In this week’s parasha, we read the story of how Bilaam and Balak attempted to obliterate the Jewish People by cursing them at a specific time. The Jews were totally unaware of the danger they were in and had no possible way of stopping it, but Hashem, the ???? ?????, our Guardian, protected us and instead of being cursed, Bilaam gave us the most beautiful blessings. Rabbi Menashe Reisman quoted from the sefer Ne’emnu Meod, authored by Rabbi Mordechai David Unger, who pointed out that there is not even one mitzvah to be found in this parasha, so he asked what is it coming to teach us? Furthermore, he asked why is the parasha named after a rasha like Balak. The Rabbi answered the second question first, bringing out a lesson. He explained, every one of us has a small piece of Balak inside of him. Balak who said,” ??? ???? ???? ????? ?? ????", which could be interpreted to mean, only focus on the weak points of yourself, don’t look at the whole picture, don’t look at your strong points. This is the yetzer hara of Balak. Everyone has weak points, everyone has struggles. The Balak inside of us wants us to get down on ourselves, to make us feel like we’re worthless. But Hashem stood up for us then and He said "?? ??? ??? ???? “– even when we’re in the dust, at our low times, we still do so many mitzvot. We still go to shul, we still put on tallet and tefilin, we still pray. The message is, we should focus on our strengths and grow from there. The Rabbi wrote, when we read this parasha, all of those people who are struggling with this problem of low self-esteem will have an extra Siyata DiShamaya to be lifted up. When we read Balak, we could correct the Balak inside of us. It is so important to recognize how much Hashem values each individual, how much Hashem invests in each individual. Every single day when we realize how important we are, it will help us live the way we’re meant to live. Regarding the lesson of the parasha, Rabbi Mordechai explained, Hashem wants to show us how much He loves us and that His love is not dependent on our deeds. The pasuk says, "??? ??? ?' ????? ?? ???? – Hashem didn’t want to listen to Bilaam. Not only did Hashem not allow Bilaam to harm us, He couldn’t even bear, kavayachol, to listen to him say anything bad about us. The Divreh Chaim explained with a mashal. If, let’s say, a man named Joe would say lashon hara about Ralph to Ralph’s friend, the friend might listen and then try to defend Ralph. But if Joe would attempt to say lashon hara about Ralph to someone who loves him so much, that person would stop him right away and say, “I can’t listen to what you’re saying, please don’t continue.” The pasuk says Hashem couldn’t even listen to Bilaam talk about us because He loves us so much. Hashem put the words in Bilaam’s mouth "?? ???? ??? ?????" which means, even when we sin, Hashem still has mercy on us and deals with us with more love than a father could ever have for a child. The Divreh Chaim writes further, based on a Gemara, that Hashem is so happy to show us favoritism, mida kineged mida, because when things happen to us that appear to be bad, we say we’ll overlook the way it appears to be and we’ll still love Hashem to same. We have such great people who go through hard times and their love for Hashem only increases. So Hashem says to us, “I know that you have sins on your record and you don’t look so good right now, but I don’t want to hear about them.” Hashem hopes we’ll make teshuva so we could eventually erase our sins. For now, His love is still the same. Hashem rescued us from Bilaam and Balak, even though we were not worthy of being saved, and Hashem continues to save us even until this day even though we are not worthy. When we come to pray for Hashem’s help, we’re supposed to feel like we’re asking for kindness, not because we’re worthy. And therefore, tefila is for everyone because Hashem gives kindness to everyone. The sefer Ne’emnu Meod added, anyone who is being harassed by authorities or government officials, should delve deeply into this week’s parasha, Balak, and then, b’ezrat Hashem, Hashem will change their attitude from ????-curses to beracha, just like He did when those authorities, Balak and Bila’am tried to harm us. May we only see berachot and yeshuot. Shabbat Shalom.
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