Close To Torah

The pasuk in Bamidbar 22:2 says that Balak saw all that Israel had done to the Amorite. What was it that caused him to want to destroy Klal Yisroel? The Midrash Agada speaks about this question and  it answers: The reason why Balak wanted to destroy Klal Yisroel was as follows. It says in Tehilim 37:32 that “The wicked watch for the righteous and seeks to kill him”. The wicked here is Balak who saw Klal Yisroel sitting calmly with the clouds of glory, the mann raining down for them, the slav, water flowing from the Beer, and a pillar of fire in front of them. After seeing all this he wanted to destroy them. However it says in the next possuk of Tehillim 37:33 “But Hashem will not forsake him to his hand”. Hashem protected Klal Yisroel and foiled the plans of Balak Harasha. He was jealous at the successes of Klal Yisroel, and at the same time as Rashi states, was intimidated due to their military achievement. This is what motivated him to try to harm us. However Hashem protected us from his evil schemes.

When Klal Yisroel are doing the will of Hashem learning  the Torah and doing the Mitzvos then no harm can come to them, no matter what the nations of the world plot. This is the bracha of Yitzchok to Yaakov as it says in Beraishis 27:29 “Peoples will serve you, and regimes will prostate themselves to you, be a lord to your kinsman, and your mothers sons will prostate themselves to you; cursed be those who curse you and blessed be they who bless you”. However if they do not follow the Torah then Esau will have a claim as it says later in Beraishis 27:40 “By your sword you shall live, but your brother you shall serve, yet it shall be that when you are aggrieved, you may cast off his yoke from your neck”. Rashi on this says that if the Jews aren’t following the Torah then Esau will be able to claim against us, and thereby remove his yoke.

Sadly these are hard times for Klal Yisroel, we are going through many Tzaros (pains) of sickness, problems in shidduchim, fertility, anti-Semitism, terrorism…. the list goes on. The Bracha of Yitzchok seems to have weakened over the years of this bitter golus (exile). It is in our hands to solve these issues. Through the Chizuk that we make in our Avodas Hashem surely we can get the situation to change, with Klal Yisroel at the top once again, as it should be.

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Parshas Balak