Parshat Balak
BSD 
PARSHAT BALAK YERUSHALAYIM IR HAKODESH
This is the week to bless the significant people in your life. This is the week that the innermost thoughts of the most nefarious, impure figures in Jewish history were transformed into blessings. How much more powerful are our blessings, coming as they are from hearts that yearn to truly love.
The Gemara teaches that from the words and blessings that emerged from the mouth of Bilam, we can intuit and understand what his true intentions were. Hashem in His great kindness saw through the screen of Bilam’s intention, and made His Will known- that we are deserving of blessing and encouragement.
One intent that Bilam had was to remind Hashem of our misdeeds. Even verbalizing our sins has power to evoke negative energy and attach this energy to us.
In response to this, Hashem caused the following words to emerge from the mouth of Bilam:
Lo Hibit Aven B’Yaakov V’Lo Raah Amal B’Yisrael, Hashem Elokav Emo U’Truat Melech Bo.
Hashem doesn’t see or pay attention to the iniquities of the Jews, and Hashem is with us, the closeness of the King is within us.
The Gemara says that this does not mean that Hashem disregards our sins. He doesn’t. What we do wrong needs to be corrected, and is.
But the Baal Shem Tov adds that our sins take on a totally different picture than the one we generally paint. Because, even as we are erring, the thought of Hashem is with us. We are filled with remorse, guilt, disappointment in ourselves. The Baal Shem says that a Jew can never really ‘enjoy’ fully a sin, since we are sharing the ‘enjoyment’ with the healthy emotion of ‘Jewish guilt’. It is that Hashem Elokav Emo even while we are in the place of Aven and therefore, Hashem looks away from the error and sees only the intent. And the intent of every Jew is to be holy and connected to Hashem.
Bilam tried to focus on our inadequacies, our failures. Therefore, this week we must not at all focus on any inadequacies or failures of our significant journey companions.
One of the greatest tools in interpersonal relationships is given to us as a teaching by Rebbi Nachman. How can we help another person change? We cannot. They must do the work themselves. But, we can help. We can use the power of our mind to help focus someone on their own inner strengths. Daily, concentrate deeply on one good quality in whomever you want to help. Meditate on a Mida that this person truly excels in. It matters not what this midah is, or how religious or ritualistic it is. It just must be something that you truly believe is good in your friend.
This thought of yours will enter into the consciousness of your friend, elevating his/her belief in their inherent goodness, and will empower them to maintain and improve their beneficial soul.
This is one of the meanings of Kol Yisrael Areivim Zeh Lazeh. All Jews are intertwined, connected to each other. A spiritual energy force sent towards a fellow Jew will be able to influence and energize its receiver.
One of the goals that Balak mentioned to Bilam was his desire to prevent the Jewish Nation from entering the Land. The Nesivos Shalom expounds on this obsession that Balak had with Eretz Yisrael. He teaches that Balak, as the foremost magician in the world, understood that the power of the Nation of Israel in the
The resulting Bracha that emerged from Bilam reflects the reaction of Hashem to the impure thought of Balak.
‘Me Mana Afar Yaakov.’ Who can count the dust of Yaakov? Rashi explains that this means, “Who can evaluate the amount of holiness and Mitzvot done by
We literally elevate dust!
Balak knew that
I have not told you any taxi driver stories lately, but today, the Hashgacha was so direct that I will share one. The driver of today was telling me of his impressions as a soldier in the Six Day War.
“We were sitting on one hill; the Jordanians were on the hill directly opposite us. We were in the Jewish part of Yerushalayim, they were in the part that we had no access to yet. And their hill was barren, desert like, while ours was green and alive with grass and flowers. A little while after we reclaimed the entire Yerushalayim, those barren hills came alive again under our care.”
He continued, “When the Turks and the British were here, they couldn’t get a tomato to grow for them. But the Land was waiting for us. She was waiting for two thousand years. And when Her children returned, She opened Her life force and we can now produce food from the desert sands.”
Balak understood the power of the Jew in his Land. We must learn from him this lesson. It goes above logic, above planning and reason.
Why name a Parsha after a wicked person? We know that the name of the Parsha indicates its essence, and all parts of the Parsha are understood in their depth in reference to the Parsha title. So, why memorialize Balak?
