Balak
Numbers 22:2 - 25:9
Précis: Balak, the King of Moab, is fearful because of the success of the Israelites against other Canaanite peoples. He hires a local magician named Bilaam to place a curse upon the Israelites. Bilaam begins the journey riding upon his ass, which refuses to proceed and actually talks to Bilaam, protesting Bilaam’s foul treatment of the poor beast. Bilaam sees an image of an angel, and he refuses to complete Balak’s mission. Balak reiterates his command to Bilaam to curse the Israelites, but instead Bilaam pronounces a blessing, frustrating Balak. The parasha ends with an interesting narrative episode: Pinchas, the grandson of Aaron, sees an Israelite having sexual relations with a Midianite woman (a violation of a commandment not to fraternize with the Canaanites), and he slays both of them and, in the process, staves off a plague that had been threatening the Israelites.
Numbers 24:5 “How fair are your tents, O Jacob, your dwellings, O Israel.”
The famous verse cited here is in the form of a blessing (or at least an expression of appreciation and wonder), even though Bilaam was charged by Balak to curse the people of Israel. This verse has become the introductory phrase to the daily morning prayers. The authors of the siddur took the Hebrew phrase “mah tovu” (“how fair”) and interpret the “tents” of the Israelites to be the synagogues and yeshivas of the Jewish People (BT Sanhedrin 105b). Its use as a prayer appears in our earliest siddurim, including the 9th century Seder Rav Amram Gaon, although its use was almost certainly a long established practice by that time.
I personally find it quite astonishing that we begin our daily devotions with a prayer composed by a non-Jew who had been hired to curse us. And some say God has no sense of humor! Shabbat Shalom.
