Balak
Do we reexamine our assumptions?
Reflection by Rabbi Lauren Tuchman:
The ass said to Balaam, ‘Look, I am the ass that you have been riding all along until this day! Have I been in the habit of doing thus to you?’ And he answered, ‘No.’
Then Hashem uncovered Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the messenger of Hashem standing in the way, his drawn sword in his hand; thereupon he bowed right down to the ground. (Bamidbar 22:30-31)
"Parashat Balak contains within it one of the Torah’s most peculiar narratives. As
Balaam, the prophet hired by Balak to curse the Israelites, sets out on his journey to
fulfill his charge, accompanied by the donkey he has ridden upon for many years, a
divine messenger emerges, impeding his path. This messenger is known only by the
donkey, who responds with wise discernment to this obstacle by seeking to navigate
around it. Balaam, frustrated, beats her. This sequence of events repeats itself twice
more until finally, after the third beating, the donkey’s mouth is opened and she speaks up on behalf of herself. She asks Balaam why she’s being treated with such cruelty.
Hasn’t she been a faithful companion for Balaam all these years?
At this point in the Torah’s recounting, Balaam becomes aware of the divine messenger and swiftly bows down to the ground, understanding, one hopes, the way in which his assumptions were inaccurate.
The Torah’s narratives can help us investigate our own tendencies as we experience
them being played out in the lives of our ancestors and those adjacent to them. Like
Balaam, we are conditioned to believe our thoughts without investigation. Balaam assumes that his donkey is acting impudently. Without taking a moment to step back and examine his certainty around this, he acts and causes harm. He is only
able to reexamine his assumptions when he is forced to own up to his behavior.
It is easy and often encouraged by the wider social contexts in which we live to do this, to assume as true every thought we have about ourselves, others, and the world around us, and to act in unskillful ways in response. Instead of assuming our thoughts, whatever their quality, are inherently true, we can choose to take responsibility for our thoughts.
We might sit with the thoughts as they arise, asking what need the thought is directing us to meet. Or we might investigate the somatic sensations arising and tend to those with great tenderness and love. As we work skillfully and lovingly with thoughts, honoring the places from which they arise, we might find that a felt sense of spaciousness is cultivated. This can allow us to tend to our thoughts and engage in skillful action around them with freedom and wisdom, breaking the cycles we so often are caught in."