Weekly D'var

PARASHAT BALAK
Steven Adelman

The parsha today is Balak. I will be focusing on one issue: how G-d’s blessing of the Jewish people has prevented their destruction at the hands of a nation’s leader who planned to kill Jews.

We start with the fact that the King of the Moabites, Balak, was afraid of the rapidly growing Jewish community, which he considered a potential threat to his kingdom. He decided to put an end to the threat of this people -- who worshipped an all-powerful, invisible G-d -- by seeking out Balaam – a non-Jewish prophet who was on speaking terms with the G-d of the Jewish people.

Notably, Balak didn’t try to convince Balaam to talk to this invisible G-d in an effort to convince G-d to put an end to this perceived threat of the Jews. Instead Balak sent a succession of emissaries to ask Balaam to curse the Jews – for Balak truly believed, based on prior events, that anyone Balaam cursed was cursed, and anyone Balaam blessed was blessed. In his mind, if Balaam cursed the Jews, Balak was confident that he could defeat them in battle and destroy the Jewish people.

While Balaam was considering what to do about the King’s request for a curse, G-d told Balaam: “If these men [i.e., Balak’s emissaries] come to call for you, arise and go with them, but whatever I tell you, you must do.”

The Parsha spends a great deal of time informing us that Balaam did try to curse the Jewish people.  But, each time, the words that came out were a blessing for the Jews, not a curse. The third attempted curse came out as follows (with just a little editing by me to shorten it): “How goodly are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling place, O Israel! They will extend like streams…. Water will flow from your wells.  Your seed will have abundant water….  Your kingdom will be exalted.” Significantly, the opening line – “How goodly are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling place, O Israel” -- commonly referred to as the “Mah tovu” -- is the prayer generally said when entering a synagogue – and, as children, we generally learned it as a song that we sang with our classmates at various events.  Fortunately for all of you, I will not subject you to my atrocious singing voice.

Does this story of an evil leader wanting to destroy the Jewish people remind anyone of current times?   It should.  As soon as I re-read this Parsha it struck me that we have been listening to the Ayatollahs and their adherents curse the State of Israel and the Jewish people for more than 40 years.  For example, the Simon Wiesenthal Institute put the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameni, at the top of 2013’s top 10 “Antisemitic and Anti-Israel list.” The Ayatollah has called Israel “the rabid dog of the Region,” he has said that Israelis should not be called humans, he has called the World’s Jews a “cancerous tumor” that should be “uprooted and destroyed.” Ayatollah Khameini posted on twitter (before it became “X”) that “the Zionists have always been a plague, even before establishing the Fraudulent Zionist Regime.” He has frequently called for the destruction of the State of Israel and the death of all Jews who reside there.

So how does the plan of Ayatollah Ali Khameini differ from Balak’s plan?  Well, the ultimate goal was the same; only the method was different.  Balak tried to use a powerful prophet who could talk to G-d to deliver the Jews to him so that it would be easy to kill them all.  But he was wrong – G-d would not allow Balaam to curse the Jews; instead, Hashem caused Balaam to bless the Jews. Supreme Leader Khameni tried to accomplish his evil intent by using vicious terrorists, such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad, to attack and kill the Jews in Israel.  And he has sought to develop a nuclear weapon capable of destroying all the Jews in the Zionist State – even if it also would kill millions of Arabs. But, it now seems as if Khameni’s plot to kill the Jewish people and destroy the State of Israel has failed – hopefully forever.  When I wrote that line over 2 weeks ago, I was concerned that world events would cause me to change not only that hopeful line, but perhaps much of this D’var.  I am very grateful that the ceasefire has lasted and some progress has been made on a path to a lasting peace.

And, in my mind, the miraculous defeat of Iran and its proxies raises the question of whether this is another one of the long history of miracles saving the Jewish people. We are all familiar with the series of miracles that saved us from Egyptian slavery. The miracle of the Maccabees.  And other miracles of our survival after defeats by the Babylonians, the Assyrians, and the Romans. In fact, this is not even the first time that the mass killing of Jews was stopped in Persia, which is the predecessor to Iran – we can’t forget the hanging of Haman instead of the hanging of the Jewish community by King Ahasuerus.  Now, add the miracles during the lifetime of many of us – the defeat of 5 huge Arab populations against the tiny Jewish community in 1947 and 1948, the 6-day war in 1967 against overwhelmingly large armies, the defeat of Egypt following its attack on Israel during Yom Kippur, the miracle in the past 2 years of the IDF significantly degrading Hamas and Hezbollah, and now, tiny Israel – with a population of approximately 8 million Jews --  gaining air superiority over Iran with its population of more than 90 million people and land space of over 640,000 square miles compared to Israel’s less than 9,000 square miles.  Additionally, the number of Israelis killed and injured during the last 2 years has been but a small fraction of the Gazans and Iranians killed or injured from the missiles, bombs, and gunfire between this Jewish David and Muslim Goliath.

All of these victories – ancient and modern – support the conclusion that the Jewish people have been blessed since the time of Abraham.  Obviously, we have not been blessed on every day throughout our history. The expulsions, the pogroms, the Nazis, have certainly taken a toll.  But yet we have survived as a people and as a religion, and we have returned to our ancient homeland despite the obstacles and adversity we have faced.

We have been taught the miracle of the victory over Balak in biblical times, and now we see for ourselves the victory over a modern day Balak – the Ayatollah Ali Khameini.  And this miracle was aided by Israeli ingenuity – such as the Iron Dome, the exploding pagers, the ability to locate and eliminate military leaders and nuclear scientists, and the miraculous ability to dominate the skies over a distant country whose size is about 70 times larger than Israel and a population that is about 10 times larger. What other tiny group of people have overcome the threats that Jews have faced over more than 2 millennia?

Unfortunately, threats to Israelis and the existence of Israel are not the only threats Jews face today.  We are facing a torrent of antisemitism in the U.S., Europe and other countries where Jews have thrived for many years. Language and conduct that has not been publicly acceptable for decades now abounds on college campuses, on social media, at public gatherings, and even attacks on the street and at people’s homes.  The Molotov cocktails being thrown at Jews in Colorado, the attacks on synagogues, the murder of two young Israeli diplomats attending an event co-sponsored by the American Jewish Committee, are merely a few of the many examples that most of us can give of the venom now spewing forth against us.  Even a few months ago, would any of you have predicted that the leading candidate for Mayor of New York City would support BDS and refuse to condemn the phrase “Globalize the Intifada” – a phrase that implicitly calls for violence against Jews wherever they may be in the world.  I fervently pray that this is a blip on the world stage, and that action by government leaders, business leaders, religious leaders, and civic organizations quickly bring a quick halt to this new version of Jew hatred.

And speaking of prayer, as we did today, and as we do each week, we said a prayer asking G-d to bless the State of Israel, to bless Israel’s soldiers who defend the country, and to bless the Jewish people. To have maintained the State of Israel despite the constant vilification and the number of people who want its destruction shows to me that the prayers seeking a blessing have been effective when destruction faces us.  And when we look at what has happened to Hezbollah, Hamas, the Ayatollah’s nuclear scientists and military leaders, how can we conclude anything other than that our prayers seeking a blessing have been infinitely more successful than the prayers of the Ayatollah and his followers who want to curse and destroy the State of Israel and the Jewish people.

Shabbat Shalom and
Am Yisrael Chai.