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Torah may or may not be "true," but it certainly contains many truths which can give great meaning to our lives. Lessons for Today
And the Eternal opened the ass's mouth, and she said to Bilaam, "What have I done to you that you have beaten me these three times?" Bilaam said to the ass, "You have made a mockery of me! If I had a sword with me, I'd kill you." The ass said to Bilaam, "Look, I am the ass that you have been riding all along until this day! Have I been in the habit of doing thus to you?" And he answered, "No." (Numbers 22:28-30)
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Ibn Ezra comments:
And the Eternal opened the ass's mouth. The rabbis, of blessed memory, said that ten things were created on Shabbat eve at twilight [Mishna Avot 5:6 - those ten things, created at the very end of the week of creation, just before the first Sabbath, included the mouth of Bilaam's ass]. I believe that this means that God specifically decreed the creation of these miraculous phenomena, for they are beyond the laws of nature. Rabbi Saadiah Gaon said the ass did not speak. Rabbi Samuel ben Hofni attacked the Gaon. However Rabbi Samuel the Spanish poet tried to save the one who was attacked. Note that the rationalists had a need for a non-literal interpretation of the text, for they said that God would not create signs in the world to change the laws which He created. He would do so only to justify a prophet. However, they did not speak the truth, for, look, a miracle was done for Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, who were not prophets (Daniel 2).
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Rabbi Lawrence Kushner writes:
I have never been entirely satisfied with Franz Rosenzweig's famous reply to the skeptic who asked him if he believed that Bilaam's ass really talked. The great German philosopher thought for a while and answered with a wink, "On the Shabbos they read it from the Torah, I believe it."
With a similar trick, the rabbis explain that this talking she-ass (or, to be precise, its vocal mouth) was one of the minor miracles, exceptions to the natural order, set in motion by divine fiat on the eve of the sixth day of creation. Asses don't see angels or speak - except for Bilaam's - and that was foreordained since before the creation of the world. Case closed.
Taken literally, the whole story is obviously silly. Or is it? Even though it makes us uncomfortable, animals can and do know things hidden from human perception and people do routinely communicate with them.
The biblical author even warns us that we are reading a fable. There are three confrontations with the invisible messenger of the Lord, each one increasingly difficult to ignore. Even a dumb animal - and she-asses are notoriously dumb - can see that Bilaam's mission is contrary to God's plan, even though the great seer cannot. The question is, can this great seer raise himself to the level of a she-ass? Can we?
From Kushner and Mamet, Five Cities of Refuge: Weekly Reflections on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy (New York: Schocken Books, 2003), p. 121.
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One of the best Jewish Trivial Pursuit questions is about how many talking animals there are in the Torah. The answer is two: the serpent in the Garden of Eden and Bilaam's ass, which we read about in this week's parasha. Unlike the myths and legends of other ancient traditions and much of popular culture today, where talking animals abound, Jewish tradition has always been very sparing in its use of talking animals. It was recognized that animals speaking in human language goes contrary to the natural order of creation. Therefore, whenever we do have a reference to a talking animal, it is clear that something extraordinary is going on and we should sit up and pay attention.
As Ibn Ezra points out, the classical commentators were very divided along ideological lines over whether the description of the talking donkey is to be taken literally or not. Although all agreed, and he emphasizes, that if it did happen, it certainly qualified as a miracle. The early sages of the Mishnah explained the miracle by including the ass's mouth (not the whole animal, just its mouth) on the list of things that were created by God at the very last moments of creation, just before the first Shabbat. The idea here is that once the world was set in motion, natural laws (such as animals spontaneously talking) can never be breached- even by God Almighty. So all the items on this list were created for a singular purpose, and would be deemed supernatural or miraculous but have been imbedded into the natural universe before God closed up shop. In addition to the ass's mouth, the list includes: the hole in the earth that swallowed Korach and his followers (Numbers 16:32), Miriam's well, which provided water to the Israelites in the wilderness (Numbers 21:16-18), the rainbow of Noah's covenant (Genesis 9:12-17), Manna (Exodus 16:15), Moses's staff (Exodus 4:17), the shamir - the worm that split the stones for the building of the Temple (Mishna Sotah 9:12), and the letters and the writing instrument that God used to etch the Ten Commandments on the stone tablets, and the tablets themselves. Others add to this list Moses's grave (Deuteronomy 34:6) and the ram that replaced Isaac on the altar (Genesis 22:13). Lastly, some add "tongs" to the list. Tongs? In order to make tongs, one needs tongs. So who made the first tongs?
Rabbi Kushner opens our eyes to a very different and quite modern perspective to the question of whether or not the donkey actually spoke. He points out that animals do communicate, albeit not in human language, and humans communicate in different ways with animals all the time. The exchange that took place between Bilaam and his animal may therefore have actually happened, although expressed in a different form. But Kushner takes it one step further. He notes that Bilaam is identified as a prophet or a seer. Even though he is a Midianite, God spoke though him and he was considered to have had great spiritual powers. Yet, in this case, when Bilaam journeys to accept King Balak's commission to curse the people of Israel, God has made it clear to Bilaam that he was not to go. A sword wielding angel is sent to stop Bilaam, and the ass perceives him, but Bilaam does not. Bilaam, the great seer , is oblivious to the presence of God and God's will, while the humble donkey collapses in fear. Obviously, in his mission of self-interest, Bilaam had become blind to the Divine. Kushner suggest that the true question of concern is not whether or not the ass was able to open her mouth and spoke, but whether or not Bilaam was able to open his eyes and see God.
Lessons for Today
Miracle surround us all the time. But we miss them if we are not being sensitive to them. To find them, one just needs to accept that miracles do happen, and then look around. I guarantee that you will find one easily. However, miracles today are not usually the great sound and light shows of the parting of the sea or the or turning a river into blood. Miracles are much more subtle; really, a miracle is just a matter of perception.
But, if you accept that God does miracles, either on a grand scale or in a more restrained manner, then you should have no problem accepting that a donkey could speak. It is extraordinary, it is miraculous, but God, the creator of all, is certainly capable of making it happen. If, like Ibn Ezra's rationalists, you are a bit more skeptical of the literal meaning of the text, that is fine as well. Our Sages teach us that Torah is to be understood on a variety of different levels, and one who reads such a story as allegory can certainly still draw great meaning from the text.
And that is the point: deriving meaning from the text. As a congregational rabbi and teacher, I have often been asked the question, "Rabbi, is everything in the Torah true? Did all those stories really happen?" I answer that question this way: If by "true" you mean historically accurate, then I can only say that I don't know. No one does. Nobody alive today was around at that time, so no one can really say with any authority whether the events actually happened as recorded. But, if by "True" you mean does the text have meaning that is important and relevant to our lives today, then the answer is: absolutely. Torah may or may not be "true," but it certainly contains many Truths which can give great meaning to our lives.
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