Rabbi Safman's Weekly Message
Dear Friends,
As we join together to celebrate Shabbat we invite you to bring a kiddush cup or any glass filled with wine or grape juice and join together with us at the end of services to share in a l'chayim.
I look forward to celebrating Shabbat with you.
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Balaak 2024
If someone were to offer you the opportunity to have three wishes granted, what might you wish for? I guess it might depend on the situation, as to what those wishes might be! What might be the benefits? What might be the consequences that arise from any one of those wishes? Even a wish for something positive might have cons or negatives associated with it.
There is the well-known joke of Beryl who is offered a wish, but whatever wish he is granted his enemy Chaim will receive double the amount. Beryl ponders and asks that he be blinded in one eye.
In Pirke Avot we read: “Shmuel Hakatan said: “If your enemy falls, do not exult; if he trips, let your heart not rejoice, lest the Lord see it and be displeased, and avert his wrath from him.” (Proverbs 24:17).” (Avot 4:19)
In the Talmud (Berachot 10a) one of the great rabbis of the time, Rabbi Meir experienced hooligans who caused him much distress. “Rabbi Meir wanted to pray that they should die. His wife Beruria said to him: ‘How can you think [to do that]? Is it because it is written, Let sinners cease? Is it written chot'im, sinners? It is written chatta'im, sins! Further, look at the end of the verse: and let the wicked men be no more. Since the sins will cease, there will be no more wicked men! Rather pray for them that they should repent, and there will be no more wicked.’ He did pray for them, and they repented.”
Rabbi Meir listened to the words of his wife Beruria, who in her own right was a true scholar. Her wisdom, in many instances, surpassed that of her husband. In this instance, once again her words were ones that her husband took to heart.
She is not only his teacher, but ours as well. She plays on the Hebrew word and how it can be interpreted based on the vowels attached to it. You can read the word as chotim, sinners. But you can also read it as chattaim, sins.
She asks, when someone experiences a life altering event, pray that the experience will guide them to change their ways. Hopefully, they will recognize why they were spared or saved. They will examine their ways, and change them. One should pray for the end of their transgressions, or end of their ways that cause them to be hooligans. It is written let their sins be no more, in other words pray for them that they will understand and change what they do, what they say, and how they say it. Perhaps they can also be an influencer who can help change the ways of others as well.
Rabbi Meir heeded his wife’s words. He prayed that God watch over them and guide them to a truer understanding of life. He prayed that God have mercy on them.
According to the Talmud, the hooligans repented.
In our Torah reading for this Shabbat, Parashat Balaak, we read that the King of Moab, wished to engage a prophet of God to curse the Israelite nation, who were passing through his territory. His advisors suggested that he enlist the non-Jewish prophet Balaam. (The story is quite familiar to us. Mostly because of Balaam’s talking donkey.) Balaam’s curses turn into blessings.
It is that blessing that we in the Jewish world recite each time we enter a sanctuary and see how magnificent it is in our eyes, even when it is the simplest of places. It is the “Ma-tovu ohalecha Yaakov, mishkenotecha Yisrael,” “How beautiful are your tents oh Jacob, your sanctuaries oh Israel.” Curses turned into blessings.
Needless to say, Balaak was not pleased with Balaam. He becomes enraged, stating to Balaam, “I was going to reward you handsomely. But the Lord has taken away that from you.”
Balaam’s response is the lesson we may learn from this week’s Torah: even though one may engage another to curse another in the name of God, one should not act in a manner contrary to that which God has commanded. No money, no silver, no reward, can change that reality.
Hopefully, here in America, the words of Beruriah, the wife of Rabbi Meir, may serve as a background to a new wisdom. I understand that the lesson itself will not be shared. But perhaps we can offer our own prayers that, as the summer progresses into fall, her wisdom will guide our political parties and their leadership. It falls upon both parties to learn from her wisdom. Some may say “wishful thinking.” They may be correct. But I would like to at least hope that there is a possibility. One that can become a reality, if not today, then over a period of time. For that I can pray.
What if we changed the question from that of being offered three wishes, to be offered a blessing, but you could only be offered one blessing, what might you expect from that blessing?
Could multiple requests be granted within that blessing?
And for all of us, no matter what we feel about either individual running for President of the United States of America, may we heed the words of Shmuel Hakatan. Let me remind you of his words: “If your enemy falls, do not exult; if he trips, let your heart not rejoice, lest the Lord see it and be displeased, and avert his wrath from him.” (Proverbs 24:17).” (Avot 4:19)
Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi K.