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Jack Engelhard is the author of the international bestseller "Indecent Proposal" and is a former radio and newspaper editor covering the Mideast and former American volunteer in the Israeli Defense Forces. His columns can be read online at . Jack can be reached at:
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By Jack Engelhard
February 4, 2003
"A View of the Absurd" op-ed column published with permission of ComteQ Communications.
A donkey... what an interesting choice! Prophetic?
The Biblical symbolism is too tempting, and too wonderful, to ignore, especially right after an election that was all about Israel's survival and destiny.
For those who follow Israel, this is not news. For the rest, this just in: a booby-trapped donkey blew up near an army checkpoint approaching Bethlehem, birthplace of King David. The people who rigged this blameless creature so that it might serve as a homicide bomber are the same people with whom Israel is expected to co-exist under a new "road map." (From my point of view -- there goes the neighborhood!)
Yes, a donkey, a poor donkey. Sounds grisly, what was done to it by Palestinian "activists," and yet I see it as a very good sign, the sign, perhaps, of a blessing. Once before, thousands of years ago, a donkey was dispatched to curse the Children of Israel, but it rebelled. Actually, it "spoke up" in protest. (Please check your Scriptures under Numbers/Bamidbar.) Indeed, this Biblical donkey that was meant to carry damnation instead carried praise.
As the Israelites, under Moses, were approaching The Promised Land, the king of Edom, a man named Balak, wanted them destroyed. The Israelites had every intention of passing by peacefully, but Balak had a grudge against the Jews, or, as my Hertz commentary says: "The plot of the Moabites and the Midianites against Israel was thus the outcome of 'causeless hatred,' the source of the most terrible cruelties in human relations."
(Amazing how things never change.)
Since the Israelites had already conquered everything in sight, Balak wanted something even stronger than an army to confront Moses and his people.
What's stronger than an army -- a curse, and who better to provide this curse than the heathen prophet Bilam, famed throughout the world for his magical powers?
Scriptures is not famous for its humor, but come on, is there anything more hilarious than this poor king begging Bilam to please curse the Israelites? But instead, what comes out of Bilam's mouth? Blessings! Bilam can't help himself. As a prophet, for good or for evil, he can speak only what he is given to say.
The flustered and outraged king takes the prophet to three different spots all overlooking Israelite encampments. Try here, he tells Bilam, on the proposition that it's all about location, location, location.
Each time, instead of a curse, Bilam pays tribute to Israel's glory, Israelšs ascendancy over its enemies. Bilam protests that he cannot curse what God has blessed. At one point Balak complains, "I called you to curse my enemies, and three times you... blessed them?"
In fact, one such blessing from Bilam is still recited by Jews every day: "How goodly thy tents O Jacob; thy dwelling places O Israel."
But I've gotten ahead of myself, because Bilam almost never made it to Moab, all on account of his donkey. On the road to Moab, which sits across from King David's Bethlehem, coincidentally, the same Bethlehem where today's donkey met its deadly fate, the donkey acts up.
Bilam is being paid good money for this assignment and he must go even though he knows it's unjust. Who told him... if not in so many words? God. As if also sensing the unjustness, three times Bilam's donkey tries to stop Bilam from moving by stalling and tripping up.
So Bilam beats the donkey three times until the donkey cries out: "What have I done to you, that you have hit me these three times?"
If you don't believe in this, well, fine. Maimonides suggests that Bilam was hallucinating due to being conscious stricken. Same thing.
Perhaps it is coincidence that today, when Israel again seeks to "enter" The Promised Land, we have another donkey carrying a curse, by means of explosives strapped on by a new generation of Bilams. This donkey was also thwarted, and if it could speak out like its predecessor, perhaps it would utter these words of praise from Bilam: "Behold a people that rises up as a lioness..."
All this portends the folly of trying to destroy Israel and detain it from its destiny. Against all obstacles, Israel is meant to prevail and fulfill its Covenant.
Perhaps it is coincidence that once more a donkey figures into the Story of Israel, and perhaps it is dumb luck that both donkeys are in the proximity of Bethlehem, city of David's birth, David, the king who united the rival factions to create a united Israel, and perhaps it is mere chance that the number "three" keeps coming up in this Biblical narrative of Balak and Bilam and the Hebrews.
Probably I too am hallucinating, so I wouldn't dare suggest that there's a hint in here about a Third Temple.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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