Message July 8, 2025: Balak
By Rabbi Evon Yakar
Shalom,
Gratitude is the order of the day for me. I am grateful to our community leaders for granting me the sabbatical just concluded. Rabbi Lauren is also deserving of my thanks for her leadership and presence during this time. My days since April first were filled with embracing time with my kiddos. We played, recreated, read, planned for Caleb’s Bar Mitzvah, and enjoyed a flexible schedule. One somewhat unexpected positive was the chance to coach Little League this past Spring. I challenged myself to embrace baseball, I tested my team-building skills to corral nine and ten-year-olds on the diamond and in the dugout, and I witnessed my little guy Jonah demonstrate amazing fortitude and grow in beautiful ways. During the final month of sabbatical, Rachel and I were blessed to celebrate twenty years of marriage with a weekend away. I think about this brief expression of gratitude and I am also grateful to Rachel, my partner in all and best friend. She embraced my sabbatical presence and energy with such grace and love - thank you!
A sabbatical is a unique gift and opportunity. Among them is the chance to broaden and shift perspectives, for time to distill all that occurs throughout our days at a different pace allowing lessons to be differently clear. Returning to my routines and work flows with energy is a commitment I am making. In Torah this week, we are witness to an amazing story. One that many consider Torah’s moment of comedy. It is parahsat Balak, the story of the Moabite King wishing to condemn us, the non-Israelite prophet Balaam hired for the task, Balaam’s talking donkey, and ultimately words of blessing. (Check out Balak resources here - click>>>.) At the comedic height of the story, Balaam is saddled on his trusted donkey en route to curse our ancestors. Yet, the donkey is confronted with an angel of God and swerves from the path. Eventually, even Balaam’s eyes are opened to witness the angel.
A B Mitzvah student once taught me in reference to this story that it is about being more spiritually aware. The parasha is a reminder to take stock, to step back and see more broadly, with a more open heart, all that unfolds before us. At the end of each day, our control is only over how we respond to what occurs in our lives, in our world. To master our own behaviors and actions, to measure our words. The story of this non-Israelite prophet Balaam is one that has the power to lift our eyes to see more, to broaden perspective, to not rush to conclusions.
This was a gift of sabbatical: Time to discern and distill what matters, to gain perspective and clarity on the possibility here in our community, and to hone commitment to what I am able. Thank you for the gift of time and thank you to our ancestors, those who curated our Torah story, for giving us this tale of ‘spiritual awareness’ and even a good laugh!
Shavua Tov,
Rabbi Evon
