Reb Neuberger: BALAK – Torah Is The Fence of The World

 TORAH IS THE FENCE OF THE WORLD

In this week’s Parsha, Rashi asks why Hashem saw fit to “rest His Shechina on [Bilaam] a wicked non-Jew.” He answers from Medrash Tanchuma that Hashem wanted to prevent the [non-Jewish] nations from having an excuse for their evil by saying, “if we would have had prophets [like Israel] then we would have repented.”

 

But Bilaam hated Hashem and Hashem’s Holy Nation, Am Yisroel. Rashi says that, because of Bilaam’s influence, the nations “partzu geder ha olam … breached the fence of the world,” meaning that Bilaam advised the nations of the world to abandon themselves to licentiousness and immorality.

 

My friends, please listen to this language: “They breached the fence of the world.”

 

A fence protects us. The Grand Canyon has a rim which, on the north and south sides, totals about two hundred miles. Only a few feet of that rim, in highly congested areas, has a fence. The rest is open; one misstep and you can fall five thousand feet into the chasm.

 

The Grand Canyon is dangerous.

 

The world is fenced in when its inhabitants abide by the laws of morality as spelled out in the Torah. But if that fence is breached, G-d forbid, all protection is removed. When the fence of morality was breached in the days of Noach, the entire world was destroyed by the Great Flood.

 

Right now, the nations of the world have removed the fence. I am sorry to say -- but this is simply the Truth as written in the Torah – that our protection has been removed and there is nothing standing in the way of worldwide catastrophe.

 

Nothing but Torah.

 

If we hang on to Torah, we can beg Hashem to protect us, but we should know that our contemporary world is dangerous beyond understanding.

 

This Sunday is the Seventeenth Day of the Month of Tammuz, a Fast Day which initiates the Three Weeks, the most tragic period in the Jewish Calendar. I want to tell you a story about an incident which happened to me a few weeks ago. As well as demonstrating how fasting can ameliorate our sins, it also shows clearly that Heaven fulfills the decrees of our rabbis. We have to know that clinging to the words of our rabbis is our only protection, our fence.

 

Several weeks ago, I had my tefillin checked. While they were being checked, I had to borrow a pair from a gemach. The borrowed tefillin were very big and old (of course, kosher without question) and I found them difficult to use. One day, as I put them on, I dropped the bag containing the tefillin on the ground.  The tefillin were inside the bag, but the entire bag had dropped on the floor.

Needless to say, I was shocked and terribly upset. I had a question for a rabbi: what do I do? Do I fast the way one would fast if a Sefer Torah had dropped G-d forbid? Do I give tzedakah? What do I do?

 

I wanted to ask a certain great rabbi, but I was afraid he would tell me to fast and I did not feel up to a full-day fast. I felt that I should give tzedakah, but I waited before consulting a rabbi. A few days later, I discussed this entire question with my chavrusa, Rabbi Shaul Geller. Rabbi Geller told me that, years ago, he had asked this exact question to the rabbi I was originally going to ask, and that rabbi had said to fast. Rabbi Geller had been surprised by his answer, because the Mishna Berura seems to say that giving tzedakah is sufficient in a case like this, but the rabbi had said to fast and Rabbi Geller had not asked for further clarification.

 

I spoke to Rabbi Geller on Thursday. On Shabbos afternoon, two days later, I began to feel unwell. I excused myself during the Daytime Seudah and went to bed. For the next twenty-four hours I could hardly get out of bed. I could not eat and I could not even drink water. I was so weak that I could only lie in bed and groan. Finally, on Sunday, my wife took me to a doctor. He suspected possible appendicitis, so, at 10:30 pm, we checked into the Emergency Room at Shaarei Tzedek Hospital, where we spent the next eleven hours.

 

At 4 a.m. I had a CT scan which came out negative … no appendicitis. In the course of this examination, however, I was given a certain medicine, and … all of a sudden … I was completely cured!

 

Then it hit me!

 

The rabbi had told Rabbi Geller that a fast was decreed in this case. The rabbi had not told me directly, so I had not fasted. But that was not good enough for the Heavenly Court! The Rabbi said “fast,” and I had not fasted, so the Heavenly Court decreed a fast upon me! I could not eat or even swallow water for over twenty-four hours!

 

The fast happened and it was way beyond my control.

 

My friends, our entire life is decreed from Heaven. The fence has been breached and our world is in deep trouble. We must follow the dictates of Heaven -- as explained by our great rabbis -- in order to save ourselves. We cannot control events, but we can control ourselves if we try hard enough. “Everything is in the hands of Heaven except the fear of Heaven.” (Berachos 33b) The only thing over which we have control is our fear of Heaven.

