Our unity versus their’s | Rabbi Stewart Weiss | Beit Midrash

Torah Portion and Tanach
Balak

קטגוריה משנית

The events of this week’s Sedra are chillingly
prophetic of the current crisis in Israel,
offering us crucial lessons as to how to respond
to the drama unfolding before us.

Moav & Midian are long-time enemies of one
another, yet to destroy Israel, they forget past
differences & forge an unholy alliance. Indeed,
when you take the last 2 Hebrew letters of Bilaam
& join them with the last 2 letters of Balak, you
get.......Amalek, the arch-enemy of the Jewish People!

Now, it would have been infinitely more
productive for Balak & Bilam to bless their own
nations rather than to curse ours. But our
enemies often spend their time blaming others for
their problems, rather than using that same
energy to solve them. Unable to defeat us Jews
physically, they choose a strategy of
delegitimization. They denounce & defame us,
screaming to all from the highest cliffs that we
are dangerously different, a threat to humanity &
undeserving of being part of the community of nations.

Of course, Hashem ultimately presides over the
truth & changes these curses into blessings. Are
we truly "a nation that dwells alone?" Yes,
perhaps we are, but that is not a negative! In
fact, it’s a crucial key to our survival, for by
our not melting into the world at large we’ve
managed over the centuries to maintain our
particularity. Do "we do not compute among the
nations?" Yes, certainly, but that means the
norms of the world don’t apply to us; we skew the
graphs & defy the odds as we march on throughout
history. Our survival is statistically improbable
- if not impossible - but we are here,
nevertheless. Are we "rock-like," that is,
stubborn & unmoving? Yes, but that, too, explains
why we & our traditions stubbornly survive & why
our enemies, despite their incessant efforts, cannot dislodge us.

In the end, Bilam & Balak’s plot to curse us does
not work - just as the current, worldwide slander
campaign against us will IY"H also fail – so
Balak & Bilaam devise a new, even more diabolical
plot: They seduce us into turning away from G-d &
worshipping all manner of false gods, succumbing
to our baser lusts & desires. This creates a
schism in our nation & truly threatens us. For
when we fragment into different camps, we are
vulnerable; when we cast aspersions - or throw
stones - at each other, we open the door to being stoned by our enemies.

At the end of our Sedra, Pinchas steps forward to
take bold action. While controversial, Hashem
validates Pinchas’s courage & bestows upon him a
"Brit Shalom." The message is crystal-clear: Only
when we are closely bound by one, enduring
covenant of brotherhood will we find that lasting
peace that we so desperately seek. In short, WE MUST STAY TOGETHER!!