Rabbi Sandra Kviat
In May 2023 bouquets of flowers appeared on benches in the Welsh town of Merthyr Tydfil. They were tied with a ribbon saying ‘I’m a lonely bouquet, please take me home for yourself or someone you care about’. They were left there by the local florist Fay Trowbridge to shine a light on mental health awareness month.“They were exactly what I needed last week as a little pick me up,” said one woman who found the flowers[1]”.
This story is from the BBC’s Uplifting Stories webpage, a part of their news website, dedicated to good news.
And it begs the question – what was the last good news story that you read? As we know nearly all news stories are negative, reinforcing that ‘things’ are rather ghastly. On any given day the headlines focus on news that makes us sit up and take notice. And sadly, as most news taps into our emotions through what is wrong in the world, we end up confronted with a barrage of stories that engender fear and worry. The Covid inquiries and the lack of preparation, the Post Office scandal which has rocked peoples trust in institutions, the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Israel/Gaza, environmental disasters wherever we turn; there’s plenty to worry about. And if we are not careful, we end up doom scrolling, bingeing on tragedy, crisis or disaster.
The levels of bad news takes an emotional toll, they set our minds racing, and can make us feel uncertain, anxious or distressed. Therapists now recommend that we limit our exposure to the news cycle, to make sure it is not all that we see or experience. For the distance between the real world around us; our home lives, our work lives, our relationship with real people around us and the online cycle of news can get too short, and the enormous global world and its challenges can seem as important as the one we see and touch daily. The world as it is, in the news, is overwhelming, negative and out of control. As for the world as it should or could be, that is not the main focus of the newspapers.
And yet, that is exactly the message of reading Balaam and Micah together, the Torah and haftarah readings set for this Shabbat, that you need both parts, to see the world as it is (Balaam) and how it could be in the future (Micah) as Rabbi Shai held suggests. “Balaam and Micah offer dramatically different assessments of the Israelites. The vast chasm between the two reveals a deep truth about Jewish theology and spirituality: We live, always, in a world of “not yet.”
“Whereas Balaam declares that Israel is already good, Micah emphasizes what Israel must do to become good. Whereas Balaam speaks in the indicative, Micah speaks in the imperative. Juxtaposed with Balaam’s, Micah’s words serve as a powerful reminder that a deep sense of “not yet” ought to pervade our spiritual lives. The world is not yet as it could be, not yet as God intends it to be; and we, too, are not yet who we could be[2]”.
Unlike our newspapers, Balaam’s words begin in the positive. He utters the blessing ‘mah tovu’, how good and beautiful, rather than the curse he has been asked to perform. What made him proclaim in such uplifting terms? The classic explanation by Rabbi Yochanan is that the tribes lived in harmony because they respected each other’s privacy and boundaries. (Bava Batra 60a). Others argue that he praised the military formation and discipline of the Israelites, or that it was the people’s unity.
More recently, Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell suggested:
“He sees the tents that are the homes and gathering places of the women, children, and men, who live as a community marked by care and mutual respect…. For a moment, Balaam sees a community as it can be: a society of mutual dependence and trust, a community where each person is treated with dignity.[3]”
(“The Torah: A Women’s Commentary”).
Whatever Balaam saw, it was positive, it was nourishing, it was inspiring. And that is the message that the ancient rabbis wanted us to find, in the juxtaposition of the two very different texts today. We begin not by seeing what is broken (that is all too easy), but rather what is good, what is tov, what we value and that inspires us. And only then do we look at what can and should be improved as Micah reminds us.
It’s easy to find the bad/tragic/sad/unjust things that are happening. But what about the people, stories, events or actions that lift us up and inspire us? Balaam asks us what in your life is good? What can you see and be grateful for, what do you value?
Micah’s ‘not there yet’ does not mean either striving for a sense of utopia or a Promised Land. But neither should the ‘not there yet’ stance make us feel powerless, depressed or lead us into apathy, giving up before we have even begun.
Balaam and Micah remind us that we should begin with what is good which is why we begin our service with the words from our parasha today ‘mah tovu’. Though it may seem repetitive that we say or sing these words in most services, it is in their repetition where lies the power. For it does not matter whether you’ve had a great week or an awful one, whether you’re barely keeping it together or feel on top of the world, no matter where you are at, begin with ‘mah tovu’ and seek out the good in your life to first awaken your sense of gratefulness.
Imagine if we began our mornings not with outrage or crisis but with news about a 91 year old former teacher helping young school children learn to read, an ambulance driver finding and returning a beloved dog that has been stolen, or neighbours ‘adopting’ their widowed neighbour next door as an extra grandfather.
Towards the end of the service, just before the kaddish we chant the Aleinu, the prayer that looks to a hopeful future, even if we are not quite there yet. The prayer begins with the words “Aleinu”, meaning ‘it is upon us (or up to us)’, and it ends with “ein od” -‘there is no one else’. The world as it should be is up to us, even if it is not here yet, but to begin the work, we have to start with a sense of gratitude for what we do have and what we see. And though we are ‘not there yet’, we know that the future, the world as it should be, can be reached, step by step by step, one good thing at a time.
[1] Mental health: Why ‘lonely bouquets’ pop up around Merthyr Tydfil – BBC News
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