 

Those who hold fast to Torah and the words of our rabbis can hope to see the Great Redemption, with the rebuilding of the Bais Hamikdosh and the coming of Moshiach ben Dovid, may we greet him soon in our days!

GLOSSARY

Chavrusa: Torah study partner

Chessed: Acts of kindness

Gemach: an organization that supplies needed items free of charge as an act of chessed

Shechina: The Presence of G-d

Seudah: Shabbos meal

Tzedaka: Charity

The Grand Canyon

Rabbi Winston: Parshat Balak – “That could never happen in America!”

AS THE EXPRESSION goes, “Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it.” 

The story of Bilaam is a classic example of how someone can want something so badly that they endanger themselves to get it. The story of Bilaam and Balak is a classic example of how people can confuse hope with reality, and lose everything as a result.

On a speaking trip to the States about a decade ago, I was confronted by someone from the audience. I was trying to explain how what happened in Europe to the Jews could happen to the Jews spread out across the Western world today. He didn’t like that, and protested saying, “That could never happen in America!”

So I asked him, “You know that for a fact, or you HOPE that it is true?” He paused to think for a moment, and realizing that he had not based his opinion on solid evidence, he backed down…somewhat. 

Realizing that he wasn’t going to abandon his opinion that quickly, and that others in the audience shared it, I asked him why he thought American Jewry was safer than pre-Holocaust European Jewry. He cited some observations and opinions, but each one had its parallel in pre-Holocaust history, and his argument lost its steam. 

After that, I explained how antisemitism is not just another form of racism, but something more supernatural, and therefore, less predictable. I gave examples of how quickly in the past host populations have gone from being civil and friendly to their Jewish communities to being antisemitic and hostile. The argument, I had thought and apparently others as well, was pretty conclusive.

However, I did not hear from the “protester” the rest of the evening, nor did he stay around after to ask questions. I have no idea where he went after in his thinking, whether he took to heart what I had said, or just forgot about it once he left the talk. Unfortunately, it is only natural to not take danger seriously until it is too late to stop it, like when they come knocking on the doors to take Jews away.

At the right time, hope is an asset that can lead to great results. At the wrong time, it can be a death trap. Bilaam had really hoped that somehow he would be able to overcome all the obstacles to cursing the Jewish people, and become even more famous and richer. Instead he failed miserably, losing his reputation and then finally his life.

Likewise, for a decade as Hitler, ysv”z, rose to power, European Jews hoped that he would never become strong enough to make good on his plan to rid Germany, and then the world, of Jewry. And as the situation worsened, they had hoped that it would it would turn around for the better. Little did they know just how much worse it would get.

HE HADN’T HOPED blindly. Bilaam had understood that there were things he had to do to try and influence the outcome, to increase the odds that his hope could become reality. For example:

In the morning Bilaam arose, saddled his she-donkey and went with the Moabite dignitaries. (Bamidbar 22:21) 

From here [we learn] that hate causes a disregard for the standard [of dignified conduct], for he saddled it himself. The Holy One, Blessed Is He, said, “Wicked one, their father Avraham has already preceded you, as it says, ‘Avraham arose in the morning and saddled his donkey’” (Bereishis 22:3). (Rashi)

So what? Avraham was not the first or last dignitary in history to have saddled his own donkey. What difference does it make if Bilaam did, and why is that another reason to criticize him? 

Because, unlike Avraham, Bilaam was full of himself. He was egotistical that it was particularly unusual for him to degrade himself so. Furthermore, Avraham was on his way to do an act of great self-sacrifice, and saddled his own donkey to show his zealousness to fulfill the will of G–D. Bilaam was zealous to change the will of G–D, and go against it if necessary. 

So why did Bilaam do it? Because his distorted perception of reality told him that if wanted to overcome the merits of the forefathers, he had to mimic them in his own way, for his own purpose. This is why he is called “wicked one,” because there is little more wicked than taking something that is meant for good and using it for bad. 

Like building altars and offering sacrifices on them. In those days when gentiles did that, it was usually for idol worship. Balak and Bilaam offered sacrifices to G–D, normally a very holy and righteous thing. But Balak and Bilaam did it to curse the people that G–D had blessed, a very unholy and evil thing. 

