This week’s Torah reading has a very famous Bible story. Balaam (the gentile prophet of God) is a very curious mixture of a personality: He seems to have originated out of Mesopotamia (Deuteronomy 23:4), which was the cradle of the ancestors of the Hebrews. So he belongs to a very specific “type” of biblical individuals (e.g., people like Melchizedek, Job and Jethro) who were individual gentile worshippers of the “one true God” and were unconnected to the “people of Israel” (meaning the descendants of Jacob).
But at the same time, Balaam is an enigma (definition: one who is puzzling, ambiguous or inexplicable) because he is seen as both a heathen sorcerer and a true prophet. Can a true prophet of God also deal in sorcery? Well, if there wasn’t some “reality” to sorcery and divination then in the Bible (mentioned in Deuteronomy 18:10-14; and in the NT at Acts 8:9; Acts 19:19) God would not have forbidden it as a false and dangerous activity. And, a true prophet of God still has the basic free will of all humans (like everyone else) and therefore has the ability to sin and to violate God’s will, if he so chooses.
This is what happened to Balaam! After attempting three times to do King Balak’s bidding, he was unable to do so because God never gave him permission to curse Israel. Balaam finally chooses “trickery” in telling the Moabites-Midianites how to get the Israelites to “curse themselves.” This was accomplished by the Israelites being seduced into “idolatry” by the women of Moab and Midian. The Israelite men were seduced into attending a sacrificial festival, which involved the worship of the idol Baal-Peor. According to some Jewish sources, Balaam was a gentile prophet on the level of Moses. And his story is a very important one because it is given place in all three of the “categories” of the Hebrew sacred scriptures (i.e., in the Torah here at the Book of Numbers, in the Prophets at Micah Chapter 6 and in the Writings at Nehemiah Chapter 13). His end, however, was certainly different from that of Moses … because of the exercise of his own free-will choices.
A friend of mine likes to say that since history repeats itself – history itself becomes “prophecy.” This is also what makes the following clich? a truism: If we don’t learn from history (i.e., meaning if we don’t make any changes, based on lessons learned from the past) then we’re doomed to repeat it. And this is certainly happening in Israel today: There doesn’t seem to be very much learning going on so as to make any changes in order to prevent the bloodshed. Therefore, we are doomed to see the same things repeated over and over again.
Unless … unless some changes can be made, either by a free-will choice or as a matter of necessity. It is said in some circles that President Arafat is very ill. “Information about Yasir Arafat’s medical condition came from a Palestinian medical source during a flight to an Arab capital in the Arab Maghreb on which the doctor was a passenger. The source revealed that Arafat is suffering from a nervous disease that doctors have not been able to diagnose. Arafat has interrupted sleep or does not sleep at all, which could cause his health to deteriorate and could open the file of his succession in the coming few months.”
Perhaps this is the “change” for which the Israelis are waiting? If Arafat is so intractable regarding making “compromises for peace,” then perhaps his successor will be more willing to do so? But who are the candidates for a successor to Arafat? Has Arafat groomed his successor, like all competent managers and executives do?
This is a fascinating recent development going on, according to Professor Murray Kahl’s article, “Money, Power, Succession, Palestinian Style.”
… a number of European and Arab capitals have received explanations from Washington about the reason why Yasir Arafat has not yet been invited to visit the U.S. capital and Powell’s refusal to see the Palestinian leader even in Paris, meaning the Bush administration is looking for a replacement for Yasir Arafat.
Over the past few weeks, a number of capitals and intelligence services joined in the search process and requested urgent reports about the potential ‘successors’ to the Palestinian leader. The most interesting and suspicious of these reports, the first among the many and lengthy ones drawn up about the succession issue, skips all of the names of the inner circle of Yasir Arafat. For the first time, it notes the participation of the Palestinian leader himself in naming and grooming his successor … The report, as a matter of fact, notes the existence of a succession plan prepared with the utmost secrecy by Yasir Arafat himself many years ago. The element of surprise in this plan is that Abu-Ammar (Yasir Arafat’s real name) is preparing the ground for his wife Suha to take over after he goes.
Now, perhaps this is mere speculation, and perhaps it is true that Mrs. Suha Arafat will take over for her husband in the case of his incapacitation or demise. However, I think it’s really a moot point who is at the head of the PA-PLO organization. The Palestinian people themselves must come around to wanting a true and lasting peace with their neighbor Israel, as a Jewish state. Without this element, no leader would be able to pull it off! And Radical Islam (Moslems) must change its (their) mind and decide that it (they) can live as a neighbor with Judaism (Jews).
What most people are unwilling to accept is the notion that this Intifada (Uprising) is a “religious dispute” and it is not a national homeland dispute. All I know is that there are people directly responsible for the bloodshed (i.e., they have blood literally on their hands) guilty of the sin of commission (murder). And there are those who are indirectly responsible for the bloodshed (metaphorically have blood on their hands). Through their passivity, and their silence, they are colluding with the violence and are guilty of the sin of omission (i.e., of failing to do what must be done to prevent the murders). May the Creator of the Universe have mercy on them all.
