Back in the 60’s so many new shuls and temples were being built in America that it was said that we had developed an ‘Edifice Complex’. I feel that condition has struck here in Yerushalayim, but they’re skyscraper buildings, not places of worship. 

Rav Dov Begun, Rosh Yeshiva of Mechon Meir, describes our discomfort over all the building going on as part of the IKVEI D’MESHICHEI (‘footsteps of Mashiach’), the birthpangs of Redemption. He recalls when they were building a new dorm at the Yeshiva, students complained about the noise. Rav Begun told them they were creating a symphony. The building sounds were the drums. As I write this, the street in front of my house is being closed for the extension of the light rail line. 

Anyway, it seems like the source of this burning desire to build shuls and yeshivot wherever and whenever we can is most likely connected to this week’s Torah reading.

Bilaam, in his blessing spree, gets around to positive comments about the urban planning of our ancestors’ encampment in the Midbar. He famously declares: How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob; and thy tabernacles, O Israel (Bamidbar 24:5). Anyway that’s the way I learned it growing up, but JPS renders it thus: How fair are your tents, O Jacob, Your dwellings, O Israel. I don’t know, it seems to lack the class of the King James version. 

Before we attempt to decipher this famous verse, I want to make a short comment about Bilaam himself. We, and........

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