How Beautiful Are Your Tents…: Shabbat Message from Rabbi Dan Levin
Click here to listen to an audio recording of this Shabbat Message by Rabbi Dan Levin. As he stood on the peak of Ba’al Peor, overlooking the settlements of the Israelites in the valley below, the prophet Bil’am felt a spirit of God wash over him. alled on him to curse the Isrg incantations of curse, Bil’am instead cried out: “Mah Tovu Ohalecha Ya’akov, Mishkenotecha Yisrael – How good are your tents, O Jacob, your dwellings, O Israel!” (Numbers 24:5) What was so beautiful about the Israelite settlements? What did Bil’am see, gazing at those tents and dwellings, that touched him so deeply? Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin, known as the “Netziv,” was the leader of the famous Volozhin Yeshiva in the 19th century. He suggests that the “tents” refer to the places of daily family living, and the