Did you mean: Parshat Balak?
By Aharon Moshe Sanders, June 24, 2010 6:40AM EST
Very often on this site I spend what seem be an inordinate amount of time, fighting the red lines of my WYSIWYG editor. For example why did this thing where I create my writings for this web site (usually live, in one take) decide to underline in red Parsha Balak (About 154,000 results (0.25 seconds) while our dear friends at Google seem to place their seal of approval upon Parshat Balak ( About 51,200 results (0.15 seconds).
Being one who believes in the scientific method as part of my core system of beliefs, I tried this little experiment again, and got the same results, and you too at home can also try this for yourselves.
Could it be that the majority opinion is alway wrong?
Our blessed friends at Google always see fit to ask me: “Did you mean: Parshat Balak?” despite the obvious fact that about 154,000 agree with my search engine submission, while about 51,200 agree with the alternate phrase Parshat Balak.
The proof of how the minority opinion is always believed above the majority opinion, is that Google never questions the hapless search engine user who types in Parshat Balak, because the question, “Did you mean Parsha Balak” never gets asked, by our blessed friends at Google, each and every time Parshat Balak gets placed in our ever present Google box.
Therefore, if degree of accuracy, is proven by the lack of questioning, is the new gold standard by which explanations of our Holy Torah are judged. Then there is little doubt in my mind, that often the current belief, does not always encompass the entire truth. For our Torah is being given to us eternally by an eternal creator. This Torah can and must grow as our world grows. Indeed we believe in the unlimited and infinite nature of Hashem and likewise our Holy Torah is as His creation is also unlimited and infinite as well and can and must continuously, as our ability to understand it’s deep nuances and inner meanings also grow as a result of our unrelenting toil in our ability to understand the meaning and essence of our Holy Torah.
Perhaps I should digress from my extended digression now and explain that the reason, that my particular writings on the parsha do not necessarily agree with the majority opinion, or even upon the more common and known opinions of the mefarshim or chazal. Others who are more learned and wiser than I might indeed view this as an obvious flaw, I however do not. My personal belief is, that although I may be unique in my perspective, that I am not necessarily wrong.
Welcome to my world of the anti-dogmatic.
For my small but devoted following; translation the random handful of people who accidentally surf into this website, I leave you with this thought as I take a required and union negotiated break (my eyes and brain are tired).
Welcome to my world of the anti-dogmatic.
For my small but devoted following; translation the random handful of people who accidentally surf into this website, I leave you with this thought as I take a required and union negotiated break (my eyes and brain are tired).
Dogma is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, ideology or any kind of organization: it is authoritative and not to be disputed,
Above definition courtesy of Wikipedia.org Dogma
Also presented for your reading pleasure (While I take my break here) is a blog I stumbled upon about 10 minutes and 180 words back:
Aharon Moshe Sanders, An introduction with the intent to return, a partial explanation regarding the problem with dogma, Parsha Balak. June 24, 2010 6:45AM, with comments from one other writer, quoted, expressed and attributed below.
Excerpt from site linked below by- Reuben Posner, Fellow at Hillel’s Joseph Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Learning from “Parshat Balak 2005- I Can See Clearly Now” “Parshat Balak is one of the richest and strangest Torah portions of the entire cycle of weekly readings…Why would God condone Balaam’s trip in one instant and then condemn it the next?…
Maimonides, a medieval Jewish philosopher, suggests that the entire incident was a prophetic vision, and none of it really happened.
“Nachmanides… suggests that the donkey did in fact talk to Balaam to remind him and future readers that God can control even a human’s most basic functions…and if God can give speech to a donkey then God can take speech away from humans.”
“The Sforno… suggests that the story is really about paying attention to signs. The behavior of the donkey should have been a sign to Balaam that what he was about to do was not good in the eyes of God.”
The author, Reuben Posner, of the above cited work, as part of his summation concludes: “Balaam and his donkey is about two very important things. First and foremost, it is about the power and importance of words. Words have the ability to build up or break down, to heal or to hurt, to bless or to curse.”
For the rest of this well developed and carefully thought out an well written essay on Parsha Balak please visit:
Hillel.org Reuben Posner, Balak 2005 I Can See Clearly Now
For those who went the extra mile and decided to read this I will share my particular understanding of the Parsha. Bilaam is ready to the bidding of Balak, even if the source of his specific power to curse is only predicated on what Hashem will allow him to do. Many mefarshim apparently spend an inordinate amount of time doing what I maintain is preaching to the choir. Learners, readers and teachers of our Holy Torah already understand that Bilaam is already acting with evil intent. Therefore when trying to understand the meaning of this parsha, and how it may apply to our world today it would only make sense to try to understand the message which is not so obvious in the parsha.
5When Bilaam finally realizes that he can not curse the Jewish people our mefarshim (expaliners of Torah) tell us that he when turned his attention to the Midbar (desert or wildness) Bilaam was actually turning his attention to the the time when the Jewish people sinned with the golden calf. If one wanted to understand this ina more general perspective one would think, that Bilaam while he was in a state of true prophecy, which may have been granted to him by Hashem when he dropped his own agenda, and then used his gift of prophecy to truly understand something from the past or future of the Jewish people.
In this new state of prophecy chazal tell us that Bilaam had turned his attention to the chait eygel (golden calf) based on what happens later in the parsha. The point which I may not have seen discussed elsewhere is that even though Bilaams curses appear to backfire, they actually end up taking their toll on the Jewish people at the end of the parsha, when their is a plague and Jews die to a combination of immorality and avodah zorah (idol worship). A simple understanding of this can be obtained when we attempt to understand what our enemy Bilaam did learn about us when he finally entered into a more true state of prophecy, by finally dropping his own agenda in cursing the Jewish people. Also we could understand that Balak as an accomplice to Bilaam also aided in detracting something from the Jewish people by bringing Bilaam to a place where Bilaam also managed to somehow curse the land,.
Aharon Moshe Sanders, June 25, 2010, 2:42pm
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