Balak: In Heaven’s name, why?

Q. Why is it so important that Bilaam not curse Am Yisrael?
Is there such power in words? Surely G‑D will not listen to the imprecation of an evil person?

A.  Perhaps the most remarkable statement on this subject occurs early in the very first tractate of the Talmud, Berakhot (7a).

There, a personal reminiscence is recorded of R’ Ishmael ben Elisha, one of the earliest rabbis cited in the Talmud and possibly the last righteous kohen gadol (high priest) before the destruction of the second Temple in 70CE. He entered the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur and saw an esoteric vision of G‑D seated on a lofty throne. In this vision, G‑D asks R’ Ishmael to bless Him. R’ Ishmael with remarkable presence of mind replies: May it be Your will that Your mercy conquer Your anger… and that You conduct Yourself with Your children with the attribute of mercy and transcend strict judgement.

R’ Ishmael goes on to relate with vivid anthropomorphic imagery that G‑D “nodded to me with His head.” And, the Gemara concludes, “let not a blessing given (even) by a hedyot be trivial in your eyes!” In other words, just as G‑D valued the berakha bestowed upon him by R’ Ishmael, a mere mortal, so we ought to value the berakha of a hedyot.

There are two definitions of a hedyot, one pejorative and one not. It would appear at first sight that the Gemara uses the word non-pejoratively in the sense of a “commoner” or “non-expert.” But the Gemara is comparing R’ Ishmael to a hedyot – and “commoner” would be an odd way to allude to a kohen gadol. Perhaps it is R’ Ishmael’s own self-definition; he is self-deprecatingly employing the word hedyot to describe himself in the other sense of “ignoble,” “ignorant” or “ill-mannered.” After all, hadn’t he just had the temerity to attempt to bless G‑D Himself?

Still and all, he declares, even the blessing of an individual as uncouth (vis-à-vis G‑D) as myself is not to be taken lightly! And if that is true of the power of a blessing, it can also be true of a curse.

Words matter. G‑D created the universe by means of dibbur, speech. And words stick. The Hebrew word davar is related to devek (glue) (heard from my teacher R’ Eli Munk ztl). The adage about “sticks and stones” is not one with which Judaism would concur. Over a quarter of the al chet confessions we declare on Yom Kippur are of sins connected to words. The Chafets Chaim’s vivid mashal (parable) regarding the scattering and re-gathering of feathers from a pillow powerfully illustrates the futility of attempting to take back or reclaim words of slander, vilification, defamation, or opprobrium once they have been uttered.

Words can also be used, of course, to distort, no more so than in the present day in connection with the Israel-Arab conflict.

If we examine Hamas’s deceitful promotion of their evil cause, it is evident that over the last four decades or so the script of the Israel-Arab conflict has been subtly rewritten and words and phrases have taken on a new meaning. “Occupied Jerusalem” has become such a “normal” phrase that the USA’s ground-breaking decision to set right that misleading and prejudicial nomenclature by recognising Jerusalem as our eternal capital and moving her embassy there has been received with unbridled hostility and opposition even from so-called neutrals for whom Hamas terrorists are mere “militants” (accepted Western media terminology).

In 1921, 77% of the Palestine Mandate was taken by the British to form a new Arab state from which Jews were barred by law; but because that state is called Jordan and not Palestine, the world has been hoodwinked into believing the Palestinian Arabs do not already have a state. In a recent BBC interview, Palestinian Arab spokesman Saeb Erakat brazenly linked his modern-day compatriots (Semitic) with the ancient Canaanites (Hamitic) as if to say the Palestinian Arabs are the aboriginal owners of all the land. It went unchallenged and could yet form the basis of a new future false “reality.”

As the evil Joseph Goebbels knew only too well, if one repeats a lie often enough, all will believe it. When I hear even committed Jews referring to the “West Bank” instead of Judea and Samaria and “Palestinians” when they mean “Palestinian Arabs,” I see the gruesome accuracy of this adage.

Words are real. They can be used for good or evil. Apart from their cosmic effect in heaven, they have enormous ramifications on earth. Let’s use them wisely!