Thoughts on Sedra Chukat-Balak
The government has issued its new regulations, and the Chief Rabbi and the United Synagogue have followed suit by issuing their guidelines. Like other countries where the lockdown has gradually been lifted, it has become permitted for public religious life to be resumed in official religious buildings, and so the process has begun of reopening Shuls in a safe and responsible manner, based on meticulous planning.
And so, while ‘home’ has, since the middle of March, turned into our Shul, the process has begun – at least for some – of leaving our homes and gradually making ourselves ‘at home’ back in Shul.
Home, Shul, Study Hall and School – these are major locations of Jewish life, they are all referred to as mikdash, a holy sanctuary. In Sedra Chukat they were the object, seemingly, of admiration on the part of Bilam – when he uttered the well-known words Mah Tovu oholecha Ya’akov, Mishkenotecha Yisrael How goodly are your tents, o Jacob, your dwelling places, o Israel. (Bamidbar 24;5).
The heathen prophet was expressing his admiration at the encampment of the children of Israel in the desert. However, let us reflect – in praising the tents and the dwelling places of the Jewish people, what, specifically, did Bilam mean to refer to? Was he talking about Jewish homes or the places of Jewish prayer and study? There are two views.
1: One source (Talmud Bavli Bava Batra 60a) understands ‘goodly tents’ as a response to the beauty of Jewish home life which was evident from the Jewish encampment in the wilderness. In particular, Bilam noticed that the doorways to the tents of the Israelites were offset one from another” (Rashi to Bamidbar 24). This arrangement promoted modesty in the home, and was a symbol of the harmony and tranquillity in Jewish home life.
2: From a second source it emerges, however, that Bilam’s declaration referred not to Jewish homes, but to Shuls and Jewish schools:
“Said R. Yochanan, from the blessings of the wicked Bilam, you can deduce the nature of the curses that he really intended. Bilam had wanted to declare, along with his other sundry curses, that the Jewish people should not have synagogues and houses of study. Instead, G-d turned the words around, and what emerged was: How goodly are your tents, of prayer and study, o Jacob (Gemara Sanhedrin 105b)”
Thus, while the first source indicates Bilam was praising Jewish homes, from the second source it seems that his
focus of his hostility was Shuls and academies of study. So, what was Bilam’s goal here – was he trying to bless Jewish homes, or was he out to curse their Shuls and schools?
In an ingenious and powerful explanation, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein suggests that these two seemingly opposing sources resolve into one. Bilam’s words which ostensibly represent praise for the Jewish home, masked a real intent to downgrade the Shuls and Jewish schools.
Bilam emphasised the importance of the Jewish home: “How goodly are your tents!”, But behind the emphasis on the place of home life in Judaism, lay a hidden agenda: to diminish the importance of the schools and the Shuls. ‘You don’t really need institutions of prayer and Jewish learning – you have the great Jewish home that promotes Jewish prayer. You can daven at home you can study at home. That is more than sufficient! Why all these Jewish institutions, shuls, schools, places of study? The Jewish home is great -long live the Jewish home!
But behind these ‘blessings’ lurked a more negative reality, an agenda to get the people of Israel to neglect their houses of prayer and their academies of Jewish learning, their shuls, their schools and academies. Such an approach diminishes and undermines the Jewish people. And that indeed was how Bilam was seeking, as the verses of the Chumash make clear, to curse the Jewish people, to hinder their vitality, and see them ultimately (G-d forbid) withering on the vine. We saw such a thing in our own lifetimes in Soviet Union, where for decades public religious expression was outlawed, shuls and schools, closed down, and millions of Jews were deprived of their Jewish identity. For while indeed, the Jewish home is crucial to the survival of the Jewish people, equally important are the institutions of Jewish learning and prayer.
In these last months, due to the serious concerns of health, we have had to abandon the fortresses of Jewish life, the goodly tents of the Jewish people – the Shuls and the houses of study. That was completely the right thing to do, because of pikuach nefesh, the need to protect life – our own and that of others, which overrides all other considerations in Jewish life.
But with the Government now telling us that lockdown is over, and that with social distancing and other required safeguards, and except for the vulnerable, it is permitted for us to organise the return to our Shul buildings, the time has now come to start on the road back to our beloved places of worship and study. May we each play our appropriate part in enabling the vital rhythm of Jewish life, public prayer and study to be re-established – safely and responsibly – in our beloved sanctuaries, thus bringing blessing to our people. Ameyn v’Ameyn.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Jonathan Guttentag