That was Balak and Bilaam. The Jews of the Diaspora have built shuls, chadarim, yeshivos, and chesed organizations for the right reasons. But these cannot become reasons to stay in golus when the time has come to leave, because then these start to exist for the wrong reasons. In Europe, most of them were destroyed, and there were some horrifying cases when Jews died trapped inside of them.

Sometimes we can “use” mitzvos to buy favor with G–D, and even use them to avert an “evil” decree. But other times doing so can have just the opposite effect, in particular if a decree is already set in motion. Then they can even worsen the situation.

WHILE WE CELEBRATE Bilaam’s failure to curse the Jewish people, we tend to forget his success. It was his plan to send the daughters of Midian into the Jewish camp that led to 24,000 from the tribe of Shimon dying from plague, and 176,000 being executed by the Sanhedrin for idol worship. 

Though Bilaam was killed in the soon-to-follow battle against Midian, his “legacy” lives on past him until this very day. So many Jews today who reject Eretz Yisroel have no idea that the materialism that stands in their way of making aliyah, or even just wanting to, was Bilaam’s doing long, long ago.

The Shem M’Shmuel explains that the goal of Balak and Bilaam was to keep the Jewish people from crossing the Jordan river as a nation. Had all 600,000 males between the ages of 20 and 60 crossed the Jordan at one time and conquered and settled it together, the Sitra Achra would have been neutralized. As a result, the final redemption would have occurred, and evil would have been destroyed. It would have been the end of the likes of Balak and Bilaam.

They already knew they could not destroy the Jewish people, as the defeat of Sichon and Og made clear. They learned that they could not curse the Jewish people, as Bilaam’s failure revealed. The only option left that had any chance of working was to make the Jewish people their own worst enemy, and historically that always seems to work.

That means getting the Jewish people to sin. If the Jewish people can be enticed to sin, then G–D will stop protecting them and they will become vulnerable to “natural” forces of destruction. It might be an invading army, or might be a plague, but either way, G–D will do something to express His displeasure about the spiritual deterioration of the nation.

Even though Bilaam was from Midian, as was Balak before he was “hired” to be king of Moav to deal with the “Jewish Problem,” Midianite women were chosen for a specific reason. The negative spiritual reality that drove their way of live was ta’avah, an innate desire for material pleasures. It was Midian's specialty, and Balak and Bilaam knew it was the one “klipah” (negative spiritual trait) that could make Eretz Yisroel look less appealing to a Jew than the Diaspora.

THEY GOT TO witness one part of their plan working. The tribe of Shimon acted promiscuously with Midianite women and 24,000 died by plague. Others were enticed to idol worship, and 176,000 were executed by Bais Din. Had Pinchas not stepped in and killed Zimri in his famous act of zealousness, the numbers would have been a lot higher.

What they did not live to see was the tribes of Reuven and Gad, with half of the tribe of Menashe, later asking to live on the east side of the Jordan. All kinds of reasons are given for what they had been thinking, to make such a request after the original episode of the spies doomed them to 39 extra years in the desert. But the bottom line was a material one: the land east of the Jordan appeared to them to be better suited for raising their cattle.

Boom! That was it! The fulfillment of the dynamic duo of destruction’s plan. The requisite 600,000 males did not settle the land together, the redemption did not occur, and Reuven, Gad, and half of Menashe were the first tribes hauled off into exile when it finally came. And here we sit today, thousands of years later, waiting for the final redemption. Once again, materialism is the key issue for many who reject aliyah.

Some would argue that aliyah is a “Zionist thing,” and feel justified for avoiding it. The Zionists just made aliyah more fashionable in recent years, but aliyah has always been a Jewish thing, and the tendency to allow materialism to cloud the issue, a Bilaam thing. Ya’akov Avinu made that clear when he gave this world to Eisav on a silver platter, and only took what he “earned” in Eretz Yisroel down to Egypt with him. 

It’s not that Bilaam caused the Jewish people to like materialism. It is only human to do so. It’s that he got the Jewish people to like it so much that it could become more important than the spiritual. “I would never be able to have as many guests for Shabbos, or feed them as well,” an anti-aliyah person told me once, “if we moved to Eretz Yisroel!” 

And therefore?

Hachnasas orachim—having guests, as the Talmud says, is like welcoming the Shechinah, and a hugely important mitzvah, especially on Shabbos and Yom Tov. But making Shabbos and Yom Tov in Eretz Yisroel is Shabbos and Yom Tov on an even higher level. Besides, as we learn from Avraham Avinu at the beginning of Parashas Vayaira, if a person wants guests badly enough, G–D will make it work. 

