Numbers Cycle 7 Balak

Balak

It seems that we live in a world of subsets, that there are many different cultures and religions that only inter-relate in that they are a part of the larger universe. What we see in Balak though is that the distinctiveness is not based on the distinct circles within circles we can remember from math class. The distinctiveness is a matter of layers.

Torah, like man, also has layers and much remains a mystery. We don’t decide that each layer is a separate subset. We understand the multifaceted beauty of Torah and do our best to experience it. Why the prophets needed to include certain sections of Torah (like Balak) is probably a result of the fact that Torah was written during a specific era for a defined culture. In other words, it wasn’t written simply in the state of euphoria of the revelation or a state of transformation as experienced by Abraham. There are many words that reflect a rather surface level of heavenly praise, either that or over-exaggeration, pretense and ego. These are levels  that capture what we see in our society every day. This is because Torah reflects the God-experience and the God-experience (at this moment) is not in a revealed state of revelation, rather it’s concealed and what we see are the layers and the yearning.

Balak is a full on experience of life with surface-Torah, with actions and characters that are only necessary given the fact that we, as a people, have not come to the place where such words aren’t needed anymore. We have a choice. We can decide that much in this parasha is evil or we can recognize it as simply the layer of humanity where we all seem stuck.

Of course, the need to pierce through the level becomes manifest (at the end) and this piercing-through becomes a transformative experience necessary for everyone involved, the reader, the Israelites, Pinchas, Moses, the Midianites and even God. The piercing-through is a Torah action, not a societal action. It’s about spiritual transformation, not about how to behave in this world.

Torah is about transformation. Societal violence is about destruction. The death of the three teens in Israel is about a twisting of  local politics in which the politicians or leaders themselves misunderstand or manipulate holy scriptures. It’s a tragedy at the darkest level. It’s a tragedy that we as Jews also take part in.  And it begins with a misunderstanding of a parasha like Balak.

The other day I was at the top of the mountain. There, a woman was doing a yoga position on a stone wall, beyond which was a straight fall. She was doing it so her husband and pre-teen daughter could take a photo of her. Would it be for her website? Was she a yoga teacher  and would this be her add on Facebook? I didn’t know. I did see though that the yoga of her yoga was being eaten up big time by her ego. Once finished with the wall she then insisted on attempting a head stand on sharp rocks, the mountains of Vancouver behind her. The head stand didn’t work as well and the child soon started finding excuses to drag her Mom off the precipice. The Mom though was quite sure of herself. 

The yoga within the yoga, the yoga for Facebook, the child dragging her Mom away…these are all levels of Torah. I would place Balak right there with the Facebook add.

These days I myself am faced with some important decisions and projects. My goal is to enter into them with only the Torah of Torah in mind, the very center of the God-word.  As I sat staring at the yoga-Mom I admit I juxtaposed myself to her and thankfully did not feel as much in the Balak frame of mind. No, the objective is simply to get the work done without brouhaha. It’s to love Torah as the tapestry of God’s clothes, the perfume of His breath, the gold of His soul. It’s to allow wisdom to kiss with the words of the prophets so that the kiss may reach the true voice, not the one manipulated by a camera and a good commercial shot.... or  twisted even more by a sad and brutal killing. It begins with us though. It begins with our ability to see the real problem...the core of the problem...our own pettiness...and with an ability to finally move through the experience of sacred scripture with only peace and compassion in mind.

An over-exhilaration meanwhile is as dangerous as an under-whelming. There’s a middle ground, a place in scriptures that is a truth meant to merge the instinctual-obvious with the literal-factual.  It’s the place where we go with freedom and joy. It’s the place where the living and dead dance as one. First though, we need to see clearly that real Judaism is in the layers. Snobbery, for denominations or religions, will get us all nowhere. There aren’t subsets, simply gradations. The final question is how far we dare to climb and how we safeguard Torah (and ourselves) and keep it far from the precipice of vanity.