The Houthis Try to Curse the Jews - Commentary on Parashat Balak
Weekly Torah reflections from Matthew Schultz, a rabbinical student at Hebrew College.
The flag of the Houthis, who last night launched a fatal drone attack on Tel Aviv, reads as follows: "God Is the Greatest, Death to America, Death to Israel, A Curse Upon the Jews, Victory to Islam."
They are not the first to try and curse the Jews. In fact, this is what we read about in this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Balak—the story of King Balak who hires the mercenary prophet Bilaam to curse the Israelites for him.
The prophet Bilaam is an inverted Moses.
Moses went and confronted Pharaoh and his sorcerers saying, “Let my people go.”
The scene is directly inverted in Parashat Balak. The king sends messengers and sorcerers to Bilaam saying, “Help me destroy these people.”
Moses pleads the case of the Israelites before God.
Bilaam tries repeatedly to curse the Israelites for profit.
When Moses meets with God, the verb “יָעַד” is used, which means “to meet at an appointed time.”
When Bilaam meets with God, the verb “קָרָה” is used, which means “to chance upon randomly.”
Moses does nothing for himself, but rather lives in service of his people. Bilaam is “Bli Am,” which means “without a people.” Everything he does, he does for himself.
In the end, his attempt to curse the Israelite fails. God will not allow it, and turns the curses into blessings as they leave his mouth.
At the end of the portion, the narrative returns to the Israelite camp, where the men have started lusting after idolatrous gods, which causes a supernatural plague breaks out among them.
The story of Balak and Bilaam is revealed to be a red herring. It’s not the external enemies that manage to hurt the Israelites. Instead, they tear themselves apart from the inside.
This is the true message of the portion.
With every attack on us from without, we must strengthen something within—our connection to Hashem, to one another, to goodness, to strength, to vision, to our land, to our language, to the dream of peace, to a different future with those who we currently know only as enemies.
The Bilaams of the world will come and go.
It is on us to turn the curses into blessings.
Excellent commentary!