Parashas Balak and 17th Tammuz

Our Parsha this Shabbos which ,this year ,is also the 17th of Tammuz, the day of the Chait Ha ' Eigel , is Parashas Balak . The 17th of Tammuz is a fast day starting the three weeks which culminates in Tisha B 'Av , a day of great tragedies in our history. None of these tragedies has to do with HaShem Walking away from us,for this very Parsha of Balak shows how much HaShem Really Loves us and Watches over us Jews , no matter how others may want to annihilate and destroy us and , in Bilaam's case , even try curse us. We as a Nation, went through Holocausts, Pogroms,Inquisitions, crusades and massacres and attacks from terrorists, still continue to live on under HaShem's Shield.

So on this 17th of Tammuz, the day usually of our fast, although seeing this year it falls on Shabbos, so the fast is postponed to the next day as we don't fast on Shabbos unless it is Yom Kippur, let us remember to repent and do Teshuvah for the Chait Ha Eigel and the breaking of the Luchos (The Tablets with the Ten Commandments ) that happened on this date ,and the besieging and breaching of the Walls of Yerushalaim on both occasions while our Botei Hamikdoshim stood in Yerushalaim and also on this day when Apostomus burnt our Holy Torah and he placed an image in the courtyard of our Beis Hamikdash ( Ahavas Torah Centre Luach - Rav E. Chrysler ), so we have reason to do Teshuvah and return to Torah.

This week we read, as I mentioned , Parashas Balak , which contains the happenings of how Balak tried to hire the evil Bilaam to come and curse us and HaShem ensured that we got Blessed from HaShem out of the very mouth of the enemy of ours that wanted to hurt us.The Parsha also contains the prophecies that HaShem Had Bilaam mention, even prophecies about us overcoming our enemies right up till the End of Days and even Mashiach ben Dovid and Mashiach ben Yosef is mentioned. No matter how many times, Balak and Bilaam tried to curse us, we kept being more Blessed by HaShem. So this Parsha also teaches us how HaShem Loves us and Blesses us and Protects us through time that we continue and that no Nation will ever totally wipe us out, but we will continue to flourish.Eventually Balak couldn't take it anymore and tried to dismiss Bilaam. HaShem however continued to Bless us. Also in this Parsha is a very important reminder that HaShem is not a man,a message to the World who often tries to deify a man , Chas Ve Shalom .

When Bilaam saw he couldn't curse us, he needed to find another way to try make HaShem Angry , so he set up a market and had Balak entice some of our men to be tricked by their Midianite women into serving their deity statue, the way they do, and this caused HaShem's upset with them and the perpetrators were killed. 

Even Zimri son of Salu,the leader of a father's house of the Tribe of Simeon brought a Midianitess woman, Cozbi , daughter of Zur of the head of the peoples of a father's house in Midian , into his tent, in full site right past the holy Moshe Rabbeinu, who at the time was busy teaching his brother Aharon's grandson Pinchas. Pinchas could not stand the insult made to HaShem and to his (Pinchas') teacher Moshe's honor so he asked Moshe if he could act and so he did, for Pinchas took a spear and bravely walked in front of the Simeonites and pierced them both ( Zimri and Cozbi ) and thus brought peace between HaShem and his people.So ends our Sedra . For this action of courage, our Rabbonim say Pinchas, being this bringer of peace between HaShem and Israel , will return as the harbinger of peace in the form of Eliyahu Ha Navi who will then usher in Mashiach at the end of days.

Our Haftorah is Michah 5:6-6:8 and also mentions how HaShem protects us and also refers to Balak and Bilaam and thus relates to our Torah Portion.

But who was this Balak and Bilaam and what is the time frame of this Parsha.

In our last Sedra,we read of how the Children of Israel beat the mighty Sichon and Og, who were actually protectors of Moav. The Moabites, seeing that their mighty protectors were defeated, started to panic. They knew that this powerful Nation of Israel that was under the direct protection of G-D , was headed toward them,so they knew they needed help. It was then that they appointed Balak ben Zippor to lead them to victory.

Balak was not even a Moabite but he was known as a man who could foretell future events and so they asked for his help. In Torah he is referred to as Balak ben Zippor, Balak son of a bird. There was a reason for this, as he used to use bird's tongues in a skull , after preparation, to speak future events in the magic he used to perform. On one of his attempts ,a bird among these birds he used that would speak, got singed and he knew he needed help. It became known to him that the power of Israel was in their power of Moshe to Speak to G-D and so, he needed help from Bilaam, a man he knew had power of speech in cursing. He knew Bilaam from before, for Bilaam had once told Balak that he ( Balak ) would become ruler, and now Balak saw that to be true. He also knew that Bilaam, as a relative of Lavan, knew and hated Israel and would assist . So Balak sent messengers to Bilaam asking for help. Bilaam, had a special knowledge that others did not possess. This was his power to curse. 

This power came from the knowledge that Bilaam knew the exact moment of the day, when HaShem Would Judge the World and so, Bilaam knew the exact moment to try get HaShem's disfavour against us.But as our Gemorrah tells us, HaShem Decided ( Knowing this plan of Bilaam ) not to sit in Judgement that day.

Bilaam was in for the money and people came far and wide to get him to curse someone for them. Bilaam as I mentioned was a descendant of Lavan, with whom Yaakov had stayed many years and with whom, Lavan's sons wanted to kill Yaakov.Bilaam was the son of one of Lavan's sons and thus had a hatred for us. 