The first two letters of the name Balak are Beit and Lamed. The first two letters of Bilam are also Beit and Lamed. Together, they spell BilBul, which means confusion. This is what the Torah reveals to us as the plot that these challengers posed. They tried to confuse us- by minimizing our merit, and by trying to manipulate the rules that Hashem set into nature. The last two letters of Bilam, Ayin Mem, and the last two letters of Balak, Lamed Kof, directly spell out Amalek. These men were continuing the work of Amalek to destroy holiness and Godliness from the planet. They wanted to lower our confidence in our inherent holiness, and swerve us from the path Hashem has planned for us.
The challenges this week, in our personal lives and our National life reflect the inner struggle to maintain our vision of what we came here to fulfill.
The Parsha begin by saying that Balak saw all that the Nation of Israel did to the Amorites and he infused his own fear into his own nation. He then looked for an indirect way to harm
In fact, Hashem wanted to show
For this reason, the Nesivos Shalom teaches that Balak tried to break our D’veykut, our attachment to Hashem. And to combat him, we strengthen our attachment, our commitment, our loyalty, our trust.
The 13th of Tamuz, marks the release of the previous Lubavicher Rebbe from a Russian jail. In his memoirs, he recalls how he strengthened himself not to cower and be afraid of his tormentors, and how this attitude, of inner strength and confidence actually won his release! When a great Jewish leader goes through a personal trial, he is really representing the entire Nation. His inner strength gets transferred to us; his release gets expanded to opening up freedom, spiritual and physical, for the Nation he serves.
There is nothing to fear. Rebbe Nachman teaches, V’Haikar Lo Lefached Klal! Ain Yi’ush Klal! For a Jew , there is no despair, no need to ever give up, no need ever to be hopeless, no need to be afraid. We are on a guided journey, and ultimately, we will prevail, and see the inner and outer victory we long for.
The most direct hints to Mashiach are in this week’s Parsha. “A star will emerge from Yaakov and a scepter bearer will come from Yisrael, and subdue Moav and the children of Shet…and
The teaching of Mashiach comes out from the darkest place, from the place of danger and ‘blessing’.
May we each see, experience and live with our own personal Yeshua. May we each recognize each of the miracles that happen to us daily to bring us to our own internal state of Mashiach. May we each realize that we are, right now, closer than ever before to the global Mashiach. And may we focus all our energy into living in such a way that Hashem showers us with His blessings, so that we can truly be a Light to the world, and radiate Kedusha.
SHABBAT SHALOM
Tammuz and Av
BSD Tammuz-Av 5767 Yerushalayim IHK
The Sefer Hayitzira teaches that every month in the Jewish calendar has its specific energy. This energy, when properly harnessed, maximizes the time frame, maximizes a persons own life and ultimately fulfills the spiritual hole in the heart of every Jew.
Traditionally, the months of Tammuz and Av have been hard for our people. The fasts of 17th of Tammuz and 9th of Av are the endpoints of the mourning period called the Three Weeks. Biblically, the entire month of Tammuz and the first third of Av was the time frame when the spies were in The Land, and the seed of their sin began to sprout. The Jewish world is still suffering to this day from that terrible error.
Looking at the hints given by the Sefer Hayitzira about these months adds to our concern. Each month is enlivened by an energy that is rooted in one of the letters of the Aleph Bait. Tammuz is ruled by the letter Chet and Av by the letter Tet. The two letters, Chet and Tet together spell out the word Chet, sin. No wonder that major sin of the spies happened in these two months.
Looking at Jewish history, so many tragedies spanned these two months. In recent history, the Inquisition, both World Wars had their beginnings in these months. The expulsion of Gush Katif and the last
The tribes associated with the months are Reuvain and Shimon, each of whom lost his entitlement because of a Chet. Reuvain lost his birthright because of the error in judgment he made by not saving Yosef Hatzadik and Shimon lost his Chelek in The Land because of his killing of Shechem.
