“How fair are your tents,
O Jacob, Your dwellings, O Israel!”
Bamidbar / Numbers 24:5
Balaam saw that the tent openings of the Israelites do not face each other; rather each opening was behind the next one, or at an angle, so that no one would look into the house of their neighbor.
Bava Batra 60a
Cha”zal, our ancient, blessed sages, sought to explain what visual image inspired Balaam’s words and gave them enduring meaning. The Talmudic sages explained that orienting your tent opening away from your neighbor’s tent opening was a communal and collective expression of modesty. What the prophet Balaam saw was a reflection of the complex tapestry of civic values that bind a healthy society in mutual respect and consideration for others.
Through the generations, the tent has served as a symbol. Beginning in the days of Abraham and Sarah’s abundant generosity toward strangers, paradigms for enthusiastic acts of chesed, kindness, and limitless hospitality. The tent is a haven of comfort and solace for Yitzchak mourning his mother and a boisterous place for Jacob’s burgeoning family. In Egypt, the tents of the Israelites were the preservers of the covenant and the incubators of continuity. Balaam, as read by the rabbis, sees yet another layer in the tent, modesty and self-restraint.
The Israelites’ tents are a template for us, their descendants, of the values that should be lived in our homes and reflected outward into our community. They are where we learn to give and to share, our love, our time, our effort, our attention, and our possessions. They are where we learn about what is morally significant and enduring.
Our ongoing task is to continue to be a deeply good community in action, characterized by restraint and generosity; by consideration for each other and for our neighbors so that a modern-day Balaam will say of us Mah Tovu, How fair are your tents.
Shabbat Shalom –
Rabbi David M. Eligberg
Copyright © 2025 Rodef Sholom Temple. All rights reserved. Website designed by Addicott Web.
