Beis Yaakov, Parshas Balak

(talking donkey)
No, not Billam and Balak, chas ve'shalom, but thats me on the
right with the striped tsitsit shirt and Ely, who Shlomo Carlebach
dubbed, "the Mei HaShiloach of Boston," standing in the Mei Hashiloach
in Jerusalem.

Teachings from the Beit Yaakov,
(The Rav, the Genius, the Famous branch of the Most Precious) the son of Mordechai Yosef of Isbitz, the, "Mei HaShiloach," ZTsuKLLH"H,
may their merit protect us.
Good Shabbos!

Parshat Balak

“And Balak son of Tsippor saw…” (Numbers, 22:2)
This is understood through the verse (Psalms, 85:9), “but I wish to hear what G-d the Almighty will say when He will proclaim peace for His people and for his devoted one.” (Tr. Hirsch) The prophet, in his prophetic understanding, wanted to know what the Holy One, blessed be He, was thinking to Himself. He then understood that He is only involved in the well being of Israel. This is explained in the explanation of the Mei Hashiloach (the author’s father), of this verse in the Psalms. Even at a time when G-d effuses the spirit of prophecy unto the prophet, this is not a proof that this is what is going on in G-d’s mind, as it were, at that time. It could be that it is the prayers of Israel that influence the prophet to make this prophecy, and also that the prophet wants the well being of Israel. However, from this Parsha, we see that the evil Bilaam wanted to curse them, and exerted himself greatly towards this. But nonetheless, he was forced to pronounce great blessings over Israel even against his will. This is proof positive that the Holy One, blessed be He, is only involved in the well being of Israel.

And thus, concerning the day of Shabbat, which G-d gave us for rest, it is written (Vayikra Rabba, 34:16), “one does not pray for his material needs on Shabbat. If so, why do we say in the Grace after meals, ‘Our Shepherd, sustain us, give us sustenance?’ Because this is the language of the formula for blessings.” If the Holy One, blessed be He, were not occupied on Shabbat with the material well being of Israel, then the language of the formula for blessings would have been different. And truly, the Holy One, blessed be He, is always occupied with the betterment of Israel, yet on Shabbat, He is giving the divine flow of His goodness for the entire week. In this way the divine flow of blessing is much stronger on Shabbat. Therefore we do not pray for this on Shabbat (as the blessing is already there in great intensity).

So it is, every day, at the time when Israel accepts upon them the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven and delivers all their souls, hearts and wealth (cf. The Shema) over to G-d. Then they even deliver over the power of prayer within them over to G-d, in order not to pray for something that is not according to His will. And then, at that very moment, G-d gives them power for the entire day. Then he bestows upon them the power to pray before Him properly. This being done, when they later go after the ways of the body, there too G-d will protect them as not to deviate from His will. This is all because they crowned G-d as their King, truly and with a full heart, with all their souls, hearts, and possessions.

However, with the nations of the world, they do not have the power to truly crown G-d over them as their King. It seems as if they deliver themselves over, like Bilaam saying, “the word that G-d puts in my mouth I will say,” but still, he only asked for the power of prophecy, thinking that later he could succeed in changing G-d’s mind. This is the matter of sorcery, which denies the decree of the Council on High. (Chullin, 7b) (And the very word in Hebrew for sorcery, “KeshaFiM,” is an abbreviation of, “Kechish Famalia Ma’ala – deny the Hosts of Heaven.”) In any place where there is not, “hashgacha pratit,” or individual providence and involvement, there is a little bit of the ability to change things according to how we see them. This is called, “Nachash,” or divination, which teaches of an artificial manipulation of the way life seems to be. This was Bilaam’s occupation. This is as it is written in the holy Zohar (Balak, 199a), “bless at this level, and then curse the wick.” The Holy One, blessed be He, is the light. The Torah is the oil. And Israel is called the wick. (Tikunei Zohar, Tikun 21) Bilaam asserted that he could bless G-d, and then simply separate the wick from the oil. This is as it is said in the holy Zohar (ibid. on Numbers, 22:6, “come now, I pray thee, curse the people,” with, “come now,” being the letters of, “lecha,” or, “to KO.” “Ko,” meaning, “thus,” as in the statement of the prophets, “thus spake the Lord,” contains mystical significance explained in the Zohar.), “I will call out to KO (thus), and I will conduct and draw to this level.” This is as it is explained later in the holy Zohar (Balak, 211a), “I will call out to this KO and I will uproot this KO.” “KO,” represents the formation of the covenant which G-d wrought with our forefathers, with the words of G-d to Avraham (Genesis, 15:5), “KO – thus will be your progeny.” “KO,” is also numerically equivalent to twenty-five, and thus also represents the unification of G-d in the twenty five letters of the, “Shema Yisroel.” (Tikkunei Zohar, Tikkun 5, at the end.) In these twenty-five letters, Israel is unified with G-d.

