Parshah • July 2024
Balak – Everyone and Everything Can Change
Balak was an unsavoury character bent on destroying the Jewish people. He spent fortunes trying. So why name a Torah Parsha after him? The nature of the world is to…
Parshah • July 2022
Balak – Despite All Odds
Some people just thrive on being prophets of doom. One such person was the King Balak in this week’s parsha of the same name. Noting the approach of the Jewish…
Parshah • July 2020
Chukat Balak – Spiritual, Yet Evil
In this double Sedra of Chukas-Balak, we encounter the enigmatic and perplexing personnage of Bila’am. Endowed with extremely high spiritual capacities (some say equivalent to Moses) he presents as an…
Parshah • July 2018
Balak – Drawing Fire from a Stone
When a leading shaman magician, King Balak, teams up with powerful wizard, Bila’am, to curse the Jewish people, except that the curse is transformed by G-d into a blessing. Mistakenly…
Parshah • July 2017
Balak – Does Evil Possess Power?
While Bil’am seems to possess mystical evil powers, these can only exist in a vacuum devoid of good. That’s how his intended curse is transformed into a blessing, which is…
Parshah • July 2016
Balak – Leadership at Any Price?
In this week’s Sedra we read of an ethical dilemma. Pinchas spears a foreign princess of the Moabites who is luring away a prince of Israel, Zimri – killing both…
Parshah • July 2014
Balak – Fortune Tellers Can’t Fiddle With Fate
Why name it after an evil non Jewish soothsayer? There are higher spiritual powers – but for bad as well as good That’s why we don’t access ‘fortune tellers’ and…