These months are called ‘hot months’ and we are cautioned to guard our tempers, which have a tendency to flare as the temperature increases. As an aside, the weather here in Yerushalayim is very hot, and the predictions are for temperatures close to 100 degrees for Shabbat and Sunday. Hot months, hot tempers, hot issues, a hot nuclear threat hovering over our heads and the world are putting such unreasonable heated pressure on
Baruch Hashem, Torah teaches that there is a correction for every difficulty. There is a built in remedy for every illness and predicament. For every negative in this world, there exists a positive corresponding energy. In the science of physics, this opposite energy is always equal, but the Torah reveals to us that the positive aspect of any negative person, place, thing, attitude or event is much greater than its negative power. And the positive aspect, the ‘cure’ is actually within the impurity of its negativity.
The letter Chet is created as a combination of the preceding letters Vav and Zayin, with a triangle shaped ‘bridge’ on top connecting them. This is how the letter Chet is written in a Sefer Torah, in the script taught by the Ari Hakadosh. The aspect of Chet revealed by its shape is that of a man, the Vav, and a woman, the Zayin, uniting under a Chupa, the Chet itself. Thus, the letter Chet represents the unification, the joining, the marriage of the masculine element in nature and its partner, the feminine element. The letter Tet is shaped like a womb, within which an embryo grows. The inverted Yod is inserted within the two vertical and one horizontal line that form the Tet. Of course, Chet is the first letter in the word Chupa and the numerical value of Tet is nine, the number of months in a pregnancy. These two letters can therefore be elevated, the cure for the illness of Chayt error. They represent the reason Hashem created the world- the unification of man and woman to produce a child. The next letter in the Aleph Bait, the Yod (which is the letter of the month of Elul) represents this child- its soul being a part of Hashem.
Tammuz and Av can therefore be times of tremendous unity with Hashem, within body and soul and with our Nation and our Land. It just depends on how you look at the letters.
Therefore the Sefer HaYitzira goes on to teach that the body functions associated with these two months are vision and hearing. Tammuz is the month set aside to correct a person’s vision and outlook on life, and Av is set aside to repair a person’s ability to hear and listen.
Look at what the spies did. Instead of seeing the beauty of Eretz Yisrael, they saw its danger. Instead of focusing on its spiritual supremacy, they focused on the giants who they feared would destroy us. And instead of listening to the praises of the Land voiced by Yehoshua and Calev, the Jewish People heard the fears and worries and confusion of the other 10 spies. Instead of trying to hear behind the voices of the fallen spies and to understand what motivated them to speak badly of the Land, the Jewish people took their words at face value.
To correct the ability to see clearly and to hear correctly is the work and the gift of Tammuz and Av.
Specifically to see the beauty of our Land, and to hear Her song. To train our eyes in general to see the good in life and in everyone in our sphere of influence. And too train our ears to sift through the data that bombards us and choose wisely what to accept and to internalize.
Moshe Rabbeinu told the spies to ‘Latour Et HaAretz’. The word Latour is similar to the English word ‘tour’ and it means the same thing- to travel and see. Like every word in Torah, it was chosen carefully for its deeper meaning. Tour (Tav Vav Reish) is the same root letters as Torah. The deeper meaning that Moshe Rabbeinu was telling these great men was to go to Eretz Yisrael, keep the Torah and the rest would be left to Hashem. the keeping of Torah in the Land of Torah would clear their eyes, minds, hearts to such a level where they would be privileged to truly ‘see’ the Land and ‘hear’ the Voice of the Land. The spies erred; their Chet-Tet was incorrectly aligned. Instead of seeing the depth of holiness in Eretz Yisrael, instead of feeling the profound difference in keeping Mitzvos in The Land as compared with keeping these same Mitzvos in the desert, instead of seeing the literal beauty of the Land, they saw through eyes of exile. They saw the problems, the barriers, the enemies, the economy, the change in education and occupation that comes along with The Land. And they were thus blinded to Her beauty.
A person sees themselves reflected in every attitude they profess. A person sees themselves reflected in every vision they create and absorb. A person hears their own soul in every opinion they record or accept. And a person sees life and hears Hashem commensurate with their desire for reality and goodness.
