BALAK

PARSHA
MOSHIACH IN THE PARSHA
WEEKLY MESSAGE
TALES FOR THE SHABBOS TABLE #1 #2

Tales for the Shabbos Table

 

The word Torah means ‘teaching’. The Torah is not just a history book or an interesting piece of folk literature; rather every idea, word and even
letter therein comes to teach us something.

If so what is the Torah trying to teach us by naming an entire chapter after
an evil anti-Semite?

Also we should understand why is this story in the Torah at all; there are
no commandments learned from here, there isn’t even much of a moral lesson.
There are no noble characters, no one repented or even changed for the
better. Even Moshe’s name is not mentioned until the last paragraph (which really is more relevant to the next Torah Parsha; ‘Pinchas’).

It’s true that Bilam blessed the Jews but that is also seemingly no ‘big
deal’. After all G-d creates everything, including Bilam, every instant; certainly Bilam had no chance to contradict his Creator and curse the Jewish people.

It’s reminiscent of the joke that is told about a man that once walked into
a Rabbi’s office, put $50,000 in cash on the table and asked him to put a
death curse on his next-door neighbor.
The Rabbi, who was a holy man, realized who he was dealing with and he
immediately agreed.
He closed his eyes, mumbled some words under his breath, smiled, looked at the man and announced, “It’s done!” as he slid the money off the table into his desk drawer, his yeshiva needed the money desperately.
The man smiled victoriously but just as he turned to leave the Rabbi gave
him a look and put into his mind thoughts of repentance.
Fifteen minutes later the man was back in the office.
“Listen, Rabbi I changed my mind. Maybe I was a bit hasty. Listen … you can keep the money but … ehh … can you reverse the decree? I mean … death is a little severe, maybe I made a mistake!

“Too late.” the Rabbi answered shaking his head solemnly. “But… for another fifty thousand I can bring him back.”

“Please, Yes… Yes .. Please I’ll do anything. Here!” He took out another
stack of money from his briefcase and began counting.
And sure enough …a miracle!! When he arrived home his neighbor was still alive!

But really it is not so simple.

When G-d gave the Torah He, so to speak, limited Himself.
For instance, one of the high points of Rosh HaShanna is the ‘additional’ or ‘Musaf’ prayer. In this prayer we bring sentences from the Torah to ‘force’ G-d to be a King, to remember us, and to listen to the Shofar.
Because once G-d gave us the Torah He set for all eternity what His infinite will is, and even He ‘has to’ (so to speak) abide by His rules.

So here; Bilam knew exactly how to find and magnify the faults of the Jewish People.
This was his genius and he did his evil job so well that he proved that even
according to the Torah, HaShem had to comply with his curses.
He had a closed case against Am Yisroel.

Bilam was the spiritual opposite of Moshe.
Moshe’s genius (and the genius of the Moshe of every generation) was to
reveal the good and the holiness hidden deep down in every Jew.
But it seems that here, even the prayers of Moshe could not help.

That is the lesson of our parsha; Bilam ‘forced’ G-d to reveal for the
first time the heretofore concealed, ultimately infinite love for His Chosen
People: love which is above all reason, even the reason of the Torah;
undying Love as infinite as G-d himself.

That is why this parsha contains the clearest prophecies regarding Moshiach in the entire Torah.

Because Moshiach is nothing other than an expression of this love.

As we say in the end of the first blessing of Shmone Esrei:
“He (G-d) will bring a redeemer (Moshiach) for ‘His own sake’ with LOVE.”

The meaning of “His own sake” is referring the ‘piece of G-d’ found in each and every Jew. (something like the Holy of Holies in the Bait HaMikdosh).

The Lubavitcher Rebbe calls it the ‘Moshiach’ in each of us.
And one of the main accomplishments of Moshiach will be to awaken, this pure ‘Moshiach’, G-dly soul in every Jew and thereby illuminate the world with good.

This Shabbos will be the twelfth of Tammuz, the date that, the previous
Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, (the Moshiach of his generation) was released from communist prison in Russia.
He was arrested and sentenced to death because he advertised and encouraged the most anti-communistic idea possible; outreach Judaism.

I heard from older Chassidim here in Kfar Chabad that in Communist Russia people were afraid to even THINK against Stalin (of cursed memory). In fact Stalin killed over twenty million of his own people because he suspected they were thinking treason.

