Friday July 3, Parashat Balak

In this week’s torah portion, Balak, King Balak and the people of Moab, fear the Children of Israel. Balak requests that the prophet Balaam to curse the Children of Israel so that their military forces will be weakened, and they will not be able to defeat the Moabite army.

King Balak requests that the prophet appear twice—but Balaam does not respond. The third time Balaam opens his mouth and instead of cursing the Israelites he speaks the words that begin our morning worship: Mah tovu ohalecha Yaakov- mishkinotecha Yisrael…”How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, o Israel…” It is an amazingly fascinating story of poor leadership, bad judgement, or just desperation that causes the king to attempt the same solution and to fail again and again and again.

We are often caught in the “Balak trap.” Trying to do the same thing again and again and expecting different results. What are examples of this syndrome? Well—weight loss plans. Every January 1- the beginning of the secular New Year- we are bombarded by advertisements on television, radio, and the internet telling us that THIS is the diet to help you lose those 5, 10, 15 kilos. And of course when you lose those kilos, you will be happier, friendlier, and more successful—just like the smiling models in the commercials who I am sure have never dieted a day in their lives.

So you try the diet: Paleo, Keto, Intermittent Fasting, the No White Foods Diet, Hi Carb, Low Fat, Vegan, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Low-Carb, Atkins…and what happens? You start the diet and withing a few weeks your back to eating ice cream sitting on the couch. And you feel terrible. It is the “Balak Effect”- trying the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result (Some claim that Einstein called this the definition of insanity- but there is no evidence he actually said it).

When we drive in Tel Aviv, we are victims of the “Balak Effect.” We are driving looking for parking spots and we go around the block just “one more time” because this is the time that the Car Space Genii is going to magically clear a space for us. And around and around in circles we go searching for that elusive parking spot.

The “Balak Effect” extends beyond the personal and into the arena of public policy and international affairs. Here in Israel and much of the Middle East we are mired in a “Balak Effect” of violence triggering violence that only triggers more violence. A “Balak Effect” far more deadly than a weight loss program---but the basic theorem is the same

How do we extricate ourselves from this circle seemingly without end? How do end bad decision making or the inability to make decisions at all and instead feel like we are running incircles with one foot stapled to the floor?

I cannot prescribe a precise way for you to exit the “Balak Effect” -as all of us are different. But I can share with you how I have escaped from this. When we are driving and looking for that non-existent parking spot—we make a turn. It sounds simple—but it totally reorients you and puts you (and the car) in a different place.

What about the elusive quest for peace here in the Middle East? Why has this never succeeded? In my estimation, it is because the lead players have hardly changed, and no new thinking has ever taken place. Our politicians and diplomats have never made that turn. They have never stopped the usual way of thinking and exited the circle.

And changes do not happen overnight. They occur little by little. Slowly you realize to turn down the other street. Gradually you might understand how a different way of approaching food and nutrition is more advantageous than a new fad diet.In the bestselling book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear the author explains how it is this little steps- one at a time- that add up to big change. We can stop the “Balak Effect”—we just have to start one step and one day at a time.

This Shabbat take a moment to reflect on what changes can you undertake? And what can you do step by step moment by moment.

Shabbat Shalom

Cantor Evan Kent

Beth Shalom

Shabbat Vayetzei, December 6, 2019

I think Vayaitzei is my very favorite Torah portion. The image of a ladder reaching from heaven to earth. Angels ascending and descending. Jacob waking from his sleep and speaking perhaps the most truthful line in a book filled with memorable verses. “God is in this place,” Jacob says, “and I did not know it.” The precursor, I suppose, to today’s more succinct OMG.

There is something to the verse, though, not captured in translation. In the Hebrew language, the subject is usually understood to be included in the verb. So when Genesis 28:16 reads v’anochi (and I) lo yadati (I did not know it) there is a superfluous ‘I’ in the verse. Literally the translation should read, “God is in this place and I, I did not know it.” The Hebrew implies a sense of jarring recognition of the previously overlooked.

Imagine a person being granted entry to Buckingham Palace, ushered into a personal audience with the Queen, and in the presence of Her Majesty grabbing an uncomfortable couch and going to sleep.

Of the countless commentaries offered by our tradition then, consider reading the verse this way:

God is in this place and I did not know it because if I had known it I would never have been so rude as to go to sleep in the first place. In other words, an awareness of context ought to influence proper behavior.

In Hebrew, the word for proper behavior is derech eretz. Literally it means the way of the land. The term signifies the appropriate, respectful, ethically sanctioned way a person should conduct him or herself in their interactions with others. It’s the way people should behave as they walk the path of life. There is an entire tractate in the Talmud devoted to derech ertez.

Derech eretz is Hebrew. It’s better known Yiddish equivalent is menschlichkeit. To be a mensch is to be an honest, ethical individual laboring always to do the right thing in an unassuming and honorable way. When my nephew was 2 years old he learned to sit up in a chair all by himself, and his grandfather was heard to remark, “Look at Adam. He sits up just like a little mensch.” To be a mensch is to be upright.

We share the world with countless others. Our interactions with anonymous self-centered people are literally beyond counting, and the context of living in a sometimes bruising, often stressfull, continuously challenging world can strain the resolve of even the most ardent devotee of derech eretz. Or to point it another way, menschlichkeit isn’t always easy.

The tale is told of a holy man sitting on the banks of a river trying to save a scorpion that was drowning, but ever time he went to rescue the scorpion it tried to sting him. His disciples asked the holy man, “Why do you continue to do this?” He answered, “It is in my nature to save. It is in the nature of the scorpion to sting. And why should I change my nature just because he will not change his.”

In Psalm139 we read: Whither shall I go from Thy spirit, whither shall I flee from Thy Presence? If I ascend into the heavens Thou art there. If I make my bed in the world Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell on the farthermost shores of the sea, even there would Thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me.

Which means that God is in this place, every place, all places. And if and when we know it, we are more likely to strive always to conduct ourselves accordingly. So the principle holds. When it comes to derech eretz, an awareness of an all-pervasive, in this case Divine context is certainly of decided benefit.

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Whiman