Me and the Talking Donkey

When Marlene called and asked if I would do the July 3rd sermon at Friday night services I said "absolutely NO". But then I asked what the Parsha (Torah portion) for that week would be and she said Balaam and the talking donkey. Hmm I thought, I might be able to do something with that. So I called her back and said yes.

I'm glad I did because my little sermon was a Big Success and I am feeling good.  I think most folks liked it because it was short (four minutes) but I received a boatload of compliments on its content, my delivery and the fact that I got to the point quickly and with a bit of humor. A little bit different from the ramblings and attempts to interject personal causes we have had lately in our sermons (we rotate speakers from the congregation members).

So I proudly give you my sermon from last night: 

Last year, our very talented Temple Shalom members put on a hysterically funny original play called “A Funny Thing Happened on the way to The Villages”.  Well, this week’s Parsha also has a bit of humor.  We can think of it as “A Funny Thing Happened on the way to Curse the Children of Israel”.

The story goes like this:  A non-Israelite prophet named Balaam is called upon by the King of Moab - Balak - to curse the Israelites.  Balaam is offered silver and gold to do this and so, driven by his greed, he and his donkey head to the place where he is supposed to curse the Children of Israel.

However, God intervenes and says to Balaam: “You must not curse that people, for they are blessed.”  To make the point, God sends His Angel – who is holding a drawn sword - to block Balaam’s path.  Balaam’s donkey gets the message - even though Balaam does not - and refuses to go further. Balaam starts beating the donkey to get it back on track.

At this point the donkey begins speaking – yes! Speaking just as if he were Mr. Ed - and talks back to Balaam telling him not to go on.  Balaam doesn’t listen and when he finally arrives at the place where he plans to curse the Children of Israel, his mouth opens and words come out but they are only blessings for the Israelites!

Balaam can only say what God desires and so he blesses us a second time and a third time. The third blessing is the one we all know: "How goodly are your tents O Jacob; your dwelling places O Israel".  Mah tovu ohalecha Yaakov. Mesh kehno techa Yisrael.

Now our great scholars have given many interpretations to this story. One is that animals have keen senses and communicate with us all the time. According to my 26^th great-grandfather, Rashi, animals are allowed to see spiritual beings that are blocked from the human eye because human intelligence would cause people to live in constant fear if they could perceive everything around them.

Like my great-grandfather, I too seem to have my own interpretation of everything I read.  I believe one lesson from this story is that we receive messages that tell us what is the right way for us to go and which path should not be an option.  Perhaps it is only Balaam - and of course Shrek - who have talking donkeys to provide us with good advice and wise counsel but we all have the voice within us – the voice that comes from God - to guide us along our way.

Shabbat Shalom!