Ma Tovu
I’ve been trying to do shacharit (morning prayers) for the past few years now each morning. One of the first prayers we say is called Ma Tovu.
Its most commonly translated as:
How goodly are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel.
The story of that prayer is that once when the Israelites were traveling through the desert on their way to the land of Israel, Balak, the king of Moab, having realised that he couldn’t beat the Israelites by force, instead chose to hire a known prophet/sorcerer named Bilam, and pay him to curse the Israelites. As the story goes, Balak and Bilam climb up on a ridge overlooking the Israelite encampment and Bilam begins his curse – except that God intervenes and what comes out of his mouth is instead the famous blessing: “מה טבו אהלך יעקב משכנתך ישראל – how goodly are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel.”
Anyway, I’ve been saying that line pretty much every morning here, and only a week or so ago I realised that I have the unique privilege to literally just look out my 10th floor apartment window and gaze down upon “the dwelling places of Israel”, as it were, as I say that prayer. So now, each morning as I say that prayer I try to look at the houses and apartments below, and realise that the prophecy uttered by Bilam all those years ago is indeed still true today.
