Haftarat Hukkat-Balak
Other Nations, Who Needs Them?
The opening of this week’s haftarah echoes a question I’ve long had about Parshat Balak. Notice that none of the events with Balak and Bilam happens to Jews or involves them, raising the question of why it’s included in the Torah. The haftarah’s call for us to remember what Balak intended to do to us, and the advice that Bilam gave him suggests that the haftarah is meant, at least this week, to explain some of what is unclear about that parsha.
The first three verses focus us on what I believe is the central question of the haftarah and parsha, our intended relationship with non-Jews. The navi describes the remnant of the Jewish people as dew that comes from God, which does not need to wait or hope for any human help, as lions among animals, cubs among sheep, meaning that if they chose to run amok no one could stop them, with the last of the three saying that our right hands will be strong and powerful over our enemies.
My instinct is to read the verse as meaning that the Jews will be like the dew for the non-Jews, bring them some form of blessing. Dew is a naturally occurring phenomenon that was seen by Tanach as a sign of God’s beneficence to the world. If the Jews are like dew, our being spread among other nations, whether physically or by social and economic interactions, seems to mean that we provide a service.
That service, one I believe we and they have denied so fully we cannot even imagine it being true, is to remind non-Jewish nations (read: the world) that success depends on a person’s or nation’s connection to God, Whom we as a people symbolize. We have given up on this because of how far much of the world has gone from even pretending to believe in a God Who affects events here on Earth (and many of those who do are Christian fundamentalists, who make many of us uncomfortable for other reasons).
Incidentally, as I was trying to check that this is the section of navi we read this week—finding few Orthodox sites that list the weekly haftarah, but many Reform, Messianist, and Christian Bible study ones—I found out that some people are still focusing on this message, just not the ones I know and would expect.Destruction Right After Bounty?
Given the importance of our role, the next six verses jar, since they seem to predict destruction and collapse. While Michah may have simply switched gears, Rashi and Radak agree that, at least for the first two verses, he meant that the Jews will not need horses or fortified cities, giving the kind of independence (whether we are living among them or on our own) that allows for true influence.
Developing our self-sufficiency then becomes a religiously valuable move, aside from its economic advantages. Just as a prophet and/or judge is supposed to be free of monetary concerns, to impress those around him and/or to avoid possible influence from them, so too the Jews. If we are dependent on other nations, militarily, economically, perhaps even culturally, we are less able to point out to them how much they miss by refusing to recognize the truths of our God.
Independence need not mean separation. Michah is not arguing for a lack of contact with other nations, or protesting our becoming intertwined with them. He is only pointing out that we at the same time should be striving for the kind of independence that allows us to speak truths that need to be spoken. Foremost among them is the existence of a God Who is involved with the world, Who “cares” about our actions, and Who rewards and punishes based on those actions.
Since that only explains the verses that speak of not having fortified cities, whereas the navi goes on to speak of a broader destruction, let me suggest that Michah was pointing out two other truths of Jewish history. First, Hashem “needs” us to serve as emissaries before we’ve completed the process of self-perfection. If so, Hashem might punish us at the same time as sending us on our mission. Indeed, it may be that our failure to perform our mission led to our exile, confronting us more regularly with that mission.
Second, exile may have been the only way that Hashem was able to convince us to undertake that task. Too often, when Jews are comfortable, they assume that that comfort is their right, and allow it to foster a closing-in on themselves. If I live in a community where Judaism is well-set-up, can have my kosher food and Shabbat services, I may allow myself to ignore those others—Jewish and not—“out there.”
Sadly, then, we may force God to cast us out of our comfortable surroundings, to force us to engage with the others we were always supposed to. The middle verses of the haftarah would then connect well with what came before—we are meant to be a dew to the other nations; we can do that from the comforts of home if we try, but are likely to need to be shoved out of the nest before we’ll be willing to.
How to Get Back to That Role
Speaking of errors in how we try to represent Hashem, the next verses point out similar problems. Aside from a stubborn tendency to turn to other gods, Jews of Michah’s time also mishandled God’s commandments. (When I read about Jews turning to other gods, I instinctively include any form of sustenance Jews see as vital and independent of God. Professor David Berger recently complained about how that trivializes idolatry. Accepting his point—since he’s always well-thought-out—I still think that whenever we choose to emphasize something, anything, other than what Hashem wants, to make it central to our lives, it is idolatry-lite).
Forgetting Moshe, Aharon, and Miriam, Jews insist on focusing on rituals such as sacrifice, when Hashem was concerned with “doing justice, loving to perform kindnesses, and walking humbly with God.” As Makkot reminds us, this was Michah’s way of encapsulating all mitsvot, meaning that our performance of mistvot must always reflect these lessons, or we’ll be getting it wrong.
To bring us back: We might include the Bilam-Balak story as an example of the Jewish people’s affect on the nations around them, a reminder that that is meant to be part of our role in the world, and the haftarah is a call to return to that mission, and suggestions on how to do so. Shabbat Shalom.
MICHAH 5
[7] And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the LORD, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.
[8] And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep: who, if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver.
[9] Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off.
[10] And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots:
[11] And I will cut off the cities of thy land, and throw down all thy strong holds:
[12] And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand; and thou shalt have no more soothsayers:
[13] Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands.
[14] And I will pluck up thy groves out of the midst of thee: so will I destroy thy cities.
[15] And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen, such as they have not heard.
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Mic.6
[1] Hear ye now what the LORD saith; Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.
[2] Hear ye, O mountains, the LORD’s controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth: for the LORD hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel.
[3] O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me.
[4] For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of servants; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
[5] O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal; that ye may know the righteousness of the LORD.
[6] Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?
[7] Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
[8] He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?