This portion seems to come as an interlude. It seems a little crazy. A talking donkey. A king that hires someone to curse the Jews and only blessings comes out of his mouth. A one of the most famous pieces of Jewish liturgy. 

“Ma Tovu Ohelecha Ya’akov. Mishkenotecha Yisral.” How lovely are your tents, O Jacob, your sanctuaries O Israel.”  

This is a blessing, not a curse, by the non-Jewish prophet. It opens every morning service when we enter the sanctuary.  

How good are your tents, your sanctuaries. How lovely are your dwelling places because most of us did not sleep in tents last night. How great are your sacred spaces. Not just the mishkan that the Israelites carried with them in the desert or the Holy Temple in Jerusalem or even this sanctuary. All of our sacred spaces. 

Friday night we talked about what makes sacred space lovely. 

We thought about what is lovely about our space is the connection between people, the community. I had anticipated answers like the stain glass window and in truth, they are lovely. 

In the prayer in our siddur, it goes on after quoting Balaam, to state that it is G-d’s great love that inspires us to enter G-d’s house, to worship in G-d’s holy sanctuary. We pray that this may be an auspicious time.  

And while our sanctuary is G-d’s house, the whole earth is filled with G-d’s glory. G-d dwells everywhere. We are taught that after the destruction of the Holy Temple, our homes became a mikdash ma’at, a small sanctuary, When we light candles, make kiddush and say motzi on Friday night, we are re-enacting the sacrifices in the Holy Temple. We are making our homes sacred spaces. 

Lovely according to the Oxford online dictionary is exquisitely beautiful. And it gives us the Hebrew of yafah, beautiful. However, its origin is from the Old English and love.  

Something truly lovely happened on Friday night. We were joined on Zoom by some friends in New York. Two of our members were at their high school reunion. They were Zooming in from the hospitality suite with some of their friends. One of the friends brought her own candles to light.  

Here’s the story that goes with it. Her rabbi, who had made aliyah, had told them in an email about lighting candles for Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one of the remaining hostages in Gaza.  But we should do it in a slightly different way. Hersh’s parents had declared that this week should be a week of goodness. They themselves dedicated a Sefer Torah just this week in Jerusalem. https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/weekofgoodness  

So, it not quite being Shabbat yet, we set up our candles. We let those in New York light first. Their tapers were light blue, that might have been the new way of lighting for them. Then we lit ours. And our member Shira chanted her beautiful rendition of Achila, the prayer for the hostages.  

It was lovely, And poignant. And moving. And I had goosebumps. 

It is lovely when we come together as a community, as connected individuals, to celebrate. We had a baby naming and an aufruf this week. It is lovely when we come together and connect as we proclaim the names of those we are concerned about, those who need healing of mind, body or spirit. It is lovely when we sadly come together when we must mourn.  

The other message of this parsha is that our words matter. Balaam’s words. G-d’s words. Our words. Our words matter. Use them wisely and for good.  

At the end of Shabbat morning services, I asked people to look around. Ma Tovu is a blessing. The reason our dwelling places are lovely is the people. The people, connected. That is the blessing. Whether you are In Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, New York, Chicagoland, or Denver. The blessing is the people and caring for one another. 

I still have goosebumps.