In this atmosphere the Previous Rebbe not only thought, he actually set up a vast outreach network of teachers and Chassidim, and inspired them to risk their lives to provide Torah education, kosher meat, circumcisions, mikvas etc. etc. to other Jews … because he believed that every Jew is holy.

Because of his release on the 12th of Tammuz 1927 and eventual settling in the U.S.A. in 1940 where he launched the worldwide Lubavitch outreach program, all the Jewish outreach movements in the world exist today.

It’s all in order to reveal that hidden holiness that Bilam was forced to
speak about, that the books of Chabad Chassidut are devoted to explaining, that Rebbe Yosef Yitchak began to put into action and that the present Lubavitcher Rebbe will reveal completely in the coming of Moshiach NOW!

Tuvia Bolton-Yeshaiva Ohr Tmimim

Tales for the Shabbos Table

This week’s section stars one of the biggest anti-Semites of all time;
Bilam.

Interestingly enough, he makes the clearest prophesies regarding Moshiach in the entire Torah.

Mimonidies (Ramba’m), in the last chapter of his all encompassing, legal
work "Yad Ha Chazaka" even learns from Bilam, that anyone who does not desperately await the "second" and final Moshiach (King David was the first Moshiach) is a total sinner.

Is Moshiach really so important? If so why did this have to come from
Bilam?

Here is a story that I hope will help explain:

In Russia there was a small town called "Sroailov" (Jewtown), whose
spring waters were reported to have miraculous powers.

Rabbi Yisroel of Ruzin (nicknamed "The Holy Ruziner" cir. 1800)once
happened to pass through this town, and wondered about its unusual name and its spring.

He asked, but no one knew anything, until finally someone suggested that
he ask "Old Sasha". Old Sasha was over a hundred years old, and if anyone knew it would be him.

The Tzadik found the old man's dilapidated house, knocked on the door,
and when he heard a weak answer he entered.

The room was barren except for an extremely old man dressed in a strange fur garment, resting in an old bed in the corner. He was lying on his side facing the entrance, but at the sight of his visitor his eyes widened in surprise.

He propped himself up on one elbow squinted to get a better look, and
said "EEHH? My G-d!! Your face is like his!!" He was trying to sit up. "Yes, Yes! Just like Sroail's !!"

"Hello my friend! May G-d bless you!" The Tzadik said, "Please, you don’t have to get up." He pulled up a chair next to the bed. "What can you
tell me about the name of this town, and about...."

Sasha was sitting up now, back against the wall "AHHH! I have waited for this day!!" he said. "Of course I'll tell you everything."

And Old Sasha began his story:

"Over eighty years ago, there were only a few families here and I used to
tend their sheep. Nothing unusual ever happened, until early one morning
the sheep were grazing in a new field, when suddenly I heard this strange
splashing sound from the other side of a hill. I climbed to the top of
the hill, got down on my stomach, peeked through some bushes, and saw a man bobbing up and down immersing himself over and over again in a spring. I didn't even know that spring existed, and I certainly had no idea what he was doing in there. But when he came out and got dressed, I got a glimpse of his face and....well it was shining, just like yours.

A little later I saw him sitting far away on a high rock wrapped in some
sort of white robe, just his face sticking out, with a small black box
tied on his head, swaying, talking and swaying and singing to the sky for
hours.

And the next day he did the exact same thing.

The next time I brought the sheep home I asked my uncle Ivan about it,
and he told me that this man must be a "Sroail". The priest said they are a
lazy and cursed people that refuse to believe in our god, and we should pray for their salvation and keep away from them.

I understood what my uncle said, but it didn't make much sense. This
"Sroail" didn't look so lazy or evil to me. In fact he looked like he was
working pretty hard, and some times I felt so good when I saw him, that I
took out my flute and played a song.

Anyway, a while later, one quiet winter afternoon, the sheep suddenly
began to run and bleat like crazy for no reason and nothing I did calmed them down.

Then I turned around and saw the problem; about a hundred yards away,
stood a huge forest wolf, yellow teeth glistening in the sun. He was immense. Twice as big as any of my sheep. I never even imagined anything so huge and awful could exist. He paid no attention to me, none at all. He just approached the flock at first slowly, then with a frightening burst of speed, he leaped up grabbed one by the throat, and in moments dragged its twitching bloody carcass into the woods.

