BS"D
YESHIVAT HARA'AYON HAYEHUDI
Jerusalem, Israel
HaRav Yehuda Kreuser SHLIT"A, Rosh Yeshiva
PARSHAT BALAK
9 Tammuz 5768/11-12 July 2008
G-D'S GREAT LOVE
"He sent messengers to Balaam, son of Beor to Pethor, which is by the
river of the land of the members of his people."
Bala'am, the gentile prophet, was called upon to curse the blessed
people of Israel, but where was Bala'am from? The Torah tells us in our
parsha that Bala'am was from a place called Pethor, by the river. Latter on
in the book of Deuteronomy, the Torah goes on to tell us: Because he hired
against you Bala'am son of Beor, Aram Naharaim to curse you. Apparently
Bala'am was from Aram Naharaim. Now, the site of Aram Naharaim is already
familiar to us from the book of Genesis, from the story of Eliezer, the
servant of Abraham, who went in search of a wife for Isaac. "Then the
servant took ten camels of his master's camels and set out with all the
bounty of his master in his hand and made his way to Aram Naharaim. Rebecca
had a brother whose name was Laban, Laban ran to the man outside the
spring."
We learn from this that both Bala'am - the wannabe curser of the Jewish
people - and Laban, the great deceiver, were from the same place, Aram
Naharaim. A mere coincidence? Or is there more to this than meets the eye?
Our rabbis dispute the nature of the relationship between Laban and
Bala'am. The Talmud states that they were actually one and the same person,
and some state that the Talmud is not to be taken literally, being that so
many years passed between Laban's and Bala'am's times, but rather, Bala'am
was Laban's grandson. And based on the Kabbalistic teachings, Bala'am was
the reincarnation of Laban.
No matter how one looks at it, one thing is certain: Both Laban and
Bala'am had a great hatred for the Jewish people, and both wanted to
completely uproot and destroy them. Back in our parsha, we find that as
Bala'am sets out on his journey to curse the Jewish people, his faithful
donkey leads him off the road and smashes him against a wall. "He was
riding on his donkey and his two young men were with him. The donkey saw the
angel of Hashem standing on the road with his sword drawn in his hand, so
the donkey turned away from the road and went into the field, and it pressed
Balaam's leg against the wall and he continued to strike it."
Of all places along this journey, why was it here that the angel stopped
Bala'am? What was so special about this field? To answer this question, we
turn back once again to the book of Genesis and to the story of Laban.. "It
was told to Laban on the third day that Jacob fled. So he took his kinsmen
with him and pursued him a distance of seven days, catching up with him on
Mount Gilead, but G-d had come to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night and
said to him, beware lest you speak with Jacob either good or bad. After this
confrontation between Laban and Jacob, they make a covenant between them not
to harm each others' descendents: Then Jacob took a stone and raised it up
as a monument, and Laban declared: This mound is a witness between me and
you today, this mound shall be a witness that I may not cross over to you
past this mound, nor may you cross over to me past this mound for evil."
Being that Laban and Bala'am are one and the same, this is why the angel
stopped Bala'am on his journey to curse the Jews davka here. For it was
here, so many years before, that Jacob and Laban had made the covenant not
to harm each others' descendents. The angel was saying to Bala'am: Bala'am,
you wicked man, don’t you remember the covenant that you made with Jacob not
to harm his descendents? Now you are going past this very same spot to curse
Jacob's children? It will never be! For in the end, try as Balaam did to
curse, all that came out of his mouth was changed to blessings.
At first, both the nations of Moab and Midian came before Bala'am to
employ his services to curse the Jewish people, but soon Midian realized
that there was no way Bala'am could succeed in this mission, and so the
elders of Midian picked themselves up and left. What was it that they saw
that so convinced them to suspend their plan? They said: Is it possible that
a father could curse his son? Meaning: How was it possible that G-d, Who
considers the Jewish people His children, would curse them? You are children
to Hashem your G-d. Once they realized this was a futile mission, they
packed up and left.
Time and time again, throughout our long history Hashem has shown His
great love for His people, saving us from one enemy after another. Rashi
writes: You, Bala'am, want to curse My people, who will one day stand before
Me and come up to the Temple three times a year in Jerusalem? It shall not
be! Even today, the modern-day Labans and Bala'ams come against us from the
area of Aram Naharaim - Iraq/Iran - threatening to destroy the Jewish
people. And once again, Hashem will surely defend and save His people, as in
bygone days.
With love of Israel,
Levi Chazen
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Topic: PARSHAT BALAK - G-D'S GREAT LOVE (Read 1980 times)