D'var Torah Numbers 22:2- 25:9

I am writing a D'var Torah (which is sort of like a sermon) for this Friday. Here it is:

This week’s Torah portion opens with intrigue: One day a Moabite wakes up, looks out at his window, and voila, there’s a swarm of Israelites on the other side, camping out and (as Monsieur Moabite imagines) sharpening their daggers. This Moabite, whose name is Balak, the most powerful King in that region, obviously feels very threatened, so he decides to get help from friendly neighbor Balaam.

“Hey Balaam, what up dog,” you know, they exchange pleasantries, and then Balak asks “So can you come curse the Israelites for me?”

Balaam says, “No, even if I wanted to, I couldn’t, because God would not allow it.” Balaam does end up going with Balak, and you know the story. Each time Balak asks Balaam to curse the Israelites, Balaam says “I must speak only what God puts in my mouth.” And so he blesses them. Again, and again and again.

The point this parsha seems to be making is that Balaam was not in control of his words. Every step of the way God was there, almost like some robotic voiceover in foreign movies where the lips say one thing but we can only understand the English.

What happened to free speech?

Why does God take it away so blithely?

To God, the greater good, in this case blessing the Israelites, was worth the price of Balaam’s freedom.

This seems rather obvious- isn’t the greatest good always worth the price? Otherwise it wouldn’t be the greatest. Yet when we look at countries that have applied the concepts of this story, we see oppressive regimes, dictatorships, governments America opposes. The leaders of these countries restrict freedom in the interest of safety, or whatever reason, each taking the spot of God and claiming the “greatest good” to his people. Ironically, this can lead to the masses “greatest suffering.” America does this too, but we are in the unique position where freedom often is the highest good.

None of us are God, and yet we can, and do, judge as if we were.

So I don’t, in fact, look at this parsha as an opponent of free speech. It’s actually showing us that only God should truly be able to override it in favor of a greater good. Remember, Balak, the most powerful king of the time, wanted to control Balaam’s words too. There’s a reason that didn’t happen.

The second point that I picked out of this portion has to do with Balak’s motivations. He was acting out of fear and anger at the strong Israelites, sort of like bullies who gang up on the new pretty girl out of jealousy. In this story, Balaam is a buffer for Balak’s actions, so instead of spreading hurt, he spreads peace. In the real world, God does not always intervene, so we have issues like cyber bullying that can end in real tragedies.

So what am I saying? We need to step in and stop these things? It sound like a contradiction to the earlier message of not trying to be God, but that is actually not true. It’s more like we cannot be God in projecting our greatest good onto others, but we can be God in stopping a hurt. At some point these two cross, and it is once we step over this line that things can become a bit hairy.

The portion also makes clear the power of the spoken word. Balak, the Moabite king, turns not immediately to secret weaponry to get rid of his enemies; he relies on the spoken curse of Balaam. And when Balaam blesses the Israelites, this is a deep blow to Balak. His reaction to the situation shows that he views the spoken word as a powerful tool. God handles the events in the same manner. It seems imperative that Balaam say the blessing. Why shouldn’t God simply show the Israelites to be blessed through other means? This choice leads me to believe that the spoken word was the most powerful means of communication.

If we look at the parsha through this lens, the message is simple: words have power, so use them for good. Sometimes we underestimate the power of words, or put them by the wayside in favor of actions. Doing things like working in a garden or collecting canned food are great mitzvoth, but if we are truly to repair the world, stop hurts without causing more suffering, we need to communicate our little solutions to the wider community.