Torah Portion: Balak

 

Admitting Weakness
by Adam Lieberman

In this week’s Torah portion, a king named Balak wanted to curse the Jewish people. He sought out a prophet named Balaam to carry out this wish and sent his officers to summon him. Balaam asked God if he could go, but God immediately told him not to go and curse the Jewish people because they were a people who were “blessed.” But when Balaam relayed this answer to the king’s officers, Balaam left that part out and only said: “…God refuses to let me go with you.” (Numbers, 22:13)

A LIFE LESSON

God had told Balaam two distinct and specific points in response to his request to go and curse the Jewish people. First, God emphatically told Balaam not to go and second, to not curse the Jewish people because they are blessed. But when Balaam relayed this simple and brief response, he left out 50 percent of what God said!

God made it very clear to Balaam that it would be completely futile to even attempt to curse the Jews because they are a blessed nation. But to an arrogant and haughty prophet — which Balaam certainly was — he could never bring himself to admit his own powers lacked any limitations. So instead of telling the king’s delegates that Balaam was simply the wrong man for the job and would be completely ineffective and incapable of doing the king’s bidding, he chose to omit all of this and “pass the buck” to God by only saying that God said he wasn’t allowed to go.

It’s what Balaam purposely didn’t say that can teach us all a valuable lesson in our own lives. To most people, it’s clear that God gave each of us certain unique strengths and talents whereby certain things that just seem to “naturally” to us. But it is also equally clear that God didn’t give us certain skills and strengths. Whether we’re not good at math, directions, instruction manuals, drawing, or organization — we all have weaknesses. While some of these weaknesses are things we might continually work on to become better people, there are some things that we are just plain not good at, and that’s just how it is!

But those with low self-esteem have a difficult time ever admitting they lack any skill or ability. They wrongly believe that an acknowledgement of a lack of talent in any area would be a direct reflection on their own self-worth.

However, the exact opposite is true. Those who can readily and easily admit that they aren’t “good” at something aren’t showing weakness or incompetence. Rather, it demonstrates honesty, strength and self-confidence. Others will look at this person and see someone who is comfortable with the strengths and talents that they DO have and need not proclaim to all they meet that they’re good at everything.

Balaam was just too proud to admit he couldn’t do what someone had requested of him. Let’s learn from this the next time you’re asked to do something that you’re either not that skilled at or are outright incapable of doing. Contrary to what Balaam believed, telling people you’re not the right person for the job will actually make you shine in their eyes, because it means you have the confidence to say so.

It also sends the message that when you do take on a task, you unquestionably believe that you’ll deliver great results.

The Road Not Taken
by Rabbi Ari Kahn

The events recounted in Parashat Balak took place millennia ago, but so many of the elements of the story are all too familiar to the modern reader.

Although the actual conquest of the Land of Israel had not yet begun, there had already been a few military skirmishes between the Israelites and the tribes of Canaan and its environs. Generally, the conflicts centered around free passage through secure travel routes and use of water. Apparently things have not changed much in this part of the world.

The locals, an ad hoc coalition of erstwhile enemies, band together to wage war against the Jewish People, despite their age-old internecine warring. Motivated by fear of their common enemy, they resolve to mend their fractious ways in order to bar the Israelites’ return to their ancestral homeland – again, a scenario that continues to repeat itself to this very day.

As opposed to the earlier conflicts recorded in the Torah, which were limited battles over access to resources or roads, the conflict in Parashat Balak introduces elements of religion and plain, old-fashioned anti-Semitism (even though this term would be coined only thousands of years later, and the perpetrators in this particular episode were themselves Semites). The spokesperson for this coalition of tribes describes the People of Israel as a beast that destroys everything in its way, dehumanizing the Jews while giving voice to the locals’ fear and dread in a propaganda effort that has been imitated over and over again, from the middle ages through Nazi Germany. Interestingly, this characterization stands in stark contrast to the self-perception voiced by the spies only a few chapters earlier in the text, who reported that when they compared themselves to the inhabitants of the Land, they were like grasshoppers in their own eyes, and assumed that the locals saw them the same way.

Rather than employing the military tactics that these states surely had at their disposal, they choose to hire a soothsayer to curse the Jews. Apparently they know, or at least sense, that the Jewish people are blessed, and without some sort of major realignment, they will soon return to their homeland. Their strategy is to strip the children of Abraham of their Divine protection.

As the story unfolds, this Divine protection is tested – and proven effective: Bil’am’s calling card, the specialty he advertises, is a “skill set” purloined from the promise God made to Avraham: whomever he blesses will be blessed and whomever he curses will be cursed. In the end, God protects the Jews from the curses of the smooth-tongued, misanthropic seer Bil’am, who is humiliated when it becomes clear that not only is he incapable of effectively cursing the Jews but his own donkey sees more then he does, and is apparently more eloquent as well.

When the coalition that hired Bil’am finally accepts the failure of their plan, they launch “plan b,” which proves far more effective: The Jews forfeit their Divine protection, not because of the hate-filled words hissed by some sorcerer, but because of their own debased behavior. The Midianite and Moavite women, who are sent to seduce the Jewish men and entangle them in pagan worship, prove to be a far more formidable enemy than the self-important, self-aggrandizing Bil’am.

Unfortunately, these nations never considered the third option, “plan c,” as it were: Why not try peace? Why not reach out and offer co-existence? Balak and the tribes he represented were well-aware that the Israelites were a blessed nation, that they were protected by a Divine covenant, that they would soon be returning to their ancestral homeland, that God Himself desired this particular course of events. Why not join forces with the Jews? Why not enter an alliance with them, and benefit from the blessings that would surely result from a partnership with God’s chosen people? The power of the Jewish People was clear to them, as was the unique holiness of the Israelite way of life – but they were unwilling to embrace or even respect the holiness or defer to the power this holiness conferred upon the Jews. They chose, instead, to fight it. They were repulsed by the holiness, and the only plan they could conjure up was a plan of attack — either against the power of the Jewish People or against the holiness that gave them that power — but not a plan of peace. Once again, history lives.

For a more in-depth analysis see: http://arikahn.blogspot.com/2015/06/audio-and-essays-parashat-balak.html

 

Temper Control
by Nesanel Yoel Safran

Q. What life-lesson do you think Brad learned that day?
A. When something happened he didn’t like, he’d let his temper take control of him and ended up causing himself even more grief. It’s always worth it to try to stay calm even in the face of frustration.

Q. Is there anything a person can do to prevent himself from losing his temper?
A. It’s not easy, but if we combine trying to stay calm and trying to keep things in perspective, we can often succeed.

Ages 10 and Up

Q. Our sages say that losing one’s temper is equivalent to forgetting about God. What’s the connection?
A. God is very involved with all of our lives. He constantly sends us the situations we need in order to reach the maximum spiritual and personal growth, which is for our ultimate good. If we can remember that – and Him – even in the midst of life’s challenges, while we may at times feel frustrated, angry, or hurt, we are very unlikely to ‘lose it.’

Q. Is it healthy for a person to ‘blow off steam’ by losing his or her temper?
A. It might sometimes provide a feeling of temporary relief, but in the long run it always ends up damaging our health, character and the people around us.