The Narrative of Blessing: What Balaam Teaches Us It’s a beautiful, poetic, story. Balaam, the gentile prophet hired by the king of Moab, showed up with the intention of cursing the Jews. Alas, despite multiple attempts, he was unsuccessful. The words G-d placed in his mouth turned out to be extraordinary and beautiful blessings. What exactly is the power to curse and to bless? Balaam was charismatic and insightful, yet his wisdom taught him to be cynical and pessimistic. He would look at any person or circumstance and see the negative aspect. He would put the spotlight on the negative detail and highlight it as the most significant. He would enchant with his tales and make people believe that their negative trait was the dominant one which would ultimately lead to their failure. Mesmerized, his audience would internalize his narrative, making his dark prophecies self-fulfilling. When Balaam arrived at the Jewish camp he attempted his familiar trick. Yet the words that G-d put into his mouth told a different story. Instead of looking at an individual Jew’s fault, Balaam’s vision was raised to see the general story, making any specific fault irrelevant. As Balaam words express so poetically, here was a people with a glorious past and bright future. A people deeply rooted in history, with a mission to enter the land of Israel, and a vision for the ultimate transformation of the entire world through Moshiach. This profound shift in perspective holds true for every individual life. The story of Balaam is the story of how to see the blessings within our own lives. When we isolate an individual challenging moment, painful setback, or negative experience, allowing it to fill our field of vision, we may view ourselves as “cursed”, disconnected from any larger story of meaning, purpose, and blessing. However, our perspective is transformed to blessing when we recognize that the “curse”, the challenging, disconnected moments, are part of a larger story of our life. When we broaden our field of vision and see, not the immediate challenge, but what we have accomplished in the past and our goals for the future, we realize that our life is a story of purpose and blessing.
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