Epiphany. What is an epiphany? The dictionary defines it as a sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something,

a comprehension or perception of reality by means of a sudden intuitive realization.

Here is the story of an epiphany. It was Shavuas. And we were in Jerusalem. We'd gone to lunch to a former leader of a major diaspora community. Together there was an Israeli diplomat, as well as one of the leading figures in the Canadian Jewish community. And the conference turned, remember this is May 2001,

to the forthcoming and now notorious United Nations conference

against racism in Durban.

It was not due to take place until August,

but already we knew that it and the parallel

gathering of NGOs was going to turn into a major assault on Israel's legitimacy.

And the diplomat, seeing that we were all very depressed at this prospect, said in order to cheer us up that it was ever thus.

Because we are, in that phrase from this coming week's parasha,

Am, la Vadad Yushkan, the people that dwells alone.

It comes from Bilam.

If you remember, hired to curse the Jewish people,

and instead of doing that, blessed them and said in the following words,

how can I curse whom God has not cursed?

How shall I defy whom the Lord has not defied? From the top of rocks I see him and from

in the hills I behold him, it is an umla of Vadadjshkan, a people that dwells alone, not reckoned among the

nations. And hearing those words, in that context, I had my epiphany, my sudden explosion of light, and I suddenly saw how dangerous

this phrase was to Jewish self-definition. The trouble is that if you define yourself as a people

that dwells alone, you are likely to find yourself alone.

And that is not a safe place to be.

Are you sure, I said to the diplomat, that this is a blessing?

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