Drash Cards for Balak (5764)<\/b><\/p>\n
by Marc Mangel<\/p>\n
\u2022 Ch 22-24, almost all of what we read today, is called the “Book of Bilaam”. It has four oracles.<\/p>\n
\u2022 First, Bilaam is brought by Balak and sees Israel from a height. He realizes that God will not curse them (Ch 23, v 7-10)<\/p>\n
\u2022 Second: Bilaam learns that ritual sacrifice will not resolve God’s support of Israel (Ch 23, v 18-24)<\/p>\n
\u2022 Third: The time of the blessing approaches and Bilaam gives the blessing (Ch 24, v 3-9)<\/p>\n
\u2022 Fourth: Bilaam — now possessing the Divine spirit — prophesies that Moab will fall under Israel’s domination (Ch 24:15-19)<\/p>\n
\u2022 The Zohar says: “Stories in the Bible cannot be what they seem to be about — we could write better stories”<\/p>\n
\u2022 The Bilaam story was very famous. For example, in 800 BCE or so the non-Israelite temple at Deir Alla had the Bilaam story on its walls<\/p>\n
\u2022 Did Franz Rosenzweig really believe that the ass talked? He said “On Shabbat when we read it, I believe it”<\/p>\n
\u2022 Why is this story inserted here? The Israelites don’t even know that the event happened.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Here are some reasons: \u00a0\u2022 God wanted Israel to be blessed by a non-Jew; \u2022 God wanted to show why prophecy was taken away from non-Jews [Bilaam — the most famous seer of history — could not see what his ass could see]; \u2022 God turned Bilaam’s curses into blessing to prevent everyone from believing in seers and superstitions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Drash Cards for Balak (5764) by Marc Mangel \u2022 Ch 22-24, almost all of what we read today, is called the “Book of Bilaam”. It has four oracles. \u2022 First, Bilaam is brought by Balak and sees Israel from a height. He realizes that God will not curse them (Ch 23, v 7-10) \u2022 Second: … Continue reading