Parshat Balak contains the well known story of Balaam’s blessing of the Israelites despite his assignment from Balak that he should curse them. One of those blessings which makes up the prayer mah tovu which we recite daily is unambiguously a blessing. However an earlier statement by balaam is less clearly a blessing:
"…there is a people that dwells apart, Not reckoned among the nations"(jps transaltion)
This is hardly a clearcut blessing. One could hardly imagine a commencement speaker inspiring the graduating class with a promise that they will live apart from most of society and most others will ignore their accomplishments. Yet Balak immediately perceives these words as a blessing and responds to Balaam "what have you done to me? Here I brought you to damn my enemies and you bless them"
Rashi sees Balak as looking down on the Israelite camp and seeing an orderly and strong people. Everett Fox in his translation builds in this interpretation:
"a people alone in security it dwells".
It is interesting that the non Jewish observer sees the Israelites as unified and strong because the narrative preceding this parsha hardly indicates that the Israelites saw themselves that way. Over the past few weeks we have read narratives of lack of faith in Hashem’s promise, lack of confidence by the spies in the people’s ability to enter the promised land, rebellion by Korach against Moses and Aaron’s leadership, and complaints about the lack of food and water. Yet somehow an outsider was able to see that the people Israel carried with them strength and a unique mission.
The second passage "ba goyim lo yitchashav" which the jps translates as "not reckoned among the nations" is also not clearly a blessing . Certainly it could be read as "no one will ever pay attention to you". However as a blessing it is indicative that the Israelites will have their own value system and will not be accounted for according to others’ values. Everett Fox consequently translates: "among the nations it does not need to come to reckoning".
Rabbi Meir of Rottenberg beautifully joins the two passages as follows "A people that dwells apart"= that is Israel’s destiny and mission and in that is Israel’s strength. When it goes "bagoyim" and it loses its identity among the other nations and goes according to their ways "lo yitchashvo" it will not accomplish anything of importance (chashevoot).
Incredibly this short passage spoken by a non Jewish observer of the Israelites at the earliest stages of our peoplehood points out a tension that has existed throughout our history. While our survival and distinctiveness are the products of our keeping a unique identity in point of fact we have never really have been a "people who dwells alone". The Talmud and volumes of responsa are full of examinations of issues related to resolving the tensions of obeying Jewish law while dwelling within a secular society. Clearly our determination to maintain our distinctiveness rather than fully adopt the prevailing religion and culture has provided fodder for brutal persecution. And going as far back as the earliest days of history some have actively fought the fate of being a "people that dwells alone" and rushed to assimilate into the prevailing culture, while others tried to walk a tightrope between the two.
It is certainly not true throughout our history being a "people who dwells alone" has been our only goal. Those non Jewish heads of state that legislated restrictions on where Jews could live or work are considered villains of Jewish history while those that tore down the ghetto walls or eliminated discriminatory laws thereby letting us live among the goyim and not separately are regarded as making a positive impact on Jewish life. And surely the United States, the country which accords Jews the greatest opportunity in Diaspora history to not live as a people alone, is considered the most hospitable diaspora home for Jews in their history.
And it is really not true that we don’t care how we are "reckoned" by the other nations. In point of fact we obsessively keep track of Jewish accomplishments in the secular world be it politics, literature, sports or entertainment (as hilariously spoofed in Adam Sandler’s "Chanukah Song"). I found it interesting that Lubavitch Chassidim always hastened to point out that the Rebbe had a degree from the Sorbonne. It was as if to say they really couldn’t rely on his Jewish erudition as evidence of his greatness, they had to show he scored high on the goyish scoreboard as well.
The great tension between the concept of the Jews being a people apart and the imperatives of being part of the broader world continue till today in Israel and in the Galut.
Herzl and the earliest Zionists of course saw the Jews position as both a "people dwelling apart" yet residing under the rule of others as the "Jewish problem". The combination of powerlessness and minority status would inevitably lead to endless persecution. Hence a Jewish State where the Jews could control their own fate would end the persecution. Many religious opponents of Zionism saw that leaving the ghetto and becoming a nation state was in itself taking away Israel’s distinctiveness.
And simply establishing a state was not enough for many early Zionists. If Israel was to be a people apart it was in order that it’s state not simply be a state like any other state but an or la goyim: a light onto the nations which of course secular and religious Zionists interpreted differently.
Yet in the cruel twists of history Israel at 60 has turned out indeed to be a state that seems to perpetually dwell alone still an object of hatred and isolation and with the population still often in physical danger. And while we can only look with wonder at the tremendous economic, intellectual and other accomplishments of the state especially relative to its tiny size, it certainly does often seem that the vision of a distinctive mission has in many ways fallen by the wayside.
In the United States Jews certainly have not been the people that dwells alone I need not give an endless list of Jewish accomplishments in every aspect of American society. Nor is it hard to find one of the endless slew of studies on assimilation and intermarriage. Simply put the opportunity to not be "a people that dwells alone" to an extent unprecedented in Jewish history has been a mixed blessing.
So perhaps it is not surprising that the fastest growing segment of American Jewry is in fact among those who consciously hark back to the more stringent view of "a people who dwell alone". The charedi community who reject much of mainstream American culture has been growing (literally) geometrically. And as they say the numbers are baked in : given the relative size of the population of Jewish children within 20 years this segment of the Jewish community will an extremely large segment of American Jewry. For this community the argument for their lifestyle as a road to Jewish survival is self evident as they will readily point out: their children seldom assimilate or intermarry and they have large families that produce many knowledgeable Jews Choosing not to be "a people that dwells alone" they would argue is a guaranteed path to the end of the Jewish people. For those of us that choose not to live that lifestyle the burden of proof is on us to provide a different model for Jewish continuity. There is no way around the fact that the numbers are with them.
In this week’s parsha a few words spoken by a non Jew about the earliest Israelites succinctly and profoundly identifies such a central theme in Jewish life. I certainly have no "answers" to these issues . Nor, I suspect, are there any such "answers " or "solutions", this tension of being apart from yet among the goyim is just an inherent part of our existence.