{"id":213,"date":"2014-06-01T12:35:12","date_gmt":"2014-06-01T12:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/?p=213"},"modified":"2014-06-01T12:37:20","modified_gmt":"2014-06-01T12:37:20","slug":"here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/?p=213","title":{"rendered":"“HERE”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"OLYMPUS<\/a><\/p>\n

Here, on the promontory above a collection of tents in the desert, stands a foreign prophet. \u00a0The prophet, Balaam, has traveled many miles; he looks down on the tent people, and something moves inside him, the hideous thing that distorts and makes violent, that eats the souls of men, even prophets.<\/p>\n

He may see clearly, but he is a naysayer, a vile talker, a curser; he disses.\u00a0 That’s why Balak, the Moabite king, hired him. \u00a0For his wild, disruptive mouth.<\/p>\n

“Don’t you go talkin’ about folks like that, my folks,” they heard God say. “Don’t even think it.”<\/p>\n

The Israelites are bustling around, doing their daily chores, praying and washing their feet and squating on the ground, hovering around fires.\u00a0\u00a0 The men praying, the women praying in the way they make bread – fully absorbed.<\/p>\n

The prophet Balaam, the loose-lipped one,\u00a0speaks, but he feels like a horse with a bit in his mouth.\u00a0 Still he speaks.\u00a0\u00a0 As if a horse is speaking from his mouth.<\/p>\n

“How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob,” he says.<\/p>\n

He feels other, in the way that only a prophet can.\u00a0 Still, his curse\/blessing, Mah Tovu, became the stuff of the morning prayer.<\/p>\n

Inspired by Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg’s lecture, Sharon, MA, May 28th, 2014<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here, on the promontory above a collection of tents in the desert, stands a foreign prophet. \u00a0The prophet, Balaam, has traveled many miles; he looks down on the tent people, and something moves inside him, the hideous thing that distorts … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5,6],"class_list":["post-213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-avivah-gottlieb-zornberg","tag-midrash"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s4D5qU-here","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=213"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":217,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213\/revisions\/217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}