B"H
Monday, Tammuz 12, 5778 / June 25, 2018
This week’s Parsha, Balak, begins with the story of Balak, King of Moab, who was afraid that the Jewish people may conquer his land as they have just conquered the lands of Emori and Bashan. He sent for Bila’am to come and curse the Jewish people.
Bila’am, who hated the Jewish people, even more than Balak, and was also tempted by Balak's promises of wealth and honor, wanted to curse the Jewish people. But, he was warned many times by G-d not to curse them.
In the end, instead of cursing them, G-d placed words of blessing in Bila’am's mouth and each time he wanted to curse them, he ended up praising and blessing them.
Although Balak took Bila’am to different places from where he could see the Jewish tents and dwelling places, so that he could find fault with Israel, which would give him an opening to curse them, G-d made sure that he saw only good, which resulted in blessings.
The following passage of Bila’am's praise for the Jewish people, as he viewed them from a mountain overlooking their encampment, is recited each day in our morning prayers, “How good are your tents Jacob; Your dwelling places Isreal."
Many of our sages have always tried to find the good in another person. They were able to look beyond the person's external negative acts and see into the essence of the Jew's Neshama-soul. As a result, rather than judging their brethren for their shortcomings as acts of sin, they were able to find the good and positive hidden within that act or the conditions in which they were performed.
The story is told of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Barditchev, who saw a Jewish coachman, wrapped in Talit and Tefillin, in the middle of prayer, greasing the wheels of his carriage in preparation for a trip.
Someone else would have scolded the man for his lack of respect for his prayers. But Rabbi Levi Yitzchak lifted his eyes upward and exclaimed, "O G-d, Look how devoted this poor coachman is to You, even when greasing the wheels of his coach, he cannot refrain from praying!"
On this day, the 12th of Tammuz, 91 years ago, the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson, of blessed memory, was miraculously released from Russian prison, where he was arrested for teaching and spreading Torah. As a child he once 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, he should look at himself in order to find his own faults and correct them. But at another person, one should always look with the right eye, with compassion and kindness."
HAVE A VERY GOOD, HAPPY, HEALTHY AND SUCCESSFUL DAY