? To reject the Torah because its authors are unknown is akin to Balaam underestimating the wisdom of his donkey.

So the next time anyone offers you advice, be sure to listen carefully. Even if you don’t agree at first, you may just learn to see things in a new light.

Shabbat Shalom.