Parashat Balak 5768

In this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Balak, the foreign prophet Balaam stands on a hill overlooking the Israelites’ wilderness camp, poised to curse the people below. But, instead of cursing them, Balaam blesses the Israelites. Balaam, hired by King Balak to curse the Children of Israel, is overcome with the spirit of Adonai and sings out:

How good are your tents, O Jacob,
Your dwellings, O Israel!
Like palm-groves that stretch out,
Like gardens beside a river,
Like aloes planted by Adonai,
Like cedars beside the water (Numbers 24:5-6)

For Balaam, the Israelites’ desert encampment was a fertile oasis in a stark wilderness. Commentators for generations have wondered: What could Balaam have seen in that desert encampment? What was so special about the Israelite tents that Balaam was overcome with blessing? What could that image have signified to him?

In his book The Spirituality of Welcoming, Dr. Ron Wolfson likens today’s synagogues to tents. He notes that is the above verse from this week’s parashah, “How good are your tents, O Jacob, Your dwellings, O Israel!” that provides the opening words to every morning service. “In fact,” he writes, “the first ‘prayer houses’ were undoubtedly tents.”

Wolfson, though, takes the image of a tent a step further. He writes, “Imagine what a tent looks like. How is a good synagogue like a good tent?” We would each answer this question differently, but when I think of a tent, I think of a place that is not only open and welcoming, but also provides shelter and safety. It is a place of hospitality. It is portable. It has multiple entrances and exits. It is a home away from home. (Wolfson 48-49).

When I went camping this past spring with members of our tenth grade Confirmation class, I learned an important lesson about tent camping: There is always something to do, and everyone can and must help. During our three days in the desert, I watched our Confirmation students set up their tents, cook our meals, clean up our campsite, help one another on hikes, and build campfires together. In a tent community, everyone must pitch in. In a tent community, there are no passive learners or “back of the class” students. There is only one option, to be an active member of the community.

At TBS, we work hard to create a welcoming “tent community.” We have greeters to receive us on Shabbat. We have nametags to share who we are. We give time to wish one another “Shabbat Shalom” during services. We stay in touch by phone and email. But, to create and sustain a true tent community, each of us must remember that there is always something to do, and that everyone can and must help. And, so I ask you on this Shabbat of Tents to consider how you, yourself, might welcome someone into our TBS tent. Might you introduce yourself to a stranger the next time you are at services? Might you volunteer to help the next time a social action initiative is extended? Might you offer to teach in our community? Might you simply extend a smile or a warm handshake?

Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell points out that it is not only our task to occupy our tents, but also to extend them. As Isaiah 54:2 teaches, “Enlarge the site of your tent, Extend the size of your dwelling, Do not stint! Lengthen the ropes, and drive the pegs firm.” On this Shabbat, let us not only praise the tent that exists, but recommit ourselves to creating the tent that might yet be.