B"H

Tuesday Tammuz 10, 5777 / July 4, 2017

This week’s Parsha, Balak, which will be read this Shabbat, begins with the story of Balak, King of Moab, who sent for Bilaam, who lived in Midyan, to come and curse the Jewish people.

This story took place during the fortieth year that the Jewish people were in the desert. They were now at the border of the Land of Canaan (Israel). They had just fought two mighty kings, Sichon and Og and their armies, who refused to let them pass through their land to go to Canaan and instead waged war against the Jewish people. They killed both kings and conquered their cities.

Balak was now worried that they would do the same to him and conquer his land. He knew that he had no chance against them after seeing what they did to the two mighty kings. He sent for Bilaam, whose power was in his mouth, as the Torah says, “Whomever he would curse would be cursed.” Balak wanted Bilaam to come and curse the Jews, hoping that then he may be able to defeat them.   

Bilaam, who hated the Jewish people, and in addition was also tempted by Balak's promises of wealth and honor, very much wanted to go and curse the Jewish people. Yet, he was warned many times by G-d, who came to him in a dream, not to go and not to curse them.

In the end, G-d gave him permission to go, but not to curse. Instead, G-d placed words of blessings in Bilaam's mouth and he ended up blessing them many times. The specific blessings are recorded in this Parsha. Some of Bilaam’s blessings became part of our daily prayers.

Q.How is it that blessings from a Jew-hater like Bilaam, became part of our holy prayers?

A.They were not Bilaam’s blessings. They were G-d’s words and blessings, which came through Bilaam’s mouth. Bilaam became a conduit through which G-d’s blessings came through, but they didn’t originate from him and had nothing to do with him. As such they were even greater blessings than if they had come through someone who wanted to bless them. For these were purely G-d’s blessings without any human credit. This is why they are part of the prayers.

Q.Was this Bilaam’s first encounter with the Jewish people?

A.Many years earlier, Bilaam was an adviser to Pharaoh in Egypt. Bilaam was the one who advised Pharaoh to enslave the Jewish people and then to throw the Jewish boys into the river. His hate for the people of Israel went back many years. Now he was happy to have another chance to hurt them.

A prominent Jewish statesman was invited to attend a meeting of the Warsaw City Council. When he entered he sat down in the left aisle. A Communist official approached him; “Although you are Jewish, you are an invited member. You are entitled to sit on the right side.

“I will sit on the left,” the Jew answered. “Here in Poland we Jews have no rights!”

HAVE A VERY GOOD, HAPPY, HEALTHY AND SUCCESSFUL DAY

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

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