“Jacob! Your tents are so good!” (Balak 24:5)

What did Bilam see about their tents? He saw that their openings were not facing one another. So he said, "These people are deserving that the Divine Presence should dwell among them." (Talmud Baba Batra 60a)

Bilam was the most powerful shaman of all time. King Balak paid him handsomely to lay his curses on the Jewish people.

But when Bilam observed the Jewish people and saw that they weren’t prodding into each other’s private lives, and neither were they putting their own lives on public display, then even he realized that this was a people he could not curse.

Because when a society values the inner lives of its individuals, it values and protects itself. It is a healthy, whole organism and the Divine Presence breathes within it.

No illness can conquer it, no intruder can penetrate its borders.

See Likutei Sichot, vol. 13, pg. 78.