22—STORIES WE PRAY
want 600,000 homeless people walking through his country. Rather than use an army to stop them, he hired Bila�am. Bila�am was a wizard. He was supposed to stop the Families of Israel with a curse. Balak sent messengers to Bila�am and offered him a room full of gold to curse Israel. Bila�am asked God for permission. God said “No.” Bila�am therefore told the messengers, “No.” They relayed the “No” to Balak, who sent them back with the offer of two rooms full of gold. Bila�am again asked God. God told him, “You can go, but don’t say anything that I don’t tell you to say.” Bila�am got up in the morning and saddled his donkey. He headed off to Balak. Three times God put an invisible angel with a sword in front of the donkey and drove it off the road. Each time Bila�am fell off. That didn’t stop Bila�am either. He picked himself up and beat the ass with a stick. God then made the donkey talk to Bila�am. The donkey said, “Listen, you have been riding me for years. I have never acted like this before. Turn around and look.” It was then that Bila�am saw the angel with the sword of fire that God had placed in the road. The angel told him, “Don’t say anything that God doesn’t tell you to say.” Bila�am still went ahead with his mission. When Bila�am came to the mountain overlooking the Israelite camp, he was ready to curse Israel. But something amazing happened. His words changed in his mouth. He looked out at the tents and the camp and got ready to say a curse, but it came out as the Mah Tovu—a blessing. (Numbers 22-23)
The moral of this story is simple: “Curses can be turned into blessings.” When we enter the synagogue our head is often a jumble. We are filled with mixed feelings and mixed thoughts. The Mah Tovu moment is a moment of transformation. We enter the synagogue and we need to be turned toward blessings, just like Bila’am.