B"H
Thursday Tammuz 12, 5777 / July 6, 2017
In his week’s Parsha, Balak, the Torah tells how Balak, King of Moab, feared the Jewish people, so he hired Bilaam to come and curse the Jewish nation, so that he may win in battle against them and get rid of them.
Bilaam, who was blind on one eye, had special spiritual powers. He was happy to go and curse the Jews. He knew that he needed G-d’s permission to do it. In the beginning G-d wouldn’t allow him to go. Then He gave him permission, but warned him to say only what G-d will tell him.
On the way, an angel blocked the road three times and the donkey, who saw the angel, stopped each time. Bilaam who didn’t see the angel, hit the donkey each time. After hitting the donkey the third time, G-d opened the donkey’s mouth, and it said to Bilaam: “What have I done to you that you hit me these three times?” The angel then told Bilaam, “Go with these men, but you may only speak the words which I will tell you to say.” In the end, no matter how much Bilaam tried, only blessings for the Jewish people came out of his mouth. In many of his passages he predicts about the coming of Moshiach.
Q.Why does the Torah tells us that Bilaam was blind on one eye?
A.On this day, the twelfth of Tammuz, ninety years ago, the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson, of blessed memory, was liberated from Russian prison. He was imprisoned for spreading the teachings of Torah. His death sentence was miraculously exchanged for his being expelled from Russia instead.
As mentioned yesterday, that as a small child, , 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." The Torah tells us that Bilaam had no vision in one eye - he lacked seeing the good in the Jewish people.
In one of the concentration camps, during the Holocaust, there was a German Nazi commander. He was extremely cruel to the Jews in his camp. He had only one eye, his left eye was made of glass. but it was made so perfect that one couldn’t distinguish it. One evening he called one of the Jews and said to him, “If you can recognize which is my false eye, I will give you a decent meal. But if not, I will shoot you on the spot!”
The Jew looked at him and said, “It’s your left eye.”
“You’re correct,” said the Nazi. “I will give you the meal I promised. But how did you know?”
“I saw that only your left eye looked at me with sympathy and compassion…”
HAVE A VERY GOOD, HAPPY, HEALTHY AND SUCCESSFUL DAY