Friends - this week's parsha, Balak, (I assume we are all together here) introduces us to one of the most intriguing characters in the Torah, Bil'am. It is written "No prophet like Moses ever arose in Israel" and the Talmud comments "Among Israel, that is. But among the nations, there was one. And who? Bil'am." Bil'am, as it is written, knew well of Divine matters.
But Bil'am, of course, was a great enemy of the Jewish people. And King Balak knew this, so he called Bil'am from his home to come help him defeat the Jewish people. What was Bil'am's primary tool for attempting to defeat the Jewish people? His "ayin rah" - literally, bad eye, or critical eye, or eye which sees bad.
This is really scary. A lot of people have an "ayin rah". A lot of people look around and criticize. And what Bil'am teaches us is that a lot of power filtered through a bad eye can mean real, actual destruction. We tend to think that our eyes and our thoughts are, literally and figuratively, in our heads. But somehow their reach extends far beyond the walls of the mind. We tend to think that if we only keep our thoughts to ourselves, and don't act on them, then it's OK. And that's true, to an extent - in the world of action, nothing was done. But according to Jewish tradition, there are many overlapping worlds, including worlds of thought and emotion. And these worlds interact and affect each other. So anything that happens in then world of thought affects ultimately the world of action.
Sorry to introduce a topic so old and retro, but we have all heard of "vibes". Maybe we've even felt them. It was not just the result of white people with big afros using too much acid. It is not beyond reason that the world works on much more subtle levels than we can perceive. In fact, it is pretty ridiculous to think that the world only operates within the spectrum of the visible or audible. I think children prove this - they are amazingly alert to "vibes" - they perceive when mommy and daddy are arguing, or when mommy is worried, or when there is stress around. Ok, end of retro moment.
So we should all know that, whatever we have going on inside, it is no longer a personal matter. This is scary as all get-out, and it means we have to work deeper and deeper to uproot or refine that in us which hurts others. It means not acting is not enough - it means personal change is the order of the day.
Rav Gavriel Goldfeder
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Rav Gavriel Goldfeder is one of the first semicha recipients of the yeshiva. A graduate of Drew University in Religious Studies, he came to Bat Ayin after stints in other yeshivot and found a spiritual and intellectual home. Here he met his wife, Ketriellah, who was a student in our short-lived Women's Yeshiva. Upon graduation, Gavriel took the position of rabbi of the Aish Kodesh Congregation in Boulder, Colorado and together with Ketriellah and their growing family, they are busy creating (in Gavriel's words), "a community infused with Torah values, passion for learning and prayer, consideration of one another, and action, as well as deep celebration of the joys of life." |