In the movie Shrek, we’re introduced to a talking donkey
voiced by Eddie Murphy, as one of the fairy tale creatures existing in that
place. We might think that a talking
donkey would be the stuff of fairy tales, but actually a talking donkey
appeared in this week’s Torah portion.
This week as we read the Torah portion of Balak, we read how
the king of Moab was so scared of the Israelites that he sent for the prophet Balaam
to come and curse the Israelites. And
while Balaam was initially reluctant knowing that God was not in favor of this
plan, eventually he consented and followed Balak’s servants. He was riding on his donkey when the donkey
saw ahead of her an angel of Adonai standing in the way and, so first she
swerved to the side and Balaam beat her.
Then when the angel re-positioned himself she swerved the other way
squashing his foot against the wall, and he beat her again. And then once more as the angel was in front
of the donkey, she just stopped and so he beat her a third time.
Finally God opened the mouth of the donkey
and so the donkey said to Balaam “what have I done to you that you have beaten
me these three times?” Balaam said to
her “you’ve made a mockery of me, if I had a sword with me, I’d kill you”. Then the donkey responded “look, I am the
donkey that you’ve been riding all along until this day. Have I been in the habit of doing this to
you?” And he answered, “No”. And then God uncovers Balaam’s eyes so that he sees the angel standing in
front of him. In this way, Balaam’s
donkey was trying to save him each of these times and yet, three times over,
she was beaten as a result.
Until God gave her the mouth to speak, she could not open
her mouth to tell Balaam what lay ahead of him.
But as we read the story we may not encounter talking donkeys in our
lives, but there will be occurrences
where someone’s trying to tell us something without words. Where someone for whatever reason cannot say
what they need to say and we have to be adept at picking up the other
signs. Of being conscious of the signals
that they give us in their behavior and in their actions.
The story of Balaam’s donkey is the story of an inability to
share a warning or share words that needed to be spoken. And in our own lives we might think of those
people that we need to listen to. Being
aware, not just of what they say but of what they do, so that we can be there
to help them and, in turn, so that they can be there to help us. Balaam’s donkey reminds him that this is not
the way she normally behaved and so he should have been more attuned to the
change in her behavior. We can learn
this lesson for our interactions with our fellow people and also possibly with
our donkeys.
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