the pulsating pull of the poetic

Ba'Midbar 24:1

There sometimes comes this moment in one’s life, a precious painful gift, when we realize that what got us this far won’t be what helps us continue. This insight that often meets us rock bottom,  gets us to admit and maybe even give up an addiction, face tough truths, admit our need for help, and make bold changes that might impact everything. 

This particular prophetic change of heart is one for the books. 

The old magician finally opens his eyes to witness the great magic show that he was part of. No more tricks. Balaam, after two attempts at delivering prophetic curses that he can’t summon, no longer performs but has somehow managed to open his eyes, as his donkey did two chapters ago, to realize the force that he was in service to. The plot twists: 

וַיַּ֣רְא בִּלְעָ֗ם כִּ֣י ט֞וֹב בְּעֵינֵ֤י יְהֹוָה֙ לְבָרֵ֣ךְ אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל וְלֹא־הָלַ֥ךְ כְּפַֽעַם־בְּפַ֖עַם לִקְרַ֣את נְחָשִׁ֑ים וַיָּ֥שֶׁת אֶל־הַמִּדְבָּ֖ר פָּנָֽיו׃

“When Balaam saw that it pleased Adonai to bless Israel, he did not, as on each and every time, set up his familiar oracles, but instead turned his face toward the wilderness.”24:1

Once he drops his props, builds no more altars, but just faces the great wilderness  - the spirit comes over him as it had not done before. The Hebrew word here is ‘Ruach’ - prophetic inspiration. Respiration. He breaths deeply. Goes deep, goes high. And only then he starts to channel the poetry for which he would be remembered, the curse that had become a blessing onto generations - whether he liked it or not.  

This is the state of trance known from many ancient Near Eastern and other ancient texts that portray the kind of ecstatic stance in which a person is ‘possessed’ by inspiration, a divine force that manifests in the body. Words come out. 

Whoever wrote these passages knew about the power of words, spoken or written and how to use them to arouse similar inspiration by the listeners/readers - us.  This chapter is written with the kind of rhythm that builds up the drama and sets us up for the revelation of the prophecy. 

Prof. Everett Fox, biblical scholar and translator, with a keen ear to the rhythm and music of the biblical word, wrote a great article about this chapter: 

“In this passage, even before Balaam gets to his remarkable blessings for Israel, the audience is swept up in a wave of sound. Recent research demonstrates that poetry activates areas on the right side of the brain, linked to memory and emotion—reactions similarly stimulated by music. It also appears to induce a state of introspection in the hearer.

...The change of tone in Balaam’s opening words potentially causes the audience to sit up and move, however slightly, in the direction of a trancelike state. It thus sets them up for the enhanced experience that arrives with Israel’s new blessing. ..When the prophet reaches verse 5: מַה טֹּבוּ אֹהָלֶיךָ יַעֲקֹב מִשְׁכְּנֹתֶיךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל—“How good are your tents, O Jacob, / your dwellings, O Israel,” we are meant to hear these words in a state of heightened consciousness, to enter the blessing, as it were. No wonder that later Jewish tradition found these verses so significant that they reinterpreted “your tents” (ohalekha) to mean synagogues, making Balaam’s opening words here the very ones said upon entering the synagogue—as if to imply that the state of inspiration in which the prophet found himself might inform the experience of prayer.”

And with those words of wonder, Balaam is done. Balak the king of Moab walks away in a huff, Balaam goes home - perhaps changed forever? At least having silenced himself and his ritual routine enough to be open to beauty, to convey a blessing in a world beset with so much fear, hate and curses already.  Poetry is a grateful gift, then, now.

It’s not the end of him in our story - and it’s not going to be pretty, sorry - the tensions between Israel and its neighbors are about to get worse. No matter how pretty they say our tents are, it’s always prettier next door? 

JOIN ME TOMORROW: Want to learn more, discuss your thoughts and feelings about the Book of Wilderness and Below the Bible Belt? Join me on Monday August 22 2022, 1pm ET for a one hour conversation on Zoom. Link here:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87084369168

Meeting ID: 870 8436 9168

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‏#hebrewmyth #929 #torah #bible #hiddenbible #sefaria  #929english  #labshul #929project #myth #belowthebiblebelt #postpatriarchy