Parashat Balak: The Power of Words
3rd July
Three people were shot dead in a shopping mall in Copenhagen,
Denmark.
4th July
Seven people were shot dead in Highland Park, Chicago. A two-year-old became an orphan as a result.
8th July
Shinzo Abe, the former Japanese Prime Minister was assassinated
in Nara, Japan.
In the United States alone, there have been over 300 mass shootings
since the start of 2022. A mass shooting
is where at least four or more people are killed or injured in a single attack.
Three hundred attacks in six-and-a-half-months and that is just
in the USA.
There is an old saying that, “Guns don't kill people. People kill people.”
On the face of it, this seems like a trite comment that is particularly
favoured by those Americans who hold the Second Amendment (the right to bear
arms) so dear to their hearts. The
Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm
unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally
lawful purposes, such as self-defence within the home.”
However, I think that if we peel away the emotion that fuels this
argument, there is a great deal of truth in what is being said, particularly in
the second part of the statement, 'people kill people'.
There are many ways for a human to impact negatively on another
person's life.
One of these is through physical violence, the kind that I have
been referring to. Another is the damage
that can come about as a result of using, not a pistol or rifle, but a deadly weapon
that each of us has the power to control, namely the words that come out of our
mouths.
If I asked you to name an assassin, which of these would you think
of first?
·
John Wilkes Booth, who shot Abraham Lincoln?
·
Lee Harvey Oswald?
·
Sirhan Sirhan, who killed Bobby Kennedy?
·
James Earl Ray, who shot Martin Luther
King?
·
Mark Chapman who robbed the world of
John Lennon?
·
Yigal Amir, Yitzchak Rabin's killer?
I have one more name for you to consider. Someone, whom, had he succeeded, the repercussion
on his actions could have affected every single one of us.
Can you guess who I am referring to?
And Balak, son of Zippor
had seen all that the Israelites had done to the Amorites. The Moabites were in deep dread of the people
because they were so numerous. Fearful of
the Israelites, the Moabites said to the elders of Midian, “This horde will now
lick up everything around us as an ox licks grass in the field.”
Balak son of Zippor, was
king of Moav at that time. He sent messengers
to summon Bilaam son of Beor who was at Petor, which is by the Euphrates, in his
native land.
“A people has come out of
Egypt and now they cover the face of the land - and they have settled down alongside
me. Please come now and curse this people
for me, for they are stronger than I. Perhaps
then I will be able to defeat them and drive them from the land. For I know that whomever you bless is blessed
and whomever you curse is cursed.”
So the elders of Moav and
Midian, went with them carrying payment for divination. They came to Bilaam and gave him Balak’s message.
The Moabites and the Midianites, who were sworn enemies, banded
together to defeat the perceived threat of the Israelites (even though Gd had forbidden
Israel from attacking Moav). Instead of arming
themselves with the Biblical version of guns, Balak sent for Bilaam to carry out
his sordid plans. This made Bilaam effectively
a 'gun for hire’ as it were. His curses could
potentially do as much damage as a heavy barrage of modern-day artillery and both
men were very much aware of this.
We read time and again in the Torah and beyond about the destructive
power of curses. A few weeks ago, we heard
the Tochacha which described the curses that would afflict the Jewish people were
they to stray from the good path. In a few
months’ time, we will read about the ceremony that would take place on Mount Gerizim
and Mount Eval in Samaria, where the blessings and curses would be read out by the
Leviim to the tribes gathered on both mountains. Curses were not to be taken lightly.
As we know, Gd intervened and ensured that whenever Bilaam opened
his mouth to curse the people, a blessing emerged instead. To this day, many have the tradition to say the
'Ma Tovu' (how beautiful) verse that we read today every time they enter a shul. In fact, one of my favourite quotes from the Torah
is when Balak, frustrated with Bilaam's turn of words admonishes him by saying (in
an almost comical manner):
“Don’t curse them and don’t
bless them!”
As people of faith, we view Hebrew as being 'Lashon Hakodesh -
a Divine language since the Torah was directly given by Gd to Moshe. I also note in it some interesting anomalies when
compared to English.
Famously the Hebrew word 'הוא' means 'He' in English and 'היא' in Hebrew means 'She'! In
the context of this week's Parasha and the issues that I have raised, I spotted
another interesting connection between our two languages. If you spell the English word 'Gun' phonetically
into Hebrew, you see that the Hebrew word 'גן' means a garden, as in ‘Gan Eden’. Similarly, it is the word used to describe a children's
nursery, which makes sense. Just as a garden
is a location where we tend carefully to nature and nurture plants and young trees,
so it is with a pre-school establishment.
It is the garden where our children are carefully and lovingly nurtured and
prepared for the next stage in their emotional and intellectual development.
In fact, the Hebrew word 'Gan' is diametrically opposed to its
English simile. Where a Gun destroys, a 'Gan'
builds. Instead of the curse that has been
thrust upon the world through the destructive use of gunpowder, we see how our children
are blessed in their early years as they emerge like young trees from our wonderful
nurseries. Where English used a word to describe
a weapon of destruction, Hebrew, Ivrit, gives it a very different and beautiful
meaning.
Despite the Bilaams that try to curse others through bloodshed,
they cannot succeed as long as there are people who want to protect the young with
blessings. It is sadly the case that, as
we have seen, quite a few have lost their lives in the course of trying to protect
the vulnerable human saplings in their care.
Bullets kill and maim; love protects and builds.
Words can destroy and words can build. Chazal tell us that Gd created our universe with
words.
We cannot bring back those who have died but at the same time,
we must never give up hope that one day, the blessings will outnumber the curses. Bilaam tried his best to destroy us but instead
uttered some of the most beautiful prose in the Torah.
May the names of the people who have perished be a blessing to
their families, friends and the wider society and may we all pray, paraphrasing
the words of Isaiah (2.4)
And they shall beat their
swords (or guns) into ploughshares
And their spears into pruning
hooks:
Humans shall not take up
Guns against humans;
They shall never again know war.
Shavuah Tov.
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