“You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”
Christopher Robin reassures Winnie the Pooh at the beginning of Pooh’s Grand Adventure, but do we or should we accept advice or reassurance from talking animals?
I am part of a generation of children whose moral framework was shaped by the talking animals of the Public Broadcasting Service in America where Jim Henson’s muppets on Sesame Street taught the values of the civil rights movement of justice and equality.
There are only two talking animals in Torah: the serpent and the aton, the female donkey that Balaam rides. Rabbanit Talia Weisberg points out how the two instances are connected by a gender swap. In the Garden of Eden it is the male snake speaking to Eve and here it is a female donkey that is speaking to Balaam.
The episode of Bilaam and the donkey can be understood as a replay of the incident of Chava and the snake, but with the ending it should have had. A sneaky, irreverent animal is replaced by a dependable, steadfast one; a sin against God that brings a curse upon humanity is replaced by an adherence to God’s word that brings blessing into the world. Although Bilaam is not the most obvious analogy to Chava, the two biblical figures are more easily connected by their interactions with talking animals, for better or for worse.
What can we learn from the uniqueness of the female donkey in Torah?
The uniqueness of this moment points towards the aton functioning as a tocsin- a visible or audible sign that gives a warning. In this case the warning is that we need to pay special attention to the details of this moment in Torah, and question any easy answers or assumptions.
The story begins when Balak, the King of Moab
was alarmed because that people was so numerous. Moab dreaded the Israelites
A group of elders is sent by Balak to Balaam to engage the locally famous sorcerer in cursing the Israelites. At first God instructs Balaam not to go, but when Balak sends a second contingent of more impressive dignitaries to convince Balaam, God gives him permission to go with the dignitaries as long as Balaam only does what God commands. This scenario eventually leads to viewing the encampment of the Israelites and blessing them with words that today form an important part of our liturgy:
Mah-tovu ohaleicha ya’akov mishkenoteicha yisra’el
How fair are your tents, O Jacob,
Your dwellings, O Israel!
The earliest reference to Mah Tovu as a formal prayer is in Seder Rav Amram Gaon in the 9th Century and the complexities of this prayer starting with Balaam’s words are captured by Rabbi Elliot Kaplowitz
While Mah Tovu is firmly entrenched in our liturgical tradition, I have always identified with the objection raised by the Maharshal (R. Shlomo Luria, 16th Century, Poland): “When I come to synagogue I begin with the verse “But as for me, in the abundance of Thy lovingkindness…” (Psalms 5:8) and skip the first verse “How goodly are thy tents” (Numbers 24:5) because Balaam said it [first] and he said it as a curse as we find in Sanhedrin 105b and this is not its proper place” (Shut Maharshal 64). If, indeed, Bilam was evil, why are his words among the first that we teach our children?
On Balaam’s road to his destiny of uttering these words are various signs why his words would play such an important part in our lives.
The beginning of Balaam’s journey mirrors Abraham’s journey in Genesis 22:3
Vayyakom bil’am babboker vayyachavosh et-atono vayyelech im-sarei mo’av.
When he arose in the morning, Balaam saddled his jenny and departed with the Moabite dignitaries. (Numbers 21:22)
This parallels the language and structure of the description of Abraham awaking to travel to Mount Moriah to sacrifice Isaac
Vayyashkem avraham babboker vayyachavosh et-chamoro
Abraham started early in the morning and saddled his donkey (Genesis 22:3)
The language in these verses teaches that there is a symbiotic relationship between the blesser (Balaam) and the blessed (Abraham). Here the parallel structures of the two verses suggest a relationship between Abraham and Balaam in the journeys they make. The ‘getting up’ and ‘getting up early’ are mirrored in the contrast between the aton and the chamor the female donkey and the male donkey.
Balaam does not saddle a male donkey, rather a female donkey and the appearance of a female donkey is rare in Torah signalling again, to pay attention.
Female donkeys appear in the list of gifts that Jacob sends to Esau, and in the list of rewards from Pharoah to Abram in Genesis 12:16
ule’avram heitiv ba’avurah vayhi-lo tzon-uvakar vachamorim va’avadim ushefachot va’atonot ugemallim.
And because of her, it went well with Abram; he acquired sheep, oxen, donkeys, male and female slaves, jennies, and camels.
While Balaam’s riding of the aton is unique in Torah, a female donkey is ridden in one of the few times the aton appears in Tanakh when the son of the Great woman of Shunem falls sick and is taken for dead in II Kings 4:24
vattikra el-ishah vattomer shilchah na li echad min-hanne’arim ve’achat ha’atonot ve’arutzah ad-ish ha’elohim ve’ashuvah.
Then she called to her husband: “Please, send me one of the servants and one of the jennies, so I can hurry to the agent of God and back.
My love of the liturgy of Ma Tovu is potentially behind my desire to read the character of Balaam in a positive light, even though there is abundant commentary on Balaam as evil. The text on the page crafts a hermeneutic ecology of shadow, light and reflection, of human characters who are not purely good or purely evil. The connections brought to us by the appearance of an aton position Balaam within a web of meaning, and depolarises our perception of him.
Balaam in riding a jenny becomes the gifts in search of forgiveness from Jacob to Esau in Genesis 32:16, becomes the blessings of Job’s later years in Job 42:12, becomes the great woman of Shumen saving her child, becomes a blessing with contradictions.
Nobody is just good or bad, and none of us have clear instructions from a higher power; we do the best we can with the tools that we have as we keep our eyes and ears open to the angels and messengers around us in whatever form they appear.
Jennifer Verson, LBC rabbinical student
The views expressed in this D’var Torah do not necessarily reflect the position of Leo Baeck College.