Bilaam thought that he could nullify the covenant which the Holy One, blessed be He, wrought with forefathers. He saw how G-d had formed a covenant with Noach, and then later formed a covenant with Avraham. This was possible because the covenant formed with Noach concerned proper conduct, but not the words of Torah, as is explained in the Mei Hashiloach (the author’s father, in Vol. 1, Parshat Noach). Later, the covenant that G-d formed with Avraham concerned the words of Torah. Bilaam believed that the covenant wrought with Israel could be nullified, and then G-d would form a covenant with him. He did not realize that the covenant formed with Avraham was established to last forever, for it concerned words of Torah. The essence of the covenant formed with Avraham was in order to forever bind the hearts of Israel to G-d, and how could this be nullified?

G-d now showed Bilaam that he is not doing anything with completeness (as was the covenant with Avraham). When Bilaam accepted upon himself the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven, he was only doing this in order to deceive, to receive power from G-d, and then go with it to do whatever his heart desired. This is as it is written in the Gemara (Menachot, 110a), “they call Him, ‘the G-d of gods.’ ” This means that they know that they surely must crown G-d as the Sovereign of the Universe, but they are then deluded into thinking that they still have the power of action (based on the idolatry of lower created power). The princes of the nations call G-d in this way for the purpose of deception. (In this way, they can claim allegiance to monotheism and continue to serve idols.)

Bilaam had witnessed the miracles of the Exodus from Egypt. At that time he had advised Pharaoh to destroy Israel (Sotah, 11a). Then when he saw how they were redeemed, his wrath was kindled. Then, when he saw how he successfully cursed Moav, he assumed that he was G-d fearing, and that G-d would do his will. However, he feared cursing Israel at the outset, because he saw how Israel was beloved of G-d, as they were victorious over Sichon. Therefore he sat and waited for one of the nations to hire him, thereby having an excuse to fulfill his desire to go and curse Israel.

Specifically in the ninth verse of this Parsha it is written, “and Bilaam said to G-d, Balak son of Tsippor, the king of Moav, sent for me.” The ninth verse of every Parsha contains a deep intention, as is explained in the Mei Hashiloach. (see Parshat Devarim, under the verse, “I alone cannot bear you.” There, the Tashlum, or emendations on the Mei Hashiloach say that the ninth hints at the attribute of Yoseph the Tsaddik, {the sefirah of} Yesod-foundation, and there is something hidden within it. This is as it says in the Holy Zohar {Bereshit, 3a}, ‘{because nine is the Hebrew letter tet, the first letter in “tov” or good} letter tet, your good is closed within you and hidden within you.) G-d said to Bilaam, “only the word which I place in your mouth shall you say.” This was in order that he not believe he could deviate from the will of G-d. This is proof that G-d only desires the well being of Israel. (That is, in telling him, no matter how much you want to curse them, I will make sure that you only bless them, because I only desire their well being, and I want to show this to the world. This is the deep intention of the ninth verse of this Parsha.)

It is written in the Gemara (Baba Batra, 14b), “Moshe wrote his book (the five books of Moses), Parshat Balak, and the book of Job.” This is proof that within the entire Torah there is no awakening of the promise of Israel’s welfare from the side of Moshe, but only from G-d alone. (In other words, Moshe wrote of events that he was not even involved in, as in Parshat Balak and the book of Job. Therefore he was only an instrument of G-d, not writing from his own mind. Therefore the promises in the Torah are also only from G-d.) Even in places where some wanted to deviate from the will of G-d, they could not. G-d’s will remained fixed permanently in the heart of Israel as the inheritance of their forefathers. This is the essence of the formation of the covenant, that the heart of Israel was always cleaving G-d. So too, in the future, the real test between Israel and the nations will be the commandment of the Succa (Avoda Zara, 3a). This is explained in the Mei Hashiloach (Vol. 1, Parshat Emor). The mitsvah of Succa requires one to leave a permanent dwelling and live in a temporary dwelling. This means that man must nullify his own consciousness before the consciousness of G-d. All of man’s own desires must be nullified (and he must go wherever G-d takes him). This is impossible for the nations. The Gemara explains that G-d offered the Torah to the nations first, and they said, “first tell us what is in it.” He said, “there is a small mitsvah that you must do, and it is called Succa.” So they made temporary booths and moved into them. Then G-d took the sun out of its sheath and made it too hot to sit in the Succa. Upon leaving the Succa, the nations kicked it, disgusted by it, thinking, “G-d gave us a mitsvah, and now it is impossible to fulfill it, so therefore we revile the mitsvah.” But the Jew he is only concerned with what G-d wants from him, and will gladly leave the Succah in order to fulfill the will of G-d.