Parshat Balak - between two suns
This week's parashah /portion Balak can be found in the book of Bamidbar /Number 22:2-25:9. We read in the fifth chapter of Pirkei Avot (the Ethics of the Fathers) that there were ten things which God created bein hashmashot - at twilight (literally, between the two suns). Though it does not specify which twilight, the Babylonian Talmud assumes that it is the twilight before the first Shabbat. In other words, these were the last things which God created prior to resting on the first Shabbat. Each of the things created could be viewed as miracles which superseded the laws of nature in some way. Maimonides stated the reason for this text is to teach us that they were actually not defying the laws of nature. Rather, they were actually part of creation, created by God at that last mystical moment and then pre-programmed to occur or be used at a specific time. Being part of creation Maimonides could claim, in Aristotelean fashion, that the world never changes. The interesting th...