There are two muffins baking in an oven, a blueberry and a bran. The bran muffin turns to the blueberry and says, “Is it just me, or is it hot in here?” and the blueberry muffin says, “Holy cow! A talking muffin!!!”

In this week’s parasha, we read the story of Balaam and his Donkey, and this joke, about an amazing talking muffin, has the same type of astonishment we would expect Balaam to have at his miraculous donkey. But, he doesn’t.

Here’s the story.

Balaam wakes up in the morning, saddles his donkey and goes off to curse the Israelites for Balak. The donkey is walking along, turns a curve in the road and suddenly sees a messenger of God with fiery wings and a raised sword, sent to stop Balaam. Not wanting Balaam or herself to get killed, the donkey veers off into the surrounding fields, but Balaam, not seeing the angry angel, beats the donkey until she returns to the road. She keeps walking until the angel reappears, so she again turns aside and again is beaten.  

A bit further along, they are traveling in a narrow passage, with no room to turn left or right, when the donkey once more sees the same sword-bearing servant of God blocking the path. So, she stubbornly sits down, but Balaam, who is still blind to the magnificence and the danger before him, again beats his loyal donkey.

Finally, God allows this lowly beast to speak. She asks Balaam, “What did I do to deserve you beating me these three times?” 

To which Balaam, without commenting on the miraculously talking donkey, responds, “You made a fool of me, and if I had a sword (not realizing the irony of the divine sword before him) I would kill you now.”  

Wisely and calmly, the donkey replies, “I have carried you your entire life, have I ever done anything like this before?”  

Balaam admits “no,” and, before the donkey can continue, the messenger of God is revealed to Balaam, who falls on his face before the angel. The messenger explains, “Had the donkey not turned aside those three times, then I would have slain you.”  

Balaam excuses himself, saying that he had not seen the angel; he apologizes and offers to turn back, but, instead, he is allowed to continue on his way.

This story, whose primary purpose is to make Balaam appear like a fool — i.e. dumber than a donkey — highlights Balaam’s inability or unwillingness to recognize the wonder right in front of him. Most clearly, Balaam cannot see the actual angel standing in his way, while his donkey, a supposedly stupid and stubborn beast, sees the messenger clearly.

Then, when his donkey opens her mouth and speaks to him, Balaam is not amazed. In fact, it takes a direct revelation of the angel to elicit any response from Balaam.

Moreover, regardless of these miraculous events, Balaam should have recognized that something was different just from the behavior of his ordinary donkey, but he ignored the signs. He never paused to wonder why she, whom he had ridden his entire life, was acting oddly. Balaam only saw an old, stubborn, dumb donkey, looking only surface deep and refusing to see the wonder that lay beneath. 

This was Balaam’s biggest flaw and the source of his humiliation in this story.

Unfortunately, this flaw is all too easy for us to fall into. We go along in our daily lives and enter autopilot, dismissing the wonder that surrounds us, especially when dealing with the truly commonplace, repetitive things we do or see all the time and simply take for granted. However, even in the most banal can be found a sense of the divine; even in the mundane can be found the miraculous.

Taught by a humble donkey, Balam’s eyes were ultimately opened and, when he saw the Israelite’s camp, their humble booths in the middle of the wilderness, he could not help but exclaim: “Mah tovu ohalecha Ya’akov, u’mishkenotecha Yisrael (How wonderous are your tents O Jacob, your dwellings O Israel!”).

In that moment, he saw the miraculousness of the camp, of the people and of the divinity that was in their midst.

If we take a moment to appreciate everyday objects and occurrences, we might find a little extra wonder in the world. We probably won’t run into a talking donkey or encounter a talking muffin for that matter, but the next muffin we eat just might taste a little bit better.