B"H

Wednesday Tammuz 11, 5777 / July 5, 2017

In this week’s Parsha, Balak, we find the blessings which Bilaam, a gentile prophet, blessed the Jewish people. Although his intention was to curse them, G-d placed words of blessing in Bilam's mouth and each time he ended up blessing them.

Bilaam said, “How shall I curse when G-d has not cursed. How shall I bring anger upon whom G-d is not angry.” 

Upon looking on the Jewish camp from atop of a mountain, he said, “How good are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel.”

One passage in Bilaam's blessing and praise of the Jewish people is, "He [G-d] has not beheld sin in Jacob, nor has He seen perverseness in Israel. The L-rd his G-d is with him."

Rashi explains this to mean that even when the people of Israel do sin, G-d is not very strict with them and does not abandon them. He is always with them.

Many of our sages and leaders always tried to find the good in another person. They were able to look beyond the person's external acts and see into the essence of the Jew's neshama-soul. As a result, rather than judging their brethren’s shortcomings as acts of sin, they were able to find the positive hidden within the act which they performed.

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Barditchev was one of those sages whose unconditional love for his brethren was legendary. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak didn't see any negative. He always saw the good in everyone.

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak was once walking in the marketplace and saw a Jewish coachman, wrapped in Talit and Tefillin, in the middle of his prayers, greasing the wheels of his carriage.

Someone else would have scolded the man for lack of respect for his prayers. Not so Rabbi Levi Yitzchak. He lifted his eyes and exclaimed, "G-d, what a great people you have. Look how devoted this poor coachman is to You. Even when greasing the wheels of his couch he cannot stop praying!" He saw only good in others.

As a small child, the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson, of blessed memory, asked his father, “Why did G-d create us with two eyes? I can see even with one eye?"

His father replied, “A person needs two eyes so that with the left eye, which represents judgment, he should look at himself in order to find his own faults and correct them. At another person, however, one should always look with the right eye - with compassion and kindness."

HAVE A VERY GOOD, HAPPY, HEALTHY AND SUCCESSFUL DAY