I am very proud to have my daughter be a “guest” writer this week. Avigail, is being ordained as a rabbi this Thursday afternoon, joining her brother, a Conservative rabbi and sister, a Reform rabbi. She is seen here wearing my sister’s tallit. We have joked that now they will constitute a beit din, a judicial court of three.

My late husband who was a rabbi would surely approve and be exceedingly proud of her. And so would my late sister, whose birthday is tomorrow and whose tallit she will wear for the ordination. It is so fitting because, both my sister and I  toyed with the idea of becoming rabbis in the early 80’s and she actually applied to HUC in New York, but was rejected because she kept kosher and would not drive on shabbat. When moving out of my home, I came across the letter she received from them. I too have a letter from Shechter in Jerusalem, which at the time was not ordaining women. As to my two ultra-Orthodox grandfathers, I’m not sure what they would think about women rabbis. Perhaps, they would approve of their great granddaughter’s ordination.

After Avigail shared her drasha on this week’s parsha, I asked her if I could use it this week, in my blog, and so, here it is.

Parashat Balak: A Little Dust in the Eyes**

One of the strangest and most beautiful stories in the Torah appears in Parashat Balak. Balaam, a prophet renowned for his extraordinary powers of vision, sets out on a journey, and at precisely the moment when he ought to see more clearly than anyone else, he is blind. The one who sees in his place is the donkey he rides.

Three times the verse repeats: “The donkey saw the angel of the Lord.” Three times she notices what stands in the path, turns aside, stops, and presses herself against the wall. And three times Balaam sees nothing and strikes her. Only afterward are we told: “Then the Lord uncovered Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord.”

It is worth reflecting on this gap. The angel is there the entire time. The angel does not change. Balaam is not given a new pair of eyes. What changes is his capacity to see.

In the Buddhist tradition, it is said that after his awakening, the Buddha hesitated before teaching. He wondered whether the truth he had discovered was simply too profound for others to understand. Then he realized that among human beings there are those who have only “a little dust in their eyes.” Not everyone is equally blind.........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)