A king, a prophet, and a talking donkey are the major characters in this week's portion. Moshe and the Children of Israel are simply bystanders to what the Sages understand as one of the most transformative stories in the Torah. A donkey plays a more important role than Moshe!

Isn't that just the way the world works? A few people make decisions that affect everyone else. Kings, presidents, economists, and the media shape the agenda, and we don't even get to play the role of the donkey and at least appear in the scene.  We bemoan the low voter participation in most elections, but who can blame people for feeling that their vote doesn't matter? We've been trained to be bystanders.

If one person will be making the important decisions, we would like it to be someone of extraordinary wisdom and impeccable righteousness, insight and compassion, vision and integrity. The only who can possibly perfectly match all the criteria is the Messiah. So, let's dream of this perfect leader and wait as the bystanders we are for the Messiah to appear! We can continue to sit on the bench, live our limited lives, and allow the important people to make the important decisions. After all; we've accepted to stand on the sidelines and wait.

Who is this Messiah? He is, just as the evil Balaam, a donkey rider! "For behold, your king will come to you, righteous and victorious is he, a humble man riding upon a donkey (Zechariah 9:9)." What is it with donkeys?

That the insignificant player speaks up: The Mishna teaches that, 'the mouth of the donkey' was so important that it was one of the ten things created on the first Sabbath eve (Avot 5:8). The 'mouth of the donkey' is the message that creation is incomplete as long as we accept the role of bystander without speaking up for ourselves. Balaam's donkey serves no function other than to speak up. The difference between Balaam and the Messiah is that the latter pays attention. As long as Balaam ignored the feelings of the bit players he was destined to fail. The Messiah rides the donkey as 'a humble man,' who cares to listen to the feelings of the insignificant. Zechariah's description of the Messiah is not of the ultimate sage-warrior, but of an age when our futilitarian silence has ended and we speak up for ourselves as important players on the scene, not as bystanders. The Messiah is not for bystanders, but speakers, not for people who accept all they are instructed to do and believe, but for people who speak their minds and feelings. The festival of Redemption, Pesach, teach the Kabbalists, means 'The Mouth That Speaks.' Is it Redemption that gives us the ability to speak? Or, is it when we learn to speak, we bring Redemption?

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Simcha L. Weinberg
President 
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