The adventures of the Israelites in the Trans-Jordan as described in this week’s double-portion of Hukkat-Balak (Numbers 19-25) are interesting, but what has long held my fascination are the six poems that supplement the narrative. Our ancestors were poets before they were prose storywriters. Biblical scholars are agreed that the poems pre-date the narratives. In some cases, such as the Song of the Sea (Exodus 15) and the Song of Deborah (Judges 5), the narrative which precedes or succeeds the poem is a different version of the events in the poem, or it can be seen how the narrative was crafted on the basis of the poem.

The poems in these week’s Torah reading are captivating. It is not just the rhyme and the rhythm; it is the description of God’s power and the imagery of the landscape mixed with an archaic flavor; it is the early epithets of God, all four of which are still used in our daily and Shabbat prayers. God in these poems is Yah, but he is also El, Elyon (on high) and Shaddai (almighty), names which were once associated with the gods of Israel’s neighbours. God is one, but the images of God are many, and some of those images stretch back to a time when our people were monolatrous – worshipping one God without denying the existence of others.

When I studied liturgy with Dr. Lawrence Hoffman many years ago, he spoke of the “heaping effect” in the early part of the daily Shaharit service. which describes the angelic spirits heaping praise on God with changing and non-changing words:

כלם אהובים, כלם ברורים, כלם גבורים ... בקדשה, בטהרה, בשירה, בזמרה ... מברכים, משבחים, מפארים, מעריצים, מקדשים, ממליכים

They are all beloved, they are all flawless, they are all mighty ... in holiness, in purity, in song, in hymn ... bless, praise, glorify, revere, sanctify and declare kingship.

The purpose of reciting the synonyms is to create a trance-like state in the worshipper in which the words describing God give way to a feeling or attachment to God.  A similar effect in the poems of Balaam has been pointed out by Professor Everett Fox:

...נְאֻם בִלְעָם בְנוֹ בְעֹר וּנְאֻם הַגֶבֶר שְתֻם הָעָיִן. נְאֻם שֹמֵעַ אִמְרֵי אֵל

Word of Balaam son of Beor, Word of the man whose eye is true, Word of him who hears God’s speech ...

Fox writes, "In this passage, even before Balaam gets to his remarkable blessings for Israel, the audience is swept up in a wave of sound. Recent research demonstrates that poetry activates areas on the right side of the brain, linked to memory and emotion—reactions similarly stimulated by music. It also appears to induce a state of introspection in the hearer. In relation to Jewish tradition, I would call this the “Kaddish effect,” where repeated sounds or close variations on them (e.g., yitbarakh ve-yishtabakh ve-yitpa’er ve-yitromam ve-yitnasse) link not only to meanings but also to emotions. In the liturgy, the Kaddish conventionally marks the divisions between parts of a service, but in a common, more specialized usage, it comforts mourners with its soothing sounds.”

The soothing sound that we recite when we enter the synagogue each morning are the words of Balaam praising the people of Israel:

מַה־טֹּבוּ אֹהָלֶיךָ יַעֲקֹב מִשְׁכְּנֹתֶיךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל:

How fair are your tents, O Jacob, Your dwellings, O Israel!

However, in order to get the full effect, you need to go back to the continuation of this in the parashah:

Like palm-groves that stretch out, Like gardens beside a river,
Like aloes planted by the lord, Like cedars beside the water;
Their boughs drip with moisture, Their roots have abundant water.
Their king shall rise above Agag, Their kingdom shall be exalted.
God who freed them from Egypt, Is for them like the horns of the wild ox.
They shall devour enemy nations, Crush their bones,
And smash their arrows. They crouch, they like down like a lion,
Like the king of beasts, who dare rouse them?
Blessed are they who bless you, Accursed they who curse you!