According to the sages of Israel, this Parsha is unique as it is a story that was told by God to Moses about the life and times of Balak and Bilaam, who were arch enemies of the Children of Israel. It is like being privy to a conversation and stratagem between Osama Bin Laden and Al Zarqawi, who are arch enemies of the western world. This is the only Parsha after Matan Torah named after a non jew. Hence we see that the Torah does not discriminate.The Torah gives us information of what the nations of the world are thinking and doing when the Children of Israel are their focus. We are told by the sages of Israel that Bilaam was an important person in the eyes of the nations. We even see it in code. The Torah says,vru,p rugc ic ogkc kt ohftkn jkahu , “And he sent messengers to Bilaam son of B’or to Pethor”(Numbers 22:5). If we take the acronym of the encircled letters, it spells theterm, vrbn, candelabra. Nonetheless,According to the Talmudist, Mar Bar Ravina, it is important to uncover the evilness of Bilaam and of course in our days, we must uncover evil people and plots as well.Actually with the aid of the codes, we see that the makeup of Bilaam’s name lead to his wickedness. If we take the revealed and hidden letters of bilaam, it comes to 696. Here’show we arrive at this number ! (n)n (ih)g (sn)k (,h)c 412+74+130+80= 696. Another word with the same number is ,urm, tsaros, terror, trouble.The Torah tells us that Bilaam requested Balak to build him seven altars in his scheme to attack Israel. He knew the number seven was important. In fact, in Job it says, gr lc gdh tk gcau lkhmh ,urm aac, “From six travails He will save you, and in the seventh no harm will reach you” (Job ).Hence we see that Bilaam’s terror tactics failed as the God of Jacob protected us. Last week , we witnessed the London Terror Attacks that killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds. In fact, the blasts were so powerful that some of the victims have yet to be identified. We read in the news that the terrorists were living law abiding lives up to the moment they became suicide bombers. The newspapers reported that the terrorists went off to a Madrasa in Pakistan and came back with evil plots. It is interesting to note that the term Madrasa is a takeoff of the term Midrash, or study hall. However, in our Midrash’s we study the Torah of God. In their Madrasa’s they study how to terrorize the world. I guess Bilaam would be their Teacher of Terror, as his name connotes it. Although the story ofBilaam was almost three thousand years ago, not much has changed. Nation after nation, people after people, have tried to wipe us out but they have utterly failed as our Protector does not allow it. As these terrorists always mention the Jews and Zionism, God will always reveal to us their evil plots, like He revealed to Moses in His Torah.So how do we stop terrorism today? Can we physically stop it? Will billions of dollars spent on security offer full protection? From a Torah perspective, I feel that if we turn to the right or the left of the word of God, then we are courting trouble. As it says in Deuteronomy 5:28, “And observe to do as your God commanded you, do not turn to the right or to the left.” In my opinion, the liberals or the left are the Christians and the ones on the right are the Muslims. Both base their religions on the Torah but veer off to the left or the right and that’s where the trouble begins. For example, the Torah says a hand for a hand, an eye for an eye. We take it as monetary compensation based on the Oral law. The Wahabi’s take it literally. We see Muslim women covered from head to toe (ie. Burka) even on the streets of NY. I think that is a bit extremist. For our Christian friends, priests may not marry as they must imitate Moses. So what happens is that some are exposed as child molesters. The 613 commandments as dictated by our Torah give us the correct path to follow. If we can only teach the world the light of Torah!
A refuah shlaimah to my father Yaakov Zev Ben Malka Blima, who is recovering from stroke at Vanderbilt Nursing Home, SI, NY
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