Balak

It has been a very sad week for the Jewish people. I really didn’t feel like writing a blog post; I just couldn’t think about anything besides the deaths of Eyal, Gil-ad and Naftali. Typically I don’t show emotions but the last couple of days I have felt upset, angry, confused…and reading the mindless chatter online doesn’t help either. Grieving is personal. When three teenagers die for no other reason than their Jewish blood, it hurts and I feel it. I feel it more than I know how to articulate. These boys were murdered for being Jewish, on their way home from yeshiva, so it only seems fair to continue my own Jewish journey with them in mind.  

The parsha is Balak in which Balak seeks the help from the gentile prophet Balaam in cursing the Jewish people. After some back and forth with Hashem, Balaam sets out and once he sees Am Yisrael the only words that come out of his mouth are not curses but some of the most beautiful blessings seen in all of the Torah. So beautiful, in fact, that we repeat Balaam’s words every time we enter a synagogue. “מַה טֹּבוּ אֹהָלֶיךָ, יַעֲקֹב; מִשְׁכְּנֹתֶיךָ, יִשְׂרָאֵל” “How goodly are your tents, Jacob, your dwellings, Israel.” Eventually Balak gets his way in that Balaam gets the Moabite women to “distract” the Israelite men…but in the end Am Yisrael is in Eretz Yisrael and thriving. Balak and Balaam get a minor victory but, as usual, the Jewish people live on.

Some argue that Balaam fully intended on cursing the Israelites and Hashem literally put the blessings in his mouth by force. I don’t see it as such. These past two and a half weeks have been an emotional nightmare here in Eretz Yisrael. Yet through it all I have felt the utmost pride and respect for our people. When one of our own is in danger we stick together and we work hard to bring an end to the suffering. Today, thousands of people traveled to Modi’in to attend the funeral and everyone else watched from home. We all feel as though we knew these boys, as if members of our own family were taken. Where else do you see this? This will to survive, to protect each other? I argue that it is not to be found anywhere else in history. Do we always agree? Absolutely not. Is it always pretty? Of course not. When it comes down to survival and our love for each other, however, the connection and the atmosphere are indescribable. I truly believe that Balaam saw this with his own eyes and that’s why nothing but blessings came forth. Balaam saw what the world is seeing now; the incredible might of the Jewish people.