That goes for any mitzvah as well. It doesn’t really make sense that G–D would help a person move to His favorite land and then deny them a chance to do mitzvos while there. If anything, aliyah might mean a shift in priorities and an emphasis on different mitzvos that we have been used to focusing on. In the end, the only thing that counts is, that we have done what G–D wanted us to do, not what we wanted G–D to want us to do.

Therefore, even though Balak and Bilaam are long gone, their plan still lives on. And who knows, perhaps they have reincarnated, just as the generation of the desert and the Erev Rav have, to strengthen their old plan. And if we’re going to continue to be our own worst enemy, then we do Balak’s and Bilaam's work for them, and pay the price for it as well.

Rabbi Kahana: Balak – The Root of Our Fears

 BS”D 

Parashat Balak 5781

Rabbi Nachman Kahana

The Root of our Fears

The world’s most advanced engineering company has just designed and completed its most complex outer space satellite. It was the combined minds of hundreds of engineers, computer experts and technicians in creating thousands of new parts and elements designed to work in synchrony without a loss of even one split second between its many stages. Now after years of planning and assembling, the apparatus is ready for operation.

At this moment the apparatus is a dead conglomerate of wires, transistors etc., lacking the energy to bring it alive when all the elements will begin interacting to their full capacity. The press of a button and the flow of electrons will bring it life.

5781 years, 9 months and 12 days ago on the first of Tishrei year one, HaShem completed the initial elements of His world: Gan Eden, Adam, Chava and the Nachash (snake). 

According to Chazal (our rabbis) Adam and Chava became alive at 3 PM in Paradise and met the nachash. By 6 PM they had all sinned and were expelled into the reality that we call “this world”.

Adam, Chava and the Snake were strangers to each other, but the goal that HaShem intended for them was to interact and begin what we call “society”. What was the “energy” that HaShem introduced into the trio that began the interaction between man, woman and the snake?

It was the energy called “Fear”. Fear stemming from who they were.

Adam feared the limiting human constraints imposed on him by the Creator and sought to achieve G–Dly qualities, as stated in parashat Bereishiet (3,22):

ויאמר ה’ א-להים הן האדם היה כאחד ממנו לדעת טוב ורע ועתה פן ישלח ידו ולקח גם מעץ החיים ואכל וחי לעלם

And the Lord G–D said: Man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever.

Chava feared her future being secondary to Adam from who she was formed.

The Nachash lusted Chava and feared his unfulfilled future existence.

The fear that gripped each of the three initiated the attitude of each one to himself and to the others. Their fears formed the future competition and rivalry between individuals and between nations and the blood lust history of Mankind.

 

Fear of One’s Personal Welfare

In our parasha, Balak takes Bil’am to a place overlooking the Jewish encampment from where Bil’am will be able to curse the entire Jewish Nation. Bil’am disappoints when instead of cursing, the evil sorcerer blessed the Jews. At this point Balak should have realized that Bil’am would not bring him victory; however instead of sending Bil’am away, Balak takes him to another area from where he would be able to view the Jews. However, Bil’am again blesses them, and surprisingly, Bil’am is taken to a third overlook where he blesses the Jews again.

How bizarre that Balak repeats his disappointment three times.

However, Balak was one smart goy. The entourage of Balak and Bil’am were high above the Jordan lowlands where the Jews could not hear what was going on the mountains of Moav. But Balak knew that they were able to discern the machinations and hand motions that were going on atop the mountain. Balak knew that the Jews below would conclude that they were being cursed.

Balak’s intentions were to put fear in the hearts of the Jews, that it would be sufficient to weaken their resolve to militarily conquer the Canaanites.

Here again fear for one’s personal welfare would corrupt and turn one away from fear of Hashem even after witnessing the great miracles that Hashem had performed over the last 40 years.

 

Today’s Many Forms of Fear

Unfortunately, what is preventing mass aliya to the holy land is the multiple mass fears the Jews of the galut experience; fear of change, fear of financial failure, fear what their neighbors will think about their “irrational behavior” on making aliya, etc.

The leadership of our Medina is gripped with many forms of fear. If not for their fear of what the world might say, we would have long ago destroyed Hamas of Azza. A strong hand against the local Arabs, that would overcome fear of being called an apartheid state, would force the Arab terrorists to behave as a minority should.

HaShem expects the Jewish nation to live with trust in Him, without fear of the goy.

However, there is a positive side to fear which I will put forth, next week be”H.

Shabbat Shalom

Have a meaningful fast this coming Sunday, the 17 of Tamuz.

JLMM

Nachman Kahana

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