In Balak, this week’s Torah portion, our enemy Balak sends the prophet Balaam ben Beor to curse us. But in the end instead of cursing us, he gave us a blessing. In this Balaam praised us by saying, “Ma Tovu- How goodly are your tents, O Jacob, Your dwellings, O Israel!” (Number 24:5)

Seeing what has happened on so many college campuses after October 7th it is hard to imagine an image of any encampment that would be a blessing. What did Balaam see in our encampment that would be worthy of describing as “goodly”? On this question Rashi quotes the Gemara in saying that, “the tent-entrances were arranged in a way where no one’s entrance looked into another’s entrance.” This configuration assumes that there is a good/admirable quality of modesty/ privacy. Balaam looked out and saw that we were trying to manifest this value even within the quotidian way in which we organized our tents. If you think about it for a second, this must have been a logistical nightmare. How much effort must have taken to organize the tents in this way?

I was thinking about this question this week during a wonderful week together with Adina here in Israel. It is the first time we had an empty nest in the summer for 21 years, the last time we were in Israel together. We love being in Israel in so many ways. And as pleasant as it has been we know that we are still in the middle of a war. One of the striking things here has been the civilian response to mobilize themselves after 10/7. Like the tents that Balaam saw, this took a huge effort to organize all of these efforts. Before the war Israeli society was divided and working against each other. And while I know that there are still huge rifts in the society, amidst the curse of our losses, Israel deserves praise for their capacity to manifest their highest values in coming together. When someone is in fear it would easier to turn the other direction, but Israelis have been there for each other, and organizing their “tents” to support each other in majestic ways.

It is interesting to reflect on the virtue of humility, modesty, and inwardness in this context. These might be the virtues of our people, but they are not always helpful. While this Israeli Army is clearly winning the military battle against Hamas, we the Jewish people are loosing the battle for global public opinion. How have these pro-Hamas encampments, with their openings facing the world through social media, helped them discredit Israel’s right to exist?

Israel has created a profound networked community that is deeply invested in each other’s lives. Seeing this networked encampment, what is our role outside of Israel? Ma Tovu– How goodly are our tents?  If Balaam can do it, we also need to find ways to publicly praise our community.