The Power of Words

Today’s Torah reading is actually a double portion consisting of Chukkat and Balak.  I will address my comments around the central theme found in Balak, the power of language.  As you just heard, Bilaam, an individual well known for his divinations was called upon by Balak, king of Moab, to curse the Israelites.  Balak, an anti-Semite, feared the Israelites and compared them to a horde of locusts that would destroy his land.  Balak was expecting that Bilaam’s curse would weaken the Israelites so they could be defeated in battle and expelled from the land.

Bilaam’s words are expected to result in the killing of the Israelites by the sword.  He however, is approached by G-d and told not to curse the Israelites because they are blessed.  As you noticed in the portion we read today, Bilaam mistreats his donkey when he is on his way to meet with Balak.  This scene with the talking donkey stopping in its tracks when being beaten and speaking to his owner, is one of the Torah’s most memorable scenes.  The  d           Hi, Nancy and Charles Coren. Your package from Jewish Agency for Israel is on its way. The donkey actually uses language appropriately to rebuke Bilaam for his actions.  And it is within the language of relationship, offered with proper intent, that Bilaam acknowledges the error of his ways.

At the end of the parasha, Bilaam uses his words to bless rather than curse the Israelites.  He follows the command of G-d whom he comes to know as the One who redeemed the Israelites from Egypt.  His blessing includes the words we often hear recited in shul upon entering the sanctuary, “Mah Tovu Ohaleicha Ya’akov mishk’notecha Yisrael.”  His words are uttered with humility and rather than destroying they show the power of words to praise others and build bridges.

So it might seem like it is  a no-brainer to say that words have power…the power to kill and the power to give life  Rabbi Jonathan Sacks expressed the importance of speech in the following way: “For it is speech that allows us to communicate with others and convey our inwardness to them. It is at the very heart of the human bond.” 

I spent this past week studying about identity with the Pardes Institute Summer Learning session via zoom.  In one of the sessions we spoke about the search for intimacy between individuals and a few statements made me think about the theme of this week’s parasha. We spoke about how Life itself depends on having a relationship to others.  Aloneness is by its very definition in the Torah, considered to be “Lo Tov”…not good.  In order not to suffer in this world, we have been given the capability to form relationships which bring pleasure and that pleasure is created by intimate conversation between individuals.  So if language is used as a way to share ideas, that can bring individuals together, it should not be used as a means of exerting power over another. 

In another session, we met with Natan Sharansky, the Soviet Dissident whose story has become well-known for his fight to be able to embrace his Jewish identity while the Soviet Union tried to deny him that opportunity.  It was communication from the outside Jewish world that gave him the strength to develop his own identity that had been denied by a regime that didn’t allow Jews to have access to their history, traditions, nor holidays.  The messages that came from around the world, that said Jewish communities cared, provided him with the strength to speak on behalf of himself and other Jews for freedom.  It was the positive communication that made him no longer afraid of the negative communication from the USSR that tried to convince him that he was all alone and that his cause was futile.  Once again the power of words was shown to be forceful in not only saving the life of one individual, but in turning the tide for Soviet Jewry .

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks who has written much about the power of words poses the following questions:  How can there be cooperation, collaboration, families, communities, a nation, without the coercive use of power? How can we form relationships of trust? How can we create collective liberty such that my freedom is not bought at the cost of yours?  (take time to answer).

The answer is: through words, words that communicate, words that bind, words that honor the Divine Other and the human other.

May we all think twice before uttering our words and certainly before writing them in places that they will be seen by many.  May we use our speech to bring blessings and not curses to others. As we learn in the Book of Proverbs 18:21 , "Life and death lie in the power of language"

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