For the past 2000 years we have opened our daily morning prayers with the words of blessing echoed by a man name Bilam in this week’s Torah portion. “How goodly are your tents, O Jacob”.
What is so special about the “tents of Jacob” and why are these words chosen to open and be at the gateway of our prayers?
Our Sages teach us that the Jews in the desert camped so that the doorways of their tents did not face each other. In this way, one person was not able to see into his neighbor's tent and privacy was maintained. This then is the beauty of the “Jewish Tent” and the significance of the blessing “How goodly are your tents, O Jacob”. It expresses modesty - the great quality for which we have been blessed.
Let us prod, perhaps, a bit more deeply into the meaning of the encampment of the Jewish People. “Not looking into your neighbor’s tent” can also mean that we do not use our neighbors as the barometer against which we measure our acts or judge ourselves. Who we are and the decisions we make are to be defined by and based solely upon who we are, not by the populace, pressures, and fads or styles that neighbor us.
I once heard it put this way: “If ‘I am I’ because ‘you are you’ and ‘you are you’ because ‘I am I’, then ‘I am not I’ and ‘you are not you’.”
We might live or work among people who have different moral standards that those of our own. Our neighboring ‘tents’ can, at times, make us feel compelled to ‘give in’ a bit - to following suit. Yet we must always remember that they are not the litmus test by which we define what is right and wrong for us. Our measuring stick is, was, and will always be our Jewish heritage and tradition.
This is why “How goodly are your tents, O Jacob” is read at the gateway and entrance to our daily prayers. For this blessing carries within it the foundation for spiritual growth. It empowers us and fortifies our inner identity not allowing it to be swayed by another’s ‘tent’; not allowing ‘me to be me because of him’.
Let us take the strength from the words “How goodly are your tents, O Jacob”. And let us express our true identity.
Let us do a mitzvah today!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Raleigh Resnick