B"H

Thursday, Tammuz 10, 5783 (Hakhel Year) / June 29, 2023

Parshat Balak, which we will read this Shabbat in Israel and in the Diaspora, is about the story of Balak, King of Moab, who hired Bilam to curse the Jewish people. 

Balak wanted to wage war against them but was afraid after seeing how they killed the two mighty kings, Sichon and Og. He sent for Bilam, a gentile prophet, with spiritual powers, to curse the Jews, thus, he would win his war against them.

The Torah relates in detail how Bilam attempts three times to curse the Jewish people. But G-d continuously puts words of blessing in his mouth and instead of cursing them he blesses them.

In one instance, Bilam looked out from the top of a mountain and saw the Jewish people resting peacefully, tribe by tribe. He exclaimed, “How good are your tents, O Jacob, your dwellings, O Israel… He [Israel] will lay down like a lion and like a lioness [in the land] who shall rouse him up? Blessed are those who bless you and cursed are the ones who curse you.”

Although these words came from Bilam’s mouth, yet they were G-d’s holy words which He placed in Bilam’s mouth.

In fact, our sages incorporated the words, “How good are your tents, O Jacob, your dwellings, O Israel,”in the daily morning prayers.

Q.   Why are there two expressions: “tents” and “dwellings”?

A.  The previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, was miraculously freed from Russian prison seventy-six years ago, where he was jailed and sentenced to death for his “sin” of teaching Torah in the Soviet Union. He gives the following explanation: A "tent" is a temporary home, while a “dwelling” represents a permanent home. 

Throughout Jewish history, we Jews have rotated between tents and dwellings.

"How good are your tents O Jacob" - tells us that even when living in tents - throughout exiles and persecutions, the Jewish people achieved and produced the greatest scholars and leaders and adhered to the ways of the Torah. Oil which gives light and illumination, is produced from the olives only after squeezing and pressing the olives. So too, during the most difficult times we managed to produce our greatest scholars and luminaries.

The daily prayers were established after the destruction of the Temple when Jews were in exile.  We begin the Morning Prayer with the “Mah Tovu” – “How good are your tents, O Jacob.” Yet, at the same time we haven’t lost hope that very soon we will be back in “Your dwellings, O Israel,” with the coming of Moshiach and the rebuilding of the Third Holy Temple.

May it be speedily in our days. Amen

HAVE A VERY GOOD, HAPPY, HEALTHY AND SUCCESSFUL DAY