Tammuz and Av are times to restructure our senses. What do you want to see in your self, in your life? What do you want other people to see in you and about you? What do you want Hashem to see in you? What do you want to hear and absorb into your being, and what do you want people to hear about you? What messages from Hashem can you hear in your daily life? Are you insufficiently attuned and therefore done ‘hear’ any spiritual messages? Are your eyes so blemished that they see beauty in foreign lands, cultures and couture and fail to see beauty in the Jewish way to live and dress?
What is the vision you have for your life? Do you have a vision for your life? Are you reflecting the vision of who you are or want to be?
We are told that the sad and painful events of Tammuz and Avs past which resulted in days of fasting and limited joy will one day soon be transformed into days of feasting and celebration. In general, the concept of transforming the negative into positive is rooted deeply in Torah, and how much more so in this time of the year, in this year so close to the end of time, as we enter into Shemitta.
May we all see correctly, hear constructively and be reborn into Mashiach’s generation.
Parshat Korach
B’H PARSHAS KORACH YERUSHALAYIM
FrustrationExasperationConfusion These are some of the emotions we experience when we read about the failure of the spies with the resulting galus, and of the divisiveness and subsequent death of Korach.Each of the men involved began as a Tzaddik. Each made a fatal error, one that had an effect on the entire Jewish Nation.This can be frightening to those of us who aren’t yet Tzaddikim- how can we know we won’t fail at the major tests in our lives? What hope is there for us?There are also many statements of Chazal that point out the good intentions of the spies, and of Korach and his students. Yet, they all perished.The Haftora is the portion from the Neviim, the Prophets, which is read after the Torah reading. Each Haftora has a direct relationship, and usually explains the major theme of the Parsha. The theme for the Haftora of both Sh’lach and Korach is Tikun- correction and fixing of the failures in the Parshiyos. In the Haftora of Sh’lach, we learn that Yehoshua sends out spies that remain true to the spirit in which they are sent, and indeed inspire the Jewish Nation to fearlessly trust Hashem. In Korach, the Haftora brings the teachings of Shmuel Hanavi, a direct descendant of Korach, regarding the Halachos of establishing a Jewish King. Both the spies and Korach have a fixing. Tzaddik Katamar Yifrach- when Mashiach comes the tzaddikkim will blossom and be vindicated and be deeply rooted and appreciated. The final letters of these three words spell out Korach. Hashem always sets in motion a derech for us to return to Him and to our selves.
Remember the story of Noach. Hashem told him there would be a flood that would destroy the world. Noach and his family were chosen to survive and repopulate the world. They spent years making the ark, and then a full year on the ark, together with all species of animals. Then they left the ark, alive and grateful for the opportunity to begin again.Now, what if there was just one slight change in Noah’s life. What if Hashem hadn’t told him that this ark business was to save his life? Imagine Noach spending years constructing this vehicle, being ridiculed by all his friends and acquaintances. Then, he has to spend a year in this thing, surrounded by animals, their needs, their smells. He and his family are working round the clock, just to survive. What anguish, what torture. “Why is Hashem doing this to me?” He thinks.We know of course that it’s to save his life. In the story as it happened, Noach also knew.If we would only know the reasons Hashem is doing to us what He is doing, we would be B’Simcha, knowing and seeing that it’s a total chesed, that it is saving our life.Our not seeing the entire picture is the source of our pain and worry, and at the same time the root of our Bechira which brings our eventual reward.Chazal teach that at the end of time, we will make a huge circle, with Hashem in the center. Each of us will point to Hashem and say, “This is my Hashem, whom I have served”. Each point on the circumference of a circle is equidistant from the center. Chazal teach that, when Mashiach comes, each of us will see that every different Torah Derech in serving Hashem was equal. Different, yet equal.This is also true with every day of our lives. We have ‘good’ days, when we feel close to Hashem. We can daven, learn, live like a Jew should. Then we have our ‘bad’ days, when we feel so distant, so inadequate, as if we’re such a disappointment to Hashem.Our Tzaddikim teach that at the end, we will see that each of our days is also on the perimeter of the circle which is the sum total of our life. Hashem will be in the middle of that circle also, and we will see that in fact, each day of our life was equal in its perfection of serving Hashem.The Emes is, we are here to serve Hashem. We are only here to