Almost insane with fear I ran home and told everyone what happened. For the next few days my uncle and two others accompanied me. But after a while they had things to do, so they gave me a whistle to blow if I saw the wolf again and left me alone.

Sure enough a day later he returned. But this time he wasn’t looking at
the sheep....he was looking at ME. Approaching in that same slow way
like he had done to the sheep a week earlier.

I was so afraid I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even find the whistle, and
it wouldn't have helped anyway, they would never have made it in time. My only hope was Sroail.

I turned; and there he was on the rock!! I screamed and screamed:
"SROAIL!! SROAIL!! HELP ME!! HELP!! PLEASE, SROAAAAILL!!"

I turned back. The wolf stopped, eyes blazing with death,staring deep
into my soul. I was hypnotized by those eyes I couldn’t look away, petrified with fear, unable to breathe, certain that as soon as I so much as moved my eyes my body would be the next to be dragged into the woods.

A shudder ran down my spine and I began to cry.

Suddenly I heard a voice behind me. "Don’t be afraid my friend, he’s not
alive. Come."

Sure enough, it was Sroail. He took me by the hand, led me to the wolf
and pushed him over, frozen in his awesome pose.

"Strip off his fur and make a coat for yourself." He said. "Make it
strong because you will live a long life."

Afterwards everyone, even the priest, agreed that we were really wrong
about Sroail and that he was a holy man and that we should repay him.

When I told them about the spring, and how I noticed that sometimes on
the ice around it there were blood marks from his feet, the priest said we should put furs there and make a fence so no animals would drink from the water. It would be a holy spring.

After a while Sroail stopped coming, but about a year later another
miracle happened. My uncle had an only son called Steffen that he loved with all his heart. Steffen got very sick with high fever, and the doctor said he would die. Poor uncle Ivan began going insane with grief, tearing out
his hair, until someone showed up with a glass of water from the holy
spring and gave the boy to drink. Almost immediately the fever dropped
and the next day he was better.

As soon as the word got around, people started coming to live here until,
after a while there were over three hundred families. That's why it's
called Sroailov."

The Holy Ruziner understood that "Sroail" was none other than the Baal
Shem Tov.

This answers the questions we had above:

The uniqueness of the Jewish people can be found in the reason G-d
created the world (see first Rashi in Breshis).

G-d made the world in such a way that darkness comes before light.
Namely the creation itself "darkens" the truth and makes it appear that there is no Creator and certainly no G-dly meaning in nature.

The Jews are supposed to remove this darkness.

In fact, every Jew has a feeling called the "G-dly Soul" (inherited from
Abraham) that all such darkness MUST be replaced with light and true
G-dly meaning (by using the Torah properly).

This, in a nutshell, is what Moshiach will accomplish. He will direct,
teach, and inspire all the Jews do their job.

Just as "Sroail" had to paralyze the murderous wolf to reveal both the
uniqueness of the Jews and the healing powers of the spring, so to,
through our taming the forces of darkness within us as well as outside of us, will be revealed the light of HaShem and the healing powers of the Torah.

But it isn't so easy.

The forces of darkness (like the infinite G-d that creates them) are also
infinitely powerful as we can see from the world today. Especially the
opposition to Moshiach! (That is why all the Jews opposed Moshe and later King David was opposed by all the prophets, and then the Baal Shem Tov etc.)

So where do we get the power to transform darkness?

The answer is, from the darkness; from Bilam himself!

True, Bilam was the archenemy of Judaism, but hidden within him, and in
every obstacle to Moshiach, (in fact the very reason for their
existence), is found the power to ACTUALLY transform it to light.

(This power, called the "essence" of the soul "Etzem HaNeshema", is even
higher than the G-dly soul and is revealed by standing firmly, ignoring
all obstacles, and doing what is necessary to bring Moshiach, )

That is why Bilam made the clearest prophecies about Moshiach.

That is what the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe revealed when he stood alone against Stalin and his entire regime. (The 12th and 13th of Tammuz is the anniversary of his miraculous freedom from Stalin's prisons). The result was the massive outreach movement that is transforming all Judaism and the entire world today.

And that is what the Lubavitcher Rebbe wants to reveal in EVERY Jew. The light and power of

Moshiach NOW!

Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad Israel