LEAD TIDBIT:
The CNN Sedra
Parshat Balak is made up of 104 p’sukim, divided into only two parshiyot. The first parsha is 95 p’sukim long, making it the third largest parsha in the Torah and the largest out of B’reishit. What makes this parsha unusual is more than its great length. This parsha is unique in how we know about it.
I had a rebbi in high school who was fond of quoting an oldtime radio show character named Baron Manchausen. It seems he would make a statement, someone (Charlie perhaps) would challenge it, and the Baron would say, “Waz you dere, Charlie?” How do you know, you weren’t there?

The point is, that everything that is reported in the Torah was witnessed by someone - or many someones - and past down through the generations as eye-witness accounts. The Chatam Sofer puts it something like this: Adam HaRishon spoke to No’ach. No’ach spoke to Avraham. He to Yitzchak. He to Yaakov. He to his sons. They to their children. And then to the multitude of B’nei Yisra’el. Was you there, Charlie? Maybe not this specific Charlie, but some Charlie. The Splitting of the Sea, Matan Torah, the Manna, and countless other events, were well-witnessed. As such, they are hardly matters of belief. The only parsha in the Torah that is subject to belief is this major portion of Parshat Balak. The people of Israel were totally unaware of what was being plotted, attempted, and thank G-d, thwarted by G-d Himself, Who was watching over His people - this time - without our knowledge. This is why a reader of TT dubbed Balak the CNN sedra, since it is reported to us by the prophecy of Moshe Rabeinu (a.k.a. the Torah).

Try to imagine a couple of million Jews camped in the Midbar, going about their daily routines, totally oblivious to the drama unfolding on a hill-top overlooking them. Bil’am and Balak. That’s it. No one else would know except the two of them (and their entourages). Except that G-d told Moshe and told him to write it into the Torah and to teach it to the people of Israel. This, and only this, allowed us to be privy to that which would have been unknown to us. This parsha allows us to know about Bil’am and his ilk. It hopefully arms us to fight against the special kind of enemy that Bil’am was.
The fact that there are no mitzvot in Balak strengthens the point made in this lead tidbit that this sedra exists, so to speak, only because G-d wanted us to know about the unique threat of Balak-Bil’am and how He continually confounded their plans.

In contrast, the second parsha of the sedra, the last 14 p’sukim, are all the more devastating for us. After learning how well protected we were by G-d, we then see what happens when we do something that cause G-d, not only to withhold His protection, but to send destruction our way.

The contrast spins one’s head. And the end of the haftara drives the point home. Keep Torah and mitzvot, behave justly and kindly with each other - that’s all G-d wants of us. Then Sichon with his sword and Balak with his attempted curses can do us no harm. Turn our backs to G-d (G-d forbid), and we drop like flies. The official Tochacha portions of the Torah are in B’chukotai and Ki Tavo. Balak (and other parshiyot as well) are no less admonitions that we must heed if we are to survive and thrive and achieve our lofty goals as a nation and as individuals.

Addendum (The following did not make it into the hard copy; it will probably be there next week): All of the Torah is the prophecy of Moshe Rabeinu. The point made above is that the Bil'am-Balak episode would be totally unknown to us except for its inclusion in the Torah. Of course, the account of Creation also had no witnesses, but we can see G-d's Creation in everything we see. And, aside from "stories", there are the mitzvot that also constitute prophecy. And this also was G-d to Moshe and him to us. But, I hope the point above is well-taken in any event. - PC