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Double Mitzvah – Balak

By on June 21, 2013

Double Mitzvah Jewrotica Parsha

Written by Tamar Fox. Check out last week’s post in this series, Double Mitzvah – Hukkat.

Rated PGThis week’s parashah contains the famous story of Balak, the king of Moab, who hires a prophet named Bilaam to curse the Israelites. Unfortunately for Balak, Bilaam is only able to bless the Israelites, and Balak is ultimately frustrated.

Then, at the end of the parashah we have a brief story of the Israelites who “whored” with some local Moabite women. Associating with the Moabite whores led the Israelites directly to the worship of the Moabite god, so through God Moses ordered that all men who came to worship the Moabite god should be killed. Then an Israelite zealot named Pinhas noticed an Israelite man bringing a Midianite woman into the camp right in front of Moses, all the people, and the Tent of Meeting. Pinhas took a spear and impaled the man and the woman, bringing an end to a plague that ultimately killed 24,000 Israelites.

This section of the parashah is, for me, the most difficult to read. It is hard not to read it as a screed against interfaith relationships, and in favor of publicly executing people who violate civic rules. But digging just one layer under the pshat, or literal meaning of the text, we have another, more complex value: that of not losing yourself in a relationship.

The Israelite men who took up with Moabite women ultimately took on the Moabite practice of worshipping local idols. This was a huge departure for a group of people who had direct experiences with God, not just once, but many times over the course of the exodus and the subsequent wandering in the desert. These were men who had every reason to stick to their beliefs in God, but they turned out to be easily swayed when sex was involved. And it’s not just that they were swayed—they were so on board with the Baal worshipping and Moabite woman whoring that at least one of them thought it was cool to bring his lady to a central location in the Israelite camp, right in front of everyone.

I can’t condone the punishment that God commands, or the actions of Pinhas, as both are clearly reprehensible. But reading this story, I think about all of my friends who have lost themselves in relationships. There is something wonderful about submitting completely to a relationship, and seeing where it takes you, but when it turns you around 180 degrees, and sends you in the opposite direction from where you started…that might not be a good healthy relationship. You should still be you. The things that are most sacred and central to you should stay the same. When your partner starts trying to sway your innermost self, that’s a bad sign. (But still not so bad that I’d recommend impaling yourself or anyone else.)

Shabbat shalom!

Author of Jewrotica's Double Mitzvah column, Tamar Fox is a writer and editor in Philadelphia. She will try anything once, including open relationships, dating someone who is chalav yisrael, and going to Suriname.
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