A conspicuous exception to the above is the bulk of Parshat Balak, the first 95 of the sedra’s 104 p’sukim. There were few witnesses to what happens in the sedra, and none of them were Jews. Balak and Bil’am stood on various hilltops, built altars, sacrificed animals, meditated, prophesied, and attempted to curse the People of Israel. All along, we were completely oblivious to what was happening. G-d was watching us, and G-d prevented bad things to happen to us. It wasn’t the first time, nor was it the last time that G-d protected His people. But this time, we were unaware of what was taking place. In Pirkei Avot there is an idea expressed that there is one level of love that G-d displays towards us, and a greater level of love in that He tells us about that Love and its manifestations. Parshat Balak is a special prophecy to Moshe Rabbeinu, one that is trans- mitted to us in the Chumash. We should sense the special Divine protection that led G-d, so to speak, to thwart the Balak and Bil’am plan, rather than allow it to succeed. In past weeks, I have written about Pigu’im that G-d “allowed” to occur, and about those that He “thwarted” - via an alert security guard, or by the bungling of a terrorist who blew himself prematurely. And many times in ways that we can only guess at, and in ways that we are totally unaware of. Without saying more on this, it feels right that it goes together with the main idea of this tidbit. May we be worthy of G-d’s continued protection and may He not “need” to satisfy the desires of our enemies. [The
Balak Homepage]
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