serve Hashem. To proclaim His Majesty and rulership in this physical world, much as the angels do in the higher worlds. We get distracted, forget and get involved in this world for its own sake. We forget that we are only alive to serve Hashem. And not the other way around. We plan out a day, with all our lists and needs, and of course we include Mitzvos and sundry. Then, we get a flat tire, are late for work, miss the minyan, miss the shiur and lose our temper and begin yelling at some innocent bystander, who may or may not be related… We thought Hashem needed us to serve him in an ideal way. What he really needed was for us to take a course that might be entitled ‘Patience 101’ or ‘Intro to Exasperation’. So we needed to shift our focus from serving Hashem our way, to serving Him His way. This is one of the sources of true and deep Simcha. When we release the ego hold on our mind and emotion, we actually can relax and enjoy life. Its about serving Hashem as He wants. Rebbe Nachman teaches that we don’t get the grades from this school of life until we graduate and enter the higher world. And we usually get much higher grades than we expected. Because what Hashem expects from us has to do with the heart, the intent, and how much effort we expend to do our best, with the deck of cards He deals us.Korach means separation. These weeks, when our Nation is going through two weeks of Korach, we have the chance to bind together all that is separate in our lives. We can bond with our mishpoches, our friends, our students, our selves. We can begin to bond seriously with Eretz Yisrael, our Home. We can begin to learn the seforim that awaken our hearts to appreciate the centrality of Eretz Yisrael in the life of a Jew.Moshe Rabbeinu was the first aspect of Mashiach. We need to prepare our selves to the geula’dic mindset of a single leader, The Mashiach. We need to begin to imagine what life will be like for us, in a redeemed Eretz Yisrael, with our redeemed Mashiach. This week, the Parsha revealed a questioning of the authority of the Moshe/Mashiach. We need to commit ourselves to accepting that authority again, hopefully very soon. Our minds need to begin to shift into Mashiach consciousness. We need to do this collectively and individually.The Vilna Gaon says that every person who encourages others to wake up to a Mashiach consciousness, to yearn for Geula from their deepest depths, to speak of Geula with practical intensity, to bring others to realize the holiness of Eretz Yisrael, is an aspect and a part of Mashiach Ben Yosef.The Rabbis here are now saying that every one who has a deep and real yearning to be here in the
Shavuot
BSD SHAVUOT 5767 YERUSHALAYIM IH’K
The days and weeks of Sefirat HaOmer are times of enormous potential spiritually. The work that we do on our character traits is built into the fabric of this time of year. In the short Tefila that we say after the counting of the specific Omer day, we ask Hashem that in the merit of our counting, the specific character trait of that day should be repaired.
This repair can come about in two ways. We could use the Omer days proactively- anticipate the energy of the day by looking at its name and Sefira combination is one way. Then, we could try to behave throughout the day on a way that highlights our desire to repair that specific Middah. To this aim, I have already written several essays from the Seforim that concentrate on Midos development. But there is another manner in which the Omer days work. If we are not able or willing or even aware of the Omer, and yet are in need of a particular Mida correction, Hashem, in His love for us, arranges a specific challenge or set of challenges during these days, to wipe our slates clean.
Chazal teach that Yissurim are Mechaper- that suffering erases and corrects previous incorrect behavior. That is one of the gifts of the Omer- and it is often a hard gift to receive graciously.
The Ramchal, whose Yahrtzeit is Yesod of Yesod, reminds us in his classic Messilat Yesharim, that the purpose of our souls descent into bodies was specifically to earn the ability to experience the Presence of Hashem. This experiencing Hashem can only come as a reward for hard spiritual work, which consists of living a life of Torah and Mitzvos. The place of reward is not the present world and life we occupy, but the next world, which we get to after the soul leaves the body.
When we get used to this world and view it as an end in itself, we forget this basic teaching. The gentile world does not have this concept of a next world deeply rooted and hence their basic philosophy of ‘eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die’. The fanatic Moslem world has a skewed version of Olam Haba and tries to get there as soon as possible, offering the murdered bodies of Jews as an entrance fee. The average unthinking unaffiliated human wants to have as comfortable a life as possible here on Earth, trying to hurt as few people as possible and perhaps trying to leave something lasting and worthwhile after they die.
