A thought on Parshas Balak

"...va'yitzamed Yisroel l'Ba'al Peor...""...and Israel was hooked on Ba'al Peor..." (25:3)

Our nation's encounter with the seductive Midianites included a tragic entanglement with the cult which worshipped a bizarre idol. The word tzamad means an attachment, hence my colloquial translation about "getting hooked." It is an ugly image for a G-dly nation and the Torah is very direct in its description of our relationship with Peor as a tzamad.

Rabbeinu Bachya notes that there is a difference in saying that we became hooked to that pagan cult as compared with saying we were connected (deveikus) to it in the way that the Torah directs us to cling or be connected to our own G-d.

When we cling to HaShem, we aim to have, to feel, to have faith in, a steadfast and sincere relationship with Him. Nothing comes between us and our clinging to Him, ka'va'yachol. In the matter of Peor, it was a matter of being hooked, paired or coupled with something else. Rabbeinu Bachya notes that the seductive ploy of the Midianites to pair our men off with their princesses was the real hook which connected us to the idol involvement. It was not sincere. It was not pure. It was not spiritual and it was not faith driven. Rather, falling for the overtures of the Midianites and their wily offers led some of us to feel a self-deceptive inspiration to find the Peor cult fascinating. There was nothing sacred about our yearning, for there was no real yearning. It was a matter of cognitive dissonance: since we wanted to draw close to the tempting Midianites, and we would have to profess interest in their cult in order to do so, there were those who "suddenly discovered" that they wanted to accept the Peor practices as well. It was a convenient hook-up, not a spiritual bonding.

We are very good at pulling the wool over our own eyes when we are pursuing something which involves a values compromise. It's like the joke about the rabbi who is asked to give a dog a bar mitzva in his schul. He adamantly refuses until the dog's owner offers him a sum of money which he "can't refuse." He suddenly says to the owner, "why didn't you tell me your dog was Jewish?"

Many years ago as a yeshiva student, I used to spend time with Rav Moshe Ebstein who was a great talmid chocham and ba'al machshova. He used to point to the verse in Hoshea (4:13) which says people offer sacrifices to the "gods of the trees" "because its shade is good." This means that they have no real interest in the idol nor in worshipping it other than because they are getting some other benefit or pleasure from their involvement with that sect or cult (the "shade" which it offers.)

Today, while in the bank, a young woman approached me and asked me if I was a rabbi. She asked me if I could direct her and her fiance to a rabbi who might marry them. She then went on to say that "we are Israelis which is why we are not religious and don't have a rabbi or a synagogue."

Was she not religious because she was an Israeli, or was she not religious because she was not religious, and felt that she could explain that by referencing her having been brought up in Israel where, alas, religion is not hooked to the ideology of the government and the masses?

I don't know, but I directed her to someone who could help her, and asked her to be in touch with me along with her fiance if she needed anything more. A sad encounter, but I hope she will find inspiration and a better connection with her religion. I hope we all feel deveikus with our faith, and are not just hooked on it because of peer pressure or other ulterior motives.

Good Shabbos. D Fox