This was the Bilaam and Balak, where the name Balak has the root 'Bulah' which means 'destruction,' and the name of Bilaam has the root 'Belam,' - which means ' Stop,' for he tried to stop holiness and holy people .

So as I mentioned , Balak sent messengers to Bilaam and Bilaam asked them to stay the night, so that he could use them for negative forbidden purposes.This was the kind of man he was.He could have been a great prophet but he chose the evil path and never took advantage of the opportunity to be the prophet of the nations he could have been.

HaShem told Bilaam not to go and so Bilaam obeyed , still hoping that he could find a way to still go . Balak kept sending people of higher status, but Bilaam kept turning them down, hoping he could still find a way to go and also get more wealth out of the venture.

HaShem Knew Bilaam's evil intention, so HaShem Let him go only if he does as HaShem Wants. Bilaam , having other motives in his own mind ,hoped to change HaShem's Mind. HaShem Felt that if an evil man continues to push toward an evil path, then so be it, let them go to their own downfall. 

Bilaam being a descendant of Lavan, still had a running treaty with the descendants of Yaakov Klein as mentioned in the book of Bereishis where they had set up a mound not to cross over to harm the other, and it was this mound that Bilaam's donkey ( Created as it says in Pirkei Avos long before that at the Beginning ) pushed him against to remind him of this treaty but he still ignored it , being so intent to hurt us. 

In fact the donkey, seeing an angel trying to stop them, veered three times away from the path and Bilaam kept hitting his donkey.

A miracle occurred, and the Donkey spoke, reminding Bilaam how she was always helping Bilaam and would not have turned away unless there was a reason. In fact , the way the Donkey refers to itself as Bilaam's she- donkey let's us in on the ugly character of Bilaam, who used to use her for nefarious bestial evil practices. The angel showed itself and Bilaam saw it himself .

Again HaShem Allows him to go but only to say what HaShem Instructs him to say.

Bilaam and Balak meet and they try to work together to compliment each other's power, from where Bilaam knew when to curse and Balak knew where and so, the two of them kept setting up altars and bringing up offerings on the seven altars. Tanchuma tells us how these Seven altars that Bilaam set up alluded to the seven altars set up by seven holy people - Adam , Hevel ( Abel ) , Noach , Avraham , Yitzchak , Yaakov and Moshe .

Balak kept choosing the place for the altars to be set up from different vantage points , hoping to find a part or side of Israel, where there may be unholiness so they could use that to hurt us, but no matter where they went, our holiness shined through and they couldn't touch us or hurt us ( showing that purity and modesty and holiness guards against negativity and negative forces ) . In fact , even Bilaam himself remarked on our modesty for the way we set up our tents , was that the entrance to each of our tents always faced away from the entrance to the neighboring tent. So pure were we and modest in family purity and modesty of Tzinius. Such so that Bilaam remarked , "Mah Tovu Ohaleicha Yaakov Mishkenoteicha Yisrael," - " How Goodly are your tents O Jacob , your dwelling places O Israel." This verse appears near the beginning of our Shacharis Morning Davening, so true is this statement.

We notice how Balak's anger builds each time Bilaam makes a prophecy From HaShem in our favor, even to the point where Balak gets so angry with Bilaam that he knocks out one of Bilaam's eyes , which we notice , when Bilaam refers to himself as the one with the open 'eye' ( single eye ) and eventually after four long main prophecies, and also prophecies against the Moabites,Balak wants him to leave.It is then that they trick the Children of Israel into making an aveirah to try get HaShem angry, but the shining light of one holy man Pinchas brings again peace between HaShem and us.

In this Parsha and at this time of the Hebrew year, we are brought attention to the fact of how choices can change a person's destiny and holiness level.

On the one hand , we have the holy Moshe Rabbeinu, who reached heights no man has ever reached in holiness, to the point where he spoke with HaShem closer and clearer than anyone ever has, for Moshe chose HaShem and His Laws and Path and to follow HaShem.On the other hand, we have Bilaam , the prophet of the Nations, who with all his potential, chose rather the path of physicality and the path away from HaShem's Laws, where Bilaam wanted HaShem to follow his wish.

Moshe ended next to HaShem but Bilaam ended in failure. At this time of the Hebrew Calendar, when we remember the choice made to built a Chait ha Eigel, we remember where the wrong choice and path can lead us , Chas Ve Shalom . We all have a destiny to fulfill and the holy potential and choice to fulfill that destiny but the choice of where we choose to go, is left up to us and thus, the result and our destinies are in our own hands.

We can either follow the path of Bilaam and Balak , whose names as I mentioned earlier refers to destruction and stopping holiness, or we can follow the path HaShem Gave us through Moshe, whose name refers to ' 'drawing out' in reference to drawing out of the physical and coming closer to HaShem every day also from within . That is our task. That must always be our destinty. To come closer every day to our Creator and as Moshe did, to work to bring others closer to HaShem too.

The path of Bilaam and Balak leads to destruction like the destruction of both our Batei Hamikdoshim . The path to HaShem that Moshe taught us through HaShem's Laws in the Holy Torah and Tanach, leads to HaShem and Gan Eiden Shamaim.

Our destiny is ours to make. We have the free will to choose. So let us all always choose the path to HaShem and His Holy Torah and Holy Tanach Laws and sweet eternity in Gan Eiden Shamaim in the loving arms for Eternity of HaShem .

I wish HaShem a Sweet Beautiful Shabbos Kodesh with Love and to all a sweet beautiful Shabbos Kodesh with love and to all my fellow Jews who are fasting the Fast, a meaningful fast.

Blessed Shabbos Kodesh with love.