We all know how Tevye famously
says, “you’re right” and “you’re right” and “you’re also right” to three people
in the same argument. The line is played
for laughs but being able to “see” more than one thing is a value in Judaism
and in our parshah. We must be able to
reckon with competing virtues all the time, and more of a struggle, we must
work to understand when people, even ourselves, turn out to not to be just
one-sided, but rather complex individuals.
To “see” the world other than complicated is to run the risk of seeing
it as wicked
In the parshah we read about the
evil Prophet Balaam, who has been hired to curse the Jewish people, “He took up
his parable and said, ‘Balaam the son of Beor, the man whose eye is open, has
said…” נְאֻם בִּלְעָם בְּנוֹ בְעֹר, וּנְאֻם
הַגֶּבֶר שְׁתֻם הָעָיִן
Rabbis understand this to mean
Balaam had one eye – literally and figuratively.
What is the significance of
this? It explains what Balaam ends up
doing – he blesses the Jews instead of cursing them. He is able to rightly see that they are
deserving of God’s favor.
At the same time, as we later
read in the Torah, and as rabbinic tradition makes clear, Balaam turned to
other means to defeat the Jews, and was killed for it. He was unable
to see his own faults, that he was not a good man.
In Judaism – very important to
see with two eyes. One to
recognize God and to know what God wants, but even more important, the other,
to see how well you are fitting into what God wants. It’s easy to point out the flaws in everyone
else, and how they fall short of
God’s wishes, but we must be able to cast an eye on ourselves.
Being able to see how well we
measure up is more than just “half” of what we need to see. We are truly “blinded” if we are unable to
perceive our own faults and shortcomings.
Being able to see these, and then also being able to see what we should
aspire to achieve and be like allows us to have “complete vision” and “clear
eyes.”
