parshat Balak

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no creditA Very Pessimistic Man
Bilaam was a brilliant, critical, and pessimistic person who knew how to identify a weak point at any given moment.
  • A Tiny Part of the Picture
    The majority are good. The minority are evil. Stay away from the "Bilams" and "Bilamism"; get closer to Moses our Teacher.
  • My Personal Revelation
    We generally relate to a ‘revelation of Eliyahu' as a profound moment in which Eliyahu the Prophet himself appears to us with a message. But is this really so? What is the personal and communal revelation of Eliyahu to all Jews of the world?
  • The Curse of Loneliness
    The battle against antisemitism can be won, but it will not be if Jews believe that we are destined to be alone. That is Bilaam’s curse, not God’s blessing.
  • Extras In Our Own Epic
    There’s something unusual about Parshat Balak. It’s the only parsha in the Torah where the Jewish People, the “stars of the show” seem to only have a “walk-on” part. We see Bilam and Balak close up as they plot to destroy the Jewish People, but Israel is only seen in the background – almost off-camera. Why is this?
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    The Curse of Loneliness
    The battle against antisemitism can be won, but it will not be if Jews believe that we are destined to be alone. That is Bilaam’s curse, not God’s blessing.
  • A Prophet for the Nations
    As far as spiritual power, Bilam was a giant. Chazal derive that in prophecy he was on par with Moshe. Yet, there was a huge chasm between them.
  • Enemy's Compliments
    This week's Torah reading abounds in compliments given to the Jewish people by the leading prophet of the non-Jewish world, Bilaam.
  • Leadership and Loyalty
    Is leadership a set of skills, the ability to summon and command power? Or does it have an essentially moral dimension also? Can a bad person be a good leader, or will their badness compromise their leadership?
  • You Better Think
    If you look at this Parsha in a Sefer Torah, you will immediately notice that Bilaam’s narrative is written in “block form” without the usual open spaces (parsha “breaks”) that are found in most Parshiyot.
  • Balak - A Mouse Hole
    The Talmud comments it is not the mouse that is a thief, but, rather, it is the hole in the wall that allows the mouse entry into the house that is the culprit. the villain in this week's Torah reading is Bilaam, yet, it is Balak who initiates the entire scenario.
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