Eyes wide closed: when survival is at stake, where are our friends now? Driving the Jack-Ass as the rider or ridden, cursor or cursed?
What is right before us is important. Eyes wide closed.
וַיְגַ֣ל יְהֹוָה֮ אֶת־עֵינֵ֣י בִלְעָם֒ וַיַּ֞רְא אֶת־מַלְאַ֤ךְ יְהֹוָה֙ נִצָּ֣ב בַּדֶּ֔רֶךְ וְחַרְבּ֥וֹ שְׁלֻפָ֖ה בְּיָד֑וֹ וַיִּקֹּ֥ד וַיִּשְׁתַּ֖חוּ לְאַפָּֽיו׃
Then יהוה uncovered Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the messenger of יהוה standing in the way, his drawn sword in his hand; thereupon he bowed right down to the ground.
וַיֹּ֤אמֶר אֵלָיו֙ מַלְאַ֣ךְ יְהֹוָ֔ה עַל־מָ֗ה הִכִּ֙יתָ֙ אֶת־אֲתֹ֣נְךָ֔ זֶ֖ה שָׁל֣וֹשׁ רְגָלִ֑ים הִנֵּ֤ה אָנֹכִי֙ יָצָ֣אתִי לְשָׂטָ֔ן כִּֽי־יָרַ֥ט הַדֶּ֖רֶךְ לְנֶגְדִּֽי׃
The messenger of יהוה said to him, “Why have you beaten your ass these three times? It is I who came out as an adversary, for the errand is obnoxious to me.
Perhaps ironically, he “Nations” of our world today have stepped in to expect extreme sacrifice on the part of the Jewish people in this week’s Haftara (Micah)– even to the extent that the Children of Israel are expected to turn the other cheek, to be beaten, and die willingly, all in the interest of Balaam, and those who hired him on this so called seer’s mission of cursing Gd’s people.
Sadly, this is neither new nor surprising to anyone.
Haftara this week: Micah 6:7 — Sacrifice, good for what?
הֲיִרְצֶ֤ה יְהֹוָה֙ בְּאַלְפֵ֣י אֵילִ֔ים בְּרִֽבְב֖וֹת נַחֲלֵי־שָׁ֑מֶן הַאֶתֵּ֤ן בְּכוֹרִי֙ פִּשְׁעִ֔י פְּרִ֥י בִטְנִ֖י חַטַּ֥את נַפְשִֽׁי׃
Would GOD be pleased with thousands of rams,
With myriads of streams of oil?
Shall I give my first-born for my transgression,
The fruit of my body for my sins?
___________
It seems truly odd, 80 years after Auschwitz, what is to them a Holocaust (‘a sacrifice’ of over 1 1/2 million children), that the expectations of ‘these Nations’ towards the Children of Israel have now taken on a new and renewed tone of stern judgement. This is especially ironic given the fact that it has always been “the Nations” that have shown very little interest, if at all, in Jewish survival, neither then, nor now.
The demand that the Jewish People act in a way that no other nation acts is not surprising, and much like the character of Balaam is rather eye-opening — to us. We all know the story of this week’s Parasha, of the ass that sees, along with the ass driver who cannot. The drivers’ eyes do finally open, only after the ass is severely beaten.
Is it conceivable that he that sits on his ass in judgement and arrogance, and yet mystifying that he along with the actual murderers of the Jewish people less than a lifetime ago still sit in judgement of the Jews.
Is it conceivable that they should continue to ride on their ill apointed asses, sit and judge, while accusing the Jews of everything that they, had wrought on the Jewish people? Maybe they too, like Balaam, will one day have their eyes opened?
What does all of this mean, especially now, as the Jews (worldwide) are accused of murder, of ethnic cleansing, of the Slaughter of the Innocents (Mathew 2), and of Genocide? Lest we forget, it is not just the October 2023 pogrom of the Rape of Jewish Girls and women along with the Slaughter of Jewish babies of the Negeve Kibbutzim. It has now morphed and it is now the central story on the streets of New York, in the halls of the once hallowed Ivy League institutions, and in the mouths of the Democratic party from New York to North Carolina that we now hear the accepted applause and calls of “Globalize the Intifada.”
Micah 6 — in this week’s Haftara of Balak, we see a message that might have been more poignant when it was Tevya that was asking — when all else had failed, he saw very little hope in the world around him — perhaps this was all that the Jews of the Shtetl had left.
It is now time that we, the Jewish People, come to understand that, like Golda Meir, we are no longer that little girl hiding in cellars and under our beds as the Nations came streaming out of their “houses of worship” in their religious and national fury looking for Jews to slaughter.
It is no longer that way — and it is time that we open our eyes.