But we are taught by The Creator in His Torah that this world is to be used to elevate our souls to Him. We are not running to leave this world, but we take the events that happen to us here with a grain of salt, understanding that everything is for our ultimate perfection and repair.
The Zohar and the Ari revealed that our souls come to live in a body several times and that each successive life is given to help repair the soul from a previous incarnation. Gilgul Neshama means we also have payback in this life from previous lives, which of course we don’t remember. One reason we see wonderful people going through hard times is that they are being cleansed and fixed from mistakes of the past.
The Sefira is one special time set aside for national and personal cleansing. It is a time when our people are judged and prepared to receive the Torah. To really receive the Torah of Shavuos, our vessel, our soul and our body needs to be maximized for optimum absorption. Difficulties, even minor ones, make the soul cleaner, clearer and more receptive.
We read Megillat Ruth on Shavuot to highlight this thought. The life of Ruth was not easy, yet she held on to Hashem until she actually saw her Yeshua. And her life after her Yeshua was also not easy. The Midrash teaches that Boaz died soon after their marriage and that she and Nomi raised her son. She lived to see her great grandson Dovid go through his tumultuous life, and sat with her great grandson Shlomo in his Bais Hamikdash, knowing that is was a beginning, but not the final one. Yet, Shlomo Hamelech wrote about her in Aishet Chayit, Oz Vahadar Levusha Vatischak Leyom Acharon- she is robed in strength and beauty and she laughs at that last day. In other words, she lived her life with strong faith in Hashem, knowing that this life is not the end, and that death from this life is not the end and that there will be an ‘end’ that will be so joyous that we will just laugh and laugh.
Twenty years ago just around this time of year, I was in
We all stood up for him as he slowly and visibly painfully made his way to the head of the room, where he finally rested, beamed his loving smile on us all and asked what I was teaching. When he heard that we were learning Megillat Ruth, he asked the girls what they thought the main lesson of the story was. One girl answered that it was about Dovid Hamelech and his family tree, and since it’s the Yahrtzeit of Dovid Hamelech on Shavuot, we read about his origins. One girl said that we learn about the laws of charity and converts. Since on Shavuot our nation officially became Jewish, it’s like we all became converts in a way, and this opportunity to receive the Torah was such a gift of charity from Hashem. One answer was about the modesty of Ruth, and one talked about the Chesed Ruth showed her mother in law. One girl answered that from this Megilla we learn about reincarnation of souls, since through the Mitzva of marrying the childless widow Ruth, her new son had the soul of her departed first husband.
Rav Freifeld smiled with glee at each answer and heaped praises and blessings on each girl. When no one had anything else to say, he asked if the girls wanted to hear his answer. “Of course Rebbe,” they begged.
“The most important lesson of Megillat Ruth”, he boomed in his deep voice, “is never to give up hope. A person always has to have hope that things will improve, and a person always has to have trust in Hashem that everything is going exactly according to His plan. In the end, everything will be just fine.”
We all sat there stunned. Here was a man going through such agony, such suffering, a man whose body was wracked with pain. And this man was encouraging these girls to hang on to hope and trust Hashem. We all began to tear, cry and no one could talk. He also then got emotional, and then, smiled and blessed the girls to remember this lesson always, and to receive the Torah with great joy, appreciation and commitment.
Hashem has His ways, and they are not the ways that we often understand. Rebbi Nachman teaches in the name of the Baal Shem Tov that Hashem absolutely never abandons us, nor does He let go of us. When we are being bombarded with Din, strict judgment, Hashem Himself is hiding within the difficulty. Hashem Himself plays ‘hide and seek’, with us, literally hiding within that specific challenge of hardship. The gift of relief comes when we call out to Hashem, and ask Him to reveal to us exactly where He has hidden, and allow us to access Him directly.
My blessings to you for a meaningful and holy and happy Shavuot. May the Torah come to you in a sweet and clear way, may your allotment of Torah for the year be satisfying, and actual, and may you use your life, in a happy, fulfilling and totally perfect way for the needs of your soul. May we all merit seeing Mashiach Tzidkeinu this year, and may we enjoy the spiritual work that precedes his arrival.
Chag Sameach!