To
My Dear Students,
In
this week's Torah Portion, Balak, King of Moab
anticipates war with the children of Israel who
are marching through the wilderness. He
commissions a gentile prophet, Bilaam, to curse
the Israelites with the goal that the Israelites
will then lose the forthcoming battle.
But
here is a question: Why did King Balak ask
Bilaam to curse Israel so that they should lose,
rather than ask him to bless the Moabites so that
they would win? Wouldn't it have been preferable
to hire Bilaam to bless his own people so that
they would be victorious in war, to do something
positive rather than negative?
Balak's
strategy proves that the intention of Israel's
enemies is not to benefit their own people but
to do evil to Israel. Their rage against
Israel, in Biblical times and today, is not a
result of their love of their own people but out
of hatred for the Jewish people. They do
not seek blessings for their own as much as curses
for Israel.
That
is why the Arabs have kept their people in refugee
camps and have oppressed them so. They are
more concerned with attacking Israel than helping
their own. They prefer to spend their petrodollars
on weapons of mass destruction than on programs
that could benefit their own people. They
maintain a state of war against Israel rather
than build their own countries in peace.
When Prime Minister Barak offered the Palestinians
well over 90% of everything they asked for, his
proposal was rejected without even presenting
a counter-offer. The Palestinians were more
enthusiastic over perpetual war with Israel than
over the possibility of lifting up their own people.
The
irony is that the result of their cursing Israel
is that they bring down a curse upon their own
people and their own land.
This
will be the last Shabbat Thought until, G-d willing,
I return in August. I hope you enjoyed this past
year's inspirational messages!
Shabbat
Shalom,
Your
Rabbi
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