Balak – Hashem loves us

I’d like to take you to ספר יהושע this week. In פרק כד, after he has led the people and they have conquered and divided the land, he gives a final speech before he passes on in which he recaps Jewish history up to that point. I will paraphrase in Hebrew. He starts off בעבר הנהר ישבו אבותיכם…. תרח אבי אברהם ואבי נחור…. ואקח את אביכם את אברהם מעבר הנהר…. ואתן לו את יצחק ואתן ליצחק את יעקב ואת עשו…… you may recognize the beginning of this from the הגדה )it seems strange that on the night we are talking about Mitzrayim, the Hagaddah stops right before Yehoshua gives the story of what happened in Mitrayim. Something to think about and I’d love to hear what you think). Then, when he is discussing the מדבר he says 4 words ותשבו במדבר ימים רבים Almost as though all the happening were severely insignificant in the course of the nation’s history. No מתן תורה, no מן, nothing about עמלק or the באר, and no mention of the מרגלים. Just that we were there for quite some time. He does choose 2 events to highlight, which makes the problem worse since they are as follows: ויקם בלק בן צפור מלך מואב וילחם בישראל וישלח ויקרא לבלעם בן בעור לקלל אתכם: ולא אביתי לשמע לבלעם ויברך ברוך אתכם ואציל אתכם מידו

1- I gave you the land that belonged to סחון, which we really only used as a resting point on our way into Eretz Yisrael and 2- that בלק hireבלעם  to curse us and Hashem foiled his plans (I don’t have a source for this but it is very possible that the Jews had no idea what happened with  בלק and  בלעםin the desert and that this is the first time they are finding out, which is funny to think about).

So, what was so unique about the story with בלעם that יהושע feels that when he is laying out 554 years of Jewish history in 15 פסוקים that this episode gets 2 פסוקים all to itself?

I think the most apparent uniqueness about the בלעם story is the fact that Hashem is watching over us in ways that we aren’t even aware of. The Jewish people had no idea that there were a bunch of רשעים bringing קרבנות to Hashem to try and sway Him to see our faults. And in each second of our lives Hashem is protecting us from forces that we aren’t even aware of. However, this is a very heavy concept to wrap one’s head around, and I think there is a less intimidating yet equally beautiful point about our relationship with Hashem that we can see in the story of בלעם.

There is a contradiction here, since theme in this פרשה is Hashem telling בלעם how blessed we are. He can’t curse us since Hashem already blessed our ancestors, and no less than four times בלעם is unsuccessful in cursing us. בלעם wasn’t a foolish magician, he knew what he was doing and he knew how to curse. The fact that he couldn’t curse us meant that our relationship with Hashem was ironclad, he wasn’t able to find a crack to sneak in. Yet, in a few hours we are all going to say/sing ארבעים שנה אקוט בדור ואומר עם תעי לבב הם… so which is it? לא הביט און ביעקב ולא ראה עמל בישראל or עם טעי לבב?

I heard quoted (I forget if it’s a גמרא or if it was from Josephus) that when the Romans destroyed the 2^nd בית המקדש they took the כפרת off the ארון and were dragging it through the streets. The כרובים were locked in an embrace, and all the Romans were making fun that this is the sculpture we have in our holiest place. But we know that the כרובים would face each other when our relationship with Hashem was good and they would face away when it was bad. If the בית המקדש was the house we shared with Hashem then the חרבן was a divorce from Hashem, so how would the כרובים be embracing one another? I think both questions have the same answer.

ישראל אף על פי שחטא ישראל הוא and when that status and relationship is viewed from an outsider like בלעם or the Romans they can’t fathom the intimacy and love in that relationship, because the fact is that even as we are being brutally ripped away from Hashem and the בית המקדש is being destroyed we are locked in an embrace at the same time. There is an intrinsic love and attachment that can’t be lost no matter what. בלעם sees the same thing. He tries to use 3 different avenues and vantage points to attack us with zero success, because it’s impossible for an outsider to glimpse into our relationship with Hashem and affect that relationship. But at the same time, we paradoxically are called עם טעי לבב. Internally Hashem is lovingly telling us that we can be better all the time, but we need to see that message as coming from a place of pure love, a place of embracement no matter what. Hashem will never betray us externally, and even internally all rebuke and consequences come from the warmth of a hug.