Are the following words familiar? “Ma Tovu Oholecha Yaakov Mishkenosecha Yisroel”
If they are not, you can take a look at the opening pages of any siddur and there you will find them. Surely a prayer of such prominence, a prayer that is the very first one recited upon entry into shul, must be composed by the greatest rabbinic authority. However this is not so, this prayer is in fact composed by the evil Bilam, the villain of great fame who was hired by King Balak in this week’s Parsha to curse the Jewish people. Bilam arrived at the mountain-top with the intention of cursing the Jewish Nation. King Balak stood anxiously at his side waiting for the curses to pour forth, ultimately which would give King Balak and his nation the power to overcome the Jewish people. But Hashem did not allow Bilam this luxury. Although he was a prophet and indeed had the powers necessary to curse, only that which Hashem would allow would be able to pass through his lips.
The words that did come forth were in fact these words of praise for the Jewish people; Ma Tovu Oholecha Yaakov Mishkenosecha Yisroel – literally: how goodly are your tents Jacob, your dwelling places Israel. What does this mean and what is the significance of this unique prayer?
The commentaries explain that the tents spoken about in this verse are the Shuls and Torah study halls in the merit of which the Jewish nation is sustained. The dwelling places are the Jewish homes which impressed Bilam greatly and were the cause for his inability to curse the Jewish nation.
There are two beautiful ideas expressed in the commentaries that explain the significance of these assets that the Jewish nation possess.
The first idea is the way that the tents were set up. The tents were arranged such, that in the entire encampment no two tents were facing each other, entrance opposite entrance. This was a display of modesty and understanding of the sanctity of the Jewish home. The homes were not wide open to the public eye rather each observed the rights of privacy of their neighbours’ homes. This is the connection between the first and second part of the verse. The Jewish people understood that their homes were their own private Shuls and the values and ideas lived when in the public eye, in Shul, were observed even in the absolute privacy of their homes! They had no double standards, their level of dedication to Hashem and the Torah was universally observed both in public and at home.
The second idea discussed is the objective they sought to achieve by positioning their tents in this way. The first thought that goes through one’s mind is that they each wanted to guard their own privacy. However there was a different agenda over here. They settled themselves like this in order that they should not be tempted to peer into their neighbour’s life. They wanted to help themselves avoid the temptation to look and see and ultimately tell. They knew that once they were privy to a juicy piece of neighbourhood gossip they would be hard pressed to contain it in their own minds. What an amazing quality to work upon, to reach a level where ugly gossip is so appalling to us that we will go to any lengths to keep far away from anything that could possibly lead to a temptation to it.
So much energy is spent looking at the lives lived by others and comparing, complaining and fretting that we too would like to have that… Soon the dissatisfaction spreads like a plague where everyone wants more and no one is satisfied. Tent cities spring up unhappy people gather together to moan and spread their own discontent…
Let’s keep the tents at home and our homes in our tents.
Good Shabbos, Meir
