WRJ Voices: Balak

Blessings and curses. Our lives are full of them, and our Torah is full of them. In Balak, this week’s parashah, we have the story of one of the most famous blessings, one that is incorporated into our liturgy and that we sing with gusto at every morning service. Mah tovu ohalecha, Yaakov.

We know the story that this blessing was originally supposed to be a curse. Balak, the king of Moab, commissions Balaam, a visionary skilled in blessings and curses, to curse the Israelites. This commission is prompted by Balak’s fear and alarm, having seen how numerous and strong the Israelites had become.

Balaam is taken by Balak to not one, but three different locations from which he can glimpse the Israelites’ encampment. Each time, to Balak’s great frustration, Balaam utters a blessing rather than a curse. At the third location, Balaam is able to see the tents of the Israelite people and the community they have formed. It is from this location that he offers his famous blessing: “How good are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel.”

As I read this story I think about the blessings we experience in our lives. We sometimes receive direct blessings – the Priestly Blessing from our rabbi at the end of services, a Mi Shebeirach blessing for a group that has been honored with an Aliyah. Being blessed in these ways warms my heart and quiets my spirit.

We also have many overall blessings in our lives. What inspired Balaam to his most famous blessing was a glimpse of the community that the Israelites had created. As women of WRJ, we are blessed with an extraordinary community. We support each other, we energize each other, and we are catalysts for others to be even more creative and effective. I recently had the privilege of journeying to Israel with the WRJ Women’s Journey. I knew that this would be a group who would make everyone welcome, who would watch out for each other, and who would feel and share deeply the profound impact of being in Israel. All this proved to be true. I recommended this journey to a friend, telling her that she will never find a more embracing and caring group to travel with to Israel. And this also proved to be true. I am deeply grateful for the community of WRJ and for the opportunity to experience Israel through the eyes of this community. May there be many more experiences like this in our lives in the future.

Jane Taves is a WRJ Board Member and a member of Temple Beth El Sisterhood in Madison, WI.