Great stuff! always a pleasure to start my day with these posts.

My son, Naph, has raised some questions from Parashat Balak that deserve a thorough response. Among others he asks: why does God need to do that, that is to be ‘angry’ for a brief moment each day?[I will deal more with the subject of Balaam in Mattot-Massei in two weeks where the killing of Balaam is reported as part of the war on Midian.]

The difficult issue I raised last week is the one of the daily moment of chaos that is discussed in the Talmud. It is suggested that this moment is what gives opportunity to someone like Balaam to cause trouble. Various texts also suggest that this is what is meant by phrases such as ‘El zoem bekhol yom’, God who angers each day.

This kind of expression is what we call an anthropomorphism, using our human experience and language to say something about God. It results from our inability to precisely describe God’s interior life, His thoughts and considerations, unless we draw from our own lives. The resultant language will inevitably be imperfect. It is meant to be suggestive and should not be taken literally.

The issue here is that despite God’s creation, meaning the imposition of din, order, on the primeval chaos mentioned in Genesis, not everything always proceeds in life in an orderly manner. Elements of randomness emerge from time to time to threaten the order of our lives and the world.

This is especially true of the order we create for ourselves out of the mass of forces that we must confront to make a life for ourselves. We create families and institutions, societies and nations, that all seem under threat from time to time. We worry about our ordered lives and hope and pray that that order will prevail and not be victim to the randomness that can enter. I am sure we can all think of examples of this phenomenon.

The religious mind of the Bible recognizes this phenomenon as well. But since it believes in a God who imposed order it must face the question how is it possible to entertain a purposeless course of events that can threaten the order? E-l, or Elo-him, are names of God associated with creation, order, din. One could believe that God created the best world possible given the chaotic primeval materials. This is Neziv’s view.

We could also look at this pragmatically. What is the result of this remaining chaotic potential? It leaves room for us with a serious role in the universe. God wished for humans to partner in the daily maintenance of creation. We are created in the Image of the Creator and not only create and order our own lives but must sustain and maintain God’s creation. When we sense the forces of chaos we must respond fervently to deny them victory. This is how we fulfill our divine image. Balaam the wicked used those moments to hurt others. We must try to heal.

Interestingly, the Talmudic thought places the moment of chaos during the first three hours of the day. This is in keeping with their understanding that all [productive] people are awake by then, even the aristocrats who do not have to rush out early into the fields to use every ray of daylight to eke out a living.

Now if that moment were seen to occur at night we could well understand the normal human fears of the night with its nightmares and fears of the unknown. We would be totally vulnerable and unable to respond. The moment is placed in the morning when we arise. What will we arise to? Is the world order that we left yesterday to continue? What can we expect today that will threaten that order: our families, jobs, societies and our world. At least in the day we are awake to respond to that threat.

Locating the moment in the early daytime also points to the humanly constructed worlds we make and live in. After all, day here is night there. Yet the dangerous moment is always for everyone in the morning, no matter where in the world they may live. The night we must leave in God’s hands as we do in our prayers at bedtime. In the daytime we must partner with our divine Friend and make sure that our world will continue.

Howard S. Joseph