In Company of Moses and Ezekiel: Balaam’s Jenny
The donkey’s favorable image throughout the Bible – a far cry from its contemporary stereotype that relegates foolhardiness and imprudent obstinacy to the animal is evidenced, for instance, in the story of Balaam and his jenny that is featured in this week’s Torah portion. Here we read that God “opened the jenny’s mouth” (Num 22:28).
As I note in my new book “Taming the Beast: Human-Animal Encounters in the Bible” (Wipf and Stock Publishers), “the only other mouth that the Bible informs us of being opened by God was the prophet Ezekiel’s (3:27). God also assures Moses that he will be with his mouth and teach him what to say (Exod 3:12), which is close enough to what God did to the jenny. Thus, Balaam’s she-donkey finds herself in the same company with two great prophets of the Bible …
In striking the jenny each time for her triple veering off, it was evident that it was the jenny, not the man who rode on her back, who proved herself to be a true clairvoyant, if not prophetic; Balaam’s self-lauding as ‘the man of the open eye’ (Num 24:3) only accentuated the chasm between him and his jenny. In any event, God’s angel does side with the jenny when she complains to Balaam through the gift of speech that God gave her, as though she spoke for God, asking her master why he struck her (twice by his hand and then with ‘the stick’).
In speaking truth to power, Balaam’s jenny teaches us that it is necessary to protest a personal insult, not to mention a violent one, if you stand any chance of ending the abuse. The angel of God in his turn echoes the jenny’s protestation, reprimanding Balaam’s misconduct with the animal: ‘Why have you struck your jenny these three times . . . Your way is contrary unto me’ (22:32).
This divine voice made clear that in contrast to Balaam, God cares for animals; even when humans ‘hold sway over’ animals, it is not a carte blanche to act cruelly to them. This episode joins other teachings on which the Torah bases its prohibition against hurting and distressing an animal.
