Skip to main content

The One (People) Who Must Not Be Named

Just as Balak brings Bil’am to consider his enemy from various vantage point, likewise does Parashat Balak allow us to view ourselves from the vantage point of others. The main story in Balak is of a single piece, and Am Yisrael appear only as foils for the central story – the interaction of Bil’am with Hashem. What is curious is that not only does Am Yisrael not appear as a real character in the story, we don’t even get a mention. Every time Balak or Bil’am refer to Am Yisrael in the non-visionary passages, they employ indirection: “this people”, “my enemies”, but never Yisrael. It almost feels that they are avoiding speaking the name, one which Bil’am, at least, employs so beautifully in his prophetic speeches.


Now, recalling that this story of the interaction of other nations with Am Yisrael is being told in the Torah, I think the message is this: Yisrael is our name in the context of our covenantal interactions with Hashem, just as Hashem’s real name is used only in the context of His covenantal interaction with Am Yiisrael. It’s not that it wasn’t known to the outside – archeology has shown otherwise. It’s  just that OUR sense of the function of the name given us by Hashem when we struggled with the angel is that it is one which bespeaks intimacy with Hashem. Others may employ the name in a technical sense, but it falls flat. When Hashem uses it, we come alive. Reward or punishment, it makes no difference, for the inner essence of the name Yisrael is that intimacy which can only come from a struggle born of closeness. After all, as Hashem says (Amos 3:2): “Only you do I know thoroughly and intimately, from all the families of the earth”.
Labels:

Comments

deeps said…
thats a bit deep and spiritual message..
July 17, 2016 at 3:45 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Frontlet Lobotomy

The tefillin worn on the head (henceforth, “ shel rosh ”) differ in a number of respects from the tefillin worn on the arm (henceforth, “ shel yad ”). One of the differences is this: Though both must contain the four passages in the Torah which make mention of the mitzvah of tefillin, the shel yad has all four passages written on a single parchment, in the order they appear in the Torah, rolled up and placed in the single compartment of the shel yad . The shel rosh , however, is constructed such that it has four small compartments side by side. Though these compartments appear to be tightly bound to one another, in fact, they are almost actually completely separate from one another. They only join at a common base, like the fingers of one’s hand. Into each compartment is placed one of the four passages, written on four separate parchments. Here is a list of the passages, in the order they appear in the Torah: 1.        Kadesh Li – Shemot 13:1-10 ...
Post a Comment
Read more

You're Shofar Away

For this commandment which I am commanding you today is not too wondrous for you, nor too distant. It is not in the heavens, such that you should say, “who will go up to the heavens and take it for us and inform us of it that we may do it; Nor is it over the sea, that you should say, “who will cross for us to the other side of the sea and inform us of it that we may do it. For this thing is so very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart to do it. Devarim 30: 11-14. So, it’s that easy, says Moshe, over three thousand years before Nike: Just do it!! The only problem is: what is “it”? Not such an easy question. Many of us are most likely walking around, carrying out our daily tasks with a mixture of freshness and drudgery, but in background that question keeps asking itself, punctuated a bit differently: what is it? But although Rosh Hashanah is almost upon us, let’s not get too wistfully philosophical – at least not yet. Let’s ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Wiping the Disk and Saving the Animal

Why the animals, too? That’s the question I’ve always dreaded from my kids when it comes time for Parashat Noach – meilah , the sinful humans, but why the animals? What did they do? Why did everything need to be obliterated. At the end of Bereshit, Hashem “regrets” he created man, since his urge and thoughts are only evil all day. And therefore – all creation is exterminated?? What’s the connection? It’s true, we’re told that “all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth”, and the Midrash explains that everything had relations with everything else. But if this is true, why is man singled out for special mention? Did we lead the charge, seducing the ant and the elephant alike? And besides, isn’t this approach the complete antithesis of what we read not so long ago in Maftir Yonah, where Hashem has pity on Nineveh, where there are oh so many ignorant people AND EVEN LOTS OF ANIMALS!! So if he didn’t punish there, why does he punish here. And now f...
Post a Comment
Read more