Parsha Balaq

        How goodly are your tents, O Jacob,
        your dwelling places, O Israel!
        Like streams that flow...
               Numbers 24:5-6


The  Lord placed these words--
a  blessing, an ideal vision
 in Balaam's mouth
This is a holy sacred place

But reality lures the people
enticing them to follow idols

Between the two stories,
a space--the crack, the chaos
between possibility
and the shoals of the real world