From the Rabbi

The other day I was at the Zoo with my family, when we went over to the giraffes. Sure enough there was a baby giraffe, who was born just a few short months ago. Enamored by this marvel of creation, I took my new iPhone 16+ and took some pictures. But to my utter horror, the phone slipped out of my hands and landed 3 feet away from the baby giraffe. Unphased, the giraffe stood up, picked up the phone with its giraffe paws, handed it back to me, and said, “I think you  dropped your phone.” 

This obviously did not really happen to me, but if it did, how would I have responded? Would it have been with a simple, “thank you very much, Mr. Giraffe?” Or would my mouth have dropped in wonderment and awe as it occurred to me that a giraffe just conversed with me?” I imagine after recovering from the shock of a speaking giraffe I would run and tell everyone around me that at the Denver Zoo resides a baby giraffe who can talk!

Interestingly, we see a similar episode to this in the Parsha, albeit with a very different response. The Torah tells us how, after getting hit by the evil prophet Bilaam for not moving, “Hashem opened up the donkey’s mouth, which said to Bilaam, ‘what have I done to you that you beat me these three times?’ And Bilaam answered the donkey, ‘you have made a mockery of me– if I had a sword I would kill you!’”  Bilaam’s donkey spoke to him– and yet, no amazement, no wonderment or acknowledgement of what just occurred. He simply responds in a matter-of-fact harsh manner, as if he were talking to a regular peer. How was he so unmoved? 

We are often so busy with the mundane aspects of our lives–so busy with everything going on– so distracted from the devices in front of us, that we miss the wondrous things occurring in our lives. While it is true that we might not quite have donkey’s speaking to us, we all have unbelievably miraculous things happening to us every day and night. 

On a national level, my rabbis in Israel reported that during the recent war with Iran, it felt like they were living in Biblical times; as miraculous as the miracles we read about in Tanach. Times in which a hospital in Beer Sheva had a full wing evacuated, only to sustain a direct hit the very next day. Times in which Israel had over 500 ballistic missiles the size of school buses launched at its city centers, along with 1100 + drones, and there was minimal loss of life. While each death was an unfathomable tragedy, for any other country facing that amount of missiles, one would expect tens of thousands of fatalities. We saw with our own eyes times in which the existential threat of a nuclear Iran has been largely dealt with in a very efficient manner. Times in which the entire nuclear scientific team was eliminated in one strike, as were the heads of the Iranian Airforce. Times in which Israel had clear access straight from Tel Aviv to Tehran– something that no one would have thought possible one year ago. Times in which rather than have Israel’s legitimacy sabotaged in the Middle-East, Israel is on the cusp of peace agreements with countries like Syria, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. If I told you any of this would happen a year and a half ago you would have simply laughed at me. 

We are living in Biblical times– akin to a donkey opening up its mouth and speaking to us. Will we react like Bilaam, — or will we bask in wonderment and appreciation for G-d’s open Divine intervention? The choice is up to us alone. 

Wishing you a good Shabbos, and meaningful fast on Sunday,

Rabbi Danny Wolfe