Balak (Haftarot)

“You have been told, o man, what is good...”

The haftarah for Balak is taken from Micah 5:6-6:8. This choice is evidently based upon the single verse, 6:5, which calls upon the people to “remember what Balak king of Moab advised, and what Bilaam ben Beor answered him...” But this verse is in fact pregnant with a central idea in Jewish thought: the centrality of history, of “the vindicating acts of the Lord (tzidkot Ha-Shem)” on behalf of Israel as an argument for loyalty to Him.

Like many other passages from the “latter prophets,” this chapter is largely one of rebuke, of criticism of the people of Israel for abandoning the mitzvot, for neglecting their duty to God, for acting as if God is not involved in what befalls them. The entire passage in 6:1-8 is a “quarrel” or “dispute” of the Lord with His people. After calling the mountains and the mighty forces of nature to witness what He has to say, He invokes the quintessential argument: that He has vindicated His love and caring for Israel in the field of history, mentioning two cardinal episodes: the Exodus from Egypt, and the incident of Balak and Balaam—in both of which, by implication, He confounded their evil counsel.

The first part of the haftarah, 5:6-14, is a combination of blessing and condemnation: the remnant of Israel are compared to the dew, to the blessed rain that falls upon the grass unexpectedly; to the mighty lion which tramples down and defeats all that it touches. But then the mode turns (the sense or rhythm of this transition, like many such in the prophetic books, is not fully transparent), and they are told that they will be defeated—their steeds, their cities and fortifications will all be cut off; and, specifically, the remnants of idolatrous things—their enchantments, magic, necromancers, their idols, will be removed—so as to restore them to the pristine faith. “And I shall act with anger and wrath, to revenge the nation, who have not heard” (5:13).

The haftarah concludes with a well-known epigram of “the basics” of what faith in God means. “You have been told, o man, what is good, and what the Lord demands of you: to do justice; and [perform acts of] loving kindness, and walking humbly with your God.” What are these three basic elements? “Doing justice” and “loving kindness” are the two perennial poles of Rabbinic (and Kabbalistic) thought: Din and Rahamim, justice and compassion. The centrality of each is so evident that they hardly require any proof or argument. And yet: justice without compassion can easily slide into harshness, into inhuman, demanding perfectionism, leaving no room for human weakness. Compassion without justice and law, without clear norms or standards, leads to a careless acceptance of all foibles, a lack of any moral fiber, and ultimately the foregoing of all standards, ethical or otherwise, in favor of a sentimental tolerance of anything and everything.

Both of these are what are called by Maimonides “attributes of action”: i.e., qualities manifested by specific behavior in the world. By contrast, the third element required for the proper human personality addresses itself to the person’s stance or attitude regarding his own place in the world. One can perform acts of generosity and loving kindness, as well as insisting on justice and righteous standards, yet still be arrogant, haughty, superior in attitude and bearing. The religious human being, who knows that there is a God in heaven above him, must also be humble; he must do what he does without pretense, without arrogance or ego.

The “Essence” of Judaism

This passage is among those cited in a well-known Talmudic passage that attempts to define the quintessence of the Torah’s teaching (Makkot 24a). Beginning with the statement that 613 commandments were given to Moses, it proceeds to reduce them to the most essential ones: David “reduced” them to 11 (Psalm 15); Isaiah to six (Isa 33:15); Micah to three (here); Isaiah, again, to two (Isa 56:1); Amos to one (“seek me and live”; 5:6); and, finally, we are told that “Habakkuk reduced them to one: ‘the righteous shall live in his faithfulness’ (Hab 2:4).”

We encounter here the problem of the “essence of Judaism.” This concern is usually associated with Classical Reform, which claimed that one can dispense with the detailed, practical commandments and suffice with broad generalities, such as “ethical monotheism” or “the prophetic passion for social justice.” (It is in this spirit that we find such books as Leo Baeck’s Essence of Judaism, written just about a century ago in response to Harnacks’ Essence of Christianity.) Traditional Jewry, by contrast, always insisted on the importance of each and every one of the particular mitzvot, believing, so to speak, that “God is in the details.” Even the Ten Commandments had an ambivalent status in the tradition, because of the danger of their being emphasized above others (see HY I: Shavuot). Hence, this problem greatly troubled commentators on this Talmudic passage, in which the 613 were seemingly “reduced” to a handful of core ideas.

But in fact, these were not meant to substitute for the totality of the commandments, but rather to define the central principles underlying them. Indeed, the word he’emidan, which I translated above as “reduced,” means more precisely “made to stand upon.” The Maharsh”a (R. Shmuel Idels), in his Hiddushim on the Talmudic aggadot, gives a wonderful explanation of this. From the viewpoint of the Divine Lawgiver, the Torah is indeed one single, organic, seamless unity. It is only from the viewpoint of the receiver that they are multiple (possibly because human life is so diverse; the Torah contains a multiplicity of mitzvot to respond to the wide diversity of human situations). Hence, the various verses cited are attempts to point the way back toward the underlying unity of the Torah. In a sense, this answer is analogous to the distinction made in Hasidism, between how the world looks from “our view” and from “God’s” view. The world seems lacking in unity from the human viewpoint, but from God’s viewpoint the world itself is illusory; all is ultimately part of the essence of the One God. Since the Torah itself is a revelation of God, and not merely a book of rules, it too partakes of the Divine unity.