Balak
R. Nachman of Breslov on Parashat Balak, read on Shabbat Balak — with one of this week's three questions for the two of you.
This week's parsha is Balak — the foreign king who hires the prophet Bilam to curse Israel. Three times Bilam opens his mouth to curse, and three times blessing comes out instead. The most famous of those blessings — Mah tovu ohalecha Yaakov, 'How goodly are your tents, O Yaakov' — is what Jews say upon entering shul each morning. Rebbe Nachman, who was deeply attentive to the inner life of speech, sees in this a teaching about every mouth: what comes out of you reflects what you are carrying inside, often more than what you intend. Bilam wanted to curse but could only bless, because at the deepest level his eyes saw the goodness of the people in front of him — and what the eyes truly see, the lips eventually speak.
What is one blessing — small, ordinary — that I have spoken over you recently that I didn't quite mean to, but came out of me anyway? And one sharpness that came out before I caught it?
The full week — the passage itself with its source, the other two questions, and the closing verse of hope — lives in the app. Together Tomorrow on the App Store.