Fear and Diplomacy
Balak Drash by Beatriz Aguirre Haymer
August 2025
Shabbat shalom:
In last week’s parsha we saw Am Israel’s leadership changing as the people prepare to enter the land promised to our avot Avraham, Yitzhak and Ya’acov. This transition begins with the death of Miriam and Aaron. The Israelites attempt diplomacy with the Edomites and the Amorites asking permission to be allowed safe passage through their territory to get to Canaan. They are met with hostility and are forced into various battles to defend themselves from the local kings as they pursue the objective of gaining access to the Promised Land. Victorious in their battles, they get as far as the Steppes of Moab and set up camp.
This week the king of Moab, Balak, hears news of a people coming out of Egypt and sees what they have done; they have fought and defeated the peoples around him! The text intimates Balak has seen us from a distance, as he knows exactly where to go to get a partial or a full view of b’nei Israel. He likens the mass of Israelites to ruminants that will consume all the resources in the land. Our sheer numbers intimidate him. And he’s afraid. He is very afraid. Balak is so alarmed he seeks out metaphysical help in the form a soothsayer with the power to curse! He figures he has a chance of defeating this multitude that has settled next to him if they are weakened with a curse. So, he sends an envoy to a distant land to fetch a renowned prophet named Bilaam.
Bilaam declines Balak’s first invitation. When a second envoy is sent to Bilaam with promises of great wealth and the king’s favor, Bilaam goes to Balak but warns the king saying, “I can only utter the word that God puts into my mouth.” The king’s fear is so great, and he is so set in his desire to curse, he does not hear nor does he believe, that these people cannot be cursed. He has looked out onto the Steppes of Moab and what he sees there fills him with trepidation.
When Bilaam finally arrives, king Balak, after kvetching about why Bilaam didn’t come sooner, takes Bilaam to see for himself the cause of his fear. Bilaam is not acting in good faith; he knows he will not be able to deliver the desire of Balak, that is, to impede the Israelites by cursing them. Nevertheless, he strings the king along with mixed messages and the trappings of a magical procedure: “Build me seven altars here and have seven bulls and seven rams ready here for me,” Balaak tells the king after getting a partial glimpse of the Israelites.
Balak complies and offers a bull and a ram on each of the seven alters. Bilaam then goes off to consult with יהוה . He returns declaring a blessing over the Israelites.
In disbelief Balak asks angrily, “What have you done to me?!” This followed almost immediately by, “Come with me to another place from which you can see them—you will see only a portion of them; you will not see all of them—and damn them for me from there.” Bilaam again tells the king , “I can only repeat faithfully what יהוה puts in my mouth.” But Balak is not hearing or reasoning; he acts as if Bilaam’s inability to curse is due to the overwhelming presence and number of the Israelites. A little projection, you think? The opportunity to curse the Israelites is given two more times after this initial blessing was given. And two times no curse was produced.
It was easy for Bilaam to defraud Balak when Balak’s fear overrides any ability to be rational, or creative, or consider other ways of approaching the challenge. Why didn’t he try diplomacy? Sending two successive envoys to far-off Pethor, by the Euphrates to fetch Bilaam takes time. If this mighty people had wanted to wage war and annihilate him, they would have done so long before.
But we are not talking rational where overwhelming fear is involved. Fear is exhausting and a thief. Fear drains a person of strength; blinds one to possibilities, and steals pleasure from the present moment. Fear caused Balak to squander his wealth, his time, and his well-being.
On the other hand, Bilaam, the prophet, is looking at the same people and the same scene from the mountain top as Balak. Yet he experiences something entirely different; he experiences pleasure and awe. When Bilaam sees the encampment in its entirety something happens to him. The spirit of God comes upon him and he is a man enthralled, overcome with the beauty of the order, the colors, and, what I imagine, the sacred geometry of the encampment. Yes, the caster of spells is himself enchanted by the very thing he is supposed to curse. Bilaam declares
מַה־טֹּ֥בוּ אֹהָלֶ֖יךָ יַעֲקֹ֑ב מִשְׁכְּנֹתֶ֖יךָ יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃
How fair are your tents, O Jacob,
Your dwellings, O Israel!
This well-known phrase has been set to music. One of my favorites settings was composed by Danny Maseng, brother of Debbie Freidman of blessed memory. Here is where you-all come in.
Imagine we are on that mountain summit looking down at the encampment and seeing what fills Bilaam’s vision. See the mishkan like a holy nucleus and the orderly encampments of the tribes all around it.
Now, I will give you a line and you repeat after me.
[Congregation sings above lines]
We are now in the Jewish month of Tamuz, the month associated with the eyes. Let’s be mindful of how we are seeing, that the lens we use is not fear. We end each Shabbat service with Adon Olam. Let’s remember the last line of that: יהוה לי ןלא ירא Adonai li v’lo ira.
“The Lord is with me I will not fear.”
