The Talmud discusses our Sages belief that God gets angry
only once a day. It revolves around the scene of God’s anger at the Golden Calf
incident. Moses tries to appease God, and God tells him to wait until His anger
passes. Since Moses had already affected reconciliation between God and Israel
over the incident, they conclude that this means that God has an appointed time
every day in which He is angry. Our Sages then ask “How long does His anger
last every day?” The answer is a moment. I am surmising that this is based on
Psalm 30:5 which says “For his anger only lasts a moment, but his favor lasts a
lifetime.”
The Hebrew word for moment is “rega”. It means a wink, a motion
so fast that one cannot actually see it. Our own English word, moment, has the
same basis. It comes from the word momentum and has the connotation of the
swift movement of the second hand on a clock. The Talmud goes on to define a
rega in two ways. The first is that it is as long as it takes to say the word
“rega”. But another authority defines it as 1/58,888 of an hour, basically one
quarter of a second.
The Talmud continues by saying that Bilam knew when this
moment was every day. It was because of this knowledge that King Balak sought
him out so he could curse Israel at that precise moment and thereby bring God’s
judgment down. It quotes our Haftorah reading from Micah where God says to
Israel, “Remember my kindness when Balak and Bilam plotted against you”.
One could say that Bilam was a Baal Rega, a Master of the
Moment. But he was thwarted by Hashem and instead is forced to bless our people
instead of cursing us.
Yeshua, however, is the true Baal Rega; the true Master of
the Moment. He dies at the precise moment of God’s anger and thereby takes on
God’s judgment of Israel and the nations of the world. In Isaiah 54:8 God says
to Israel, “In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment [rega], but
with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you.” While this is a
message to Israel, we can view this midrashically to be a statement to Yeshua
as the One-Man-Israel. Yeshua as he is dying is rejected by Hashem for a rega,
a moment. And Yeshua cries out, “Eli Eli, lama sabachthani”, (My God, My God,
why have you forsaken me?). But then God elevates him with everlasting
compassion to sit at His right hand and rule as King Messiah!
The Talmud also asks, “What could Bilam have said in an
instant?” In other words, what curse could someone utter in such a brief span
of time. The answer given is that he could have said “Kalaym”,
(Chaf-lamed-mem), which means “Destroy them!” But it goes on to say that God
thwarted him by reversing the letters to “melech” (mem-lamed-chaf), which means
“king”. It references Numbers 23:21 where it says “…and the shout of the king
is among them”. The Hebrew translated as shout is actually the word “teruah”
which is one of the sounds made by blowing the shofar.
We can create our own midrash using this and Rav Shaul’s
(Paul’s) statement in 1 Corinthians 15:52, where he says, “It will happen in a
moment [rega], in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet [teruah] is blown.
For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live
forever. And we who are living will also be transformed.” At the end of time,
Yeshua, our Baal Rega, will return as King with a shout, a trumpet blast, a
teruah. And in an instant, a rega, will usher in the Messianic Age!
As we march towards Tisha B’Av where we commemorate the
destruction of the two Temples and also Yeshua’s death, let us have gratitude
for God’s mercies. Let us be grateful that He sent us his only son to be our
Baal Rega, our Master of the Moment. Let us praise and worship Messiah Yeshua
for his mighty act of redemption. In a rega he died for the sins of Israel and
the whole world. In a rega he reversed Kalaym to Melech, Destruction to King.
And in a rega, he will return as King with a trumpet blast, bringing all to its
final consummation. May Hashem bring it speedily and in our days. Shabbat
Shalom!
