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Post by louise on Jul 21, 2024 21:27:21 GMT -5
What’s on your mind — how to make kugel? This week’s Torah reading? Life goals? Prayer? We are all engaged in weight loss/weight maintenance journeys and we are all Jewish or at least interested in Judaism. We like to eat, we like to discuss. It is our goal here to provide each other support on our journeys, to share experiences, to call on our rich cultural heritage and texts, and to help each other grow spiritually.
Some of us take weekly turns starting the thread:
Frieda (hopefully)
Holly
Lee
Louise
Lynne
Peachy
And for those of you that stop by to read this thread without posting — you are welcome to, but you are also welcome to chime in. Don’t be shy
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Post by louise on Jul 21, 2024 21:30:29 GMT -5
Well we can’t complain about it being a boring news week!
Thought I would spend a moment on the Balaam/Balak story in the torah reading this past shabbat. In perhaps an oversimplification, King Balak, the king of Moab, is in fear of the Israelites and asks the prophet Balam to curse the Israelites.
One part of the story is that God tells Balaam not to do it, so he declines. Balak responds by offering more riches. Balaam thinks well let me see what God says tomorrow. He believes he has the go ahead from God the next day. I don’t want to talk about the talking donkey today but I do want to say God has not changed his mind and tells Balaam that he can only say what God tells him to.
I’m not telling this story well but Balaam tells Balak repeatedly he cannot curse the Israelites. He can only say what God tells him to. Balak doesn’t accept this answer and is then for some reason surprised and upset when Balaam blesses the Israelites instead of cursing them.
My rabbi opened his d‘var with a line from Paul Simon’s The Boxer:
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest
(add in your own Lie-la-lie’s)
That’s the part I’m interested in today. Balaam only wants to believe that God will him tell him it’s okay and Balak only wants to hear that Balaam will do his bidding. They don’t hear the rest. This happens all the time all around us. It happens with ourselves as well. I will from time to time ignore the positive feedback I get and just focus on the one complaint I got, etc.
The other thing about the story that I find salient is that Balak could have asked for a blessing for his people – why approach it from the other side and ask that the Israelites be cursed? I think we find this all around us as well.
Hopefully this will stimulate some discussion.
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Post by peachymom1 on Jul 21, 2024 23:20:38 GMT -5
I never thought before about the possibility of Balak asking for blessings for his own people, rather than just cursing his perceived enemy - thank you for that teaching! I've always thought of Balak as a supremely limited ruler - why didn't he try to get friendly with the Israelites first, rather than assuming it would always be about battling rather than negotiation and trying to get along with each other?
Now I have an earworm of "The Boxer"...that's not necessarily a bad thing! :+)
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lee058
This space for rent
Posts: 23,213 
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Post by lee058 on Jul 22, 2024 7:12:45 GMT -5
Good morning everybody. Hope you are all well and SAFE! Please pray for Israel.
Nothing in particular to say about today's topic; I am too overwhelmed by the news about Biden. I know we don't talk much about current politics here, but I want to say (as I have before) that I think Trump is a horrible potential menace to Jews, and I really really really want the Democrats to win the election.
Have a peaceful day, Lee
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Post by hollygail on Jul 22, 2024 17:52:39 GMT -5
Me too, I never thought about whether Balak could have asked for his own people to be blessed instead of asking for a curse on the Israelites. After all, the Israelites are approaching Balak's country and Balak knows good and well that when the Israelites wanted to cross through the two countries nearest Balak's, those two kings attacked and lost a brief "war" (I'm not looking for a better word at this time of day), so he knew the Israelites would want to walk through his country as well. If outsiders wanted to walk across my property, would I be happy to let them? Say I owned 100 acres and a group of people wanted to cut across my property. How open would I be? There are no outhouses on my 100 acres (and for sure I don't want to open my house to 100 people who need to use the bathroom...) to name just one concern. Blessing me so that my property would remain free of "dumping"? ...
I'm looking forward to a conversation about this week's portion; I'm not all that happy with the opening (nor do I like the close of last week's portion), but shortly afterward is the story of the 5 daughters of Tz'lof'chad (which I love!)... (hint hint...)
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