Bulletin Balak

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Shabbat Shalom • ouka ,ca
Parshat Balak – 10 Tamuz 5782 • July 9, 2022
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Kiddush Sponsors
We dedicate or Shabbat Kiddush
Luncheon to our friends in
Highland Park, IL and share the
sorrow of the community following
the harrowing events of July 4 th
Kiddush Maven: Rosalee Bogo
Assisted by: Mel Goldfine
and Joe & Sue Hammerman
To sponsor a kiddush, please contact Linda Scheinberg
missus205@gmail.com
Join Rabbi Chorny
for his weekly discussion
group, Tuesdays at
12:15 p.m. via

Yahrtzeiten
July 8 • Tamuz 9 Bertha Weiss – Grandmother of Mark Wasserman
July 10 • Tamuz 11 Albert Barber – Father of Martin & Barry Barber
Bill Morgan – Father of Jay Kaye
July 11 • Tamuz 12 Haskell Nemeroff – Father of Judith Adelman
Solomon Wasserman – Father of Mark Wasserman
Bertha Hecht – Relative of Arnold Bresnick
Lois Levin – Wife of Samuel Levin
July 12 • Tamuz 13 Mason Kronick – Father of Carol Mest
July 13 • Tamuz 14 Bernie Alpert – Husband of Fran Alpert
Rabbi Chezi Zionce – Friend of The Sivakoffs
July 15 • Tamuz 16 Helen Kramer – Mother of Nancy Garfinkel
Birthdays
July 8 Samuel Levin
July 13 Ferne Walpert, Jeffrey Margolis
July 14 Anne Rubenfeld
July 15 Bruce Bier
Torah & Haftarah Readings:
Shabbat Balak: Numbers 22:3 9-25:9 (Etz Hayim p. 899)
1. 22:39-23:5 2. 23:6-12 3. 23:13-26 4. 23:27-30
5. 24:1-13 6. 24:14-25 7. 25:1-9 M. 25:7-9 (p. 908)
Haftarah: Micah 5:6-6:8 (Etz Hayim p. 915)
Torah / Haftarah Summary
D'var Torah:
There has never been another prophet in Israel like Moses
– Rabbi Joel Levy
The wandering Israelites repeatedly reach out to the local Middle-
Eastern kingdoms to ask for safe passage through their lands and
then defeat them in battle once those peace overtures have been
rejected (the exception - their ignominious retreat from the Edomites in
Numbers 20:21). By the time they reach the border with the Moabites
the local tribes are thoroughly rattled. Balak, the king of Moab,
realises that the Israelites cannot be defeated militarily and that
maybe spiritual force could succeed where physical force cannot.
He summons the most prestigious regional prophet, Bil'am, son of
Be'or, to come and curse the Israelites for him.
What follows is a highly unsettling series of encounters between
Bil'am and Balak, recounted at great length in Parshat Balak. If we
had previously thought that the Israelites had an exclusive line of
communication with YHVH, creator of the universe, this parashah
shatters that illusion. Bil'am seems to have a degree of intimacy and
constancy in his relationship with God that we may not even see
amongst our own prophets. He calls God by the intimate name,
YHVH, that we might have thought was reserved for the exclusive

elationship between the Israelites and God; a name whispered
to Moses at the burning bush. Each time that he is asked to come
and curse the Israelites, Bil'am requests time to check in with God,
receives clear guidance from YHVH and seems to follow it to
the letter. Bil'am repeatedly and unswervingly says that he is not
capable of casting powerful blessings or curses upon anyone, for he
is merely a vehicle for transmitting God's will:
"If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold I cannot
go beyond the word of YHVH my God, to do less or more" (22:18)
"Have I now any power to say anything? The word that God puts in
my mouth, that shall I speak!" (22:38)
"How will I curse when God has not cursed?" (23:8)
In his dealings with Balak, a local source of military and coercive
political force, Bil'am seems direct and honest. In modern terms
we might say that he has the courage to "talk truth to power".
Despite repeated attempts at bribery and intimidation he sticks
to his guns. In the end he emerges unscathed from the encounter,
"returning to his place" (24:25).
The midrash (Bemidbar Rabbah 14:19) acknowledges Bil'am's
greatness. Basing itself on the final verses of the Torah that
emphasise Moses' stature as a leader and prophet , "And there
arose not a prophet since in Israel like Moses" (Deut. 34:10, a
verse immortalised in the piyut "Yigdal Elohim Chai") the midrash adds, "...
in Israel there arose not, but in the nations of the world he did arise,
in order that the nations not be encouraged to open their mouths
and say 'If only had we a prophet like Moses then we too would have
become worshipers of the Holy Blessed One'. And who was their
prophet 'like Moses'? Bil'am ben Be'or." The midrash goes on to
analyse the differences between Moses' prophetic skills and Bil'am's
and suggests that Bil'am exceeded Moses' prophetic capacities in
three distinct areas, focussing on the constancy and predictability
of Bil'am's line of communication with God, an idea that seems to
emerge directly from the story in the parashah.
What is the Torah teaching us here about who has access to
knowledge of the will of Holy Blessed One? One of the consequences
of being a monotheist is that you have to learn to share your God
with everyone!
D’var Haftarah:
Life's Tightrope – Rabbi Ed Romm
The prophets Isaiah and Micah were contemporaries, both living during
the reign of Hezekiah, a period in which the Assyrian empire threatened
the fate of the nation. In one of the prophecies in this week’s haftarah,
Micah uses imagery found in a famous prophecy of Isaiah’s in a way

which seems to be a response to the latter’s message. A comparison of
the two prophecies offers us a window into two theological approaches
to the problems which confronted them and perhaps some insight into
debates going on in the contemporary Jewish world as well.
If there is one prophecy for which Isaiah is famous, it is this one: “The
wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard lie down with the kid, the
calf, the beast of prey and the fating together, with a little boy to herd
them.” (Isaiah 11:6) Isaiah, who was the older of the two, seems to have
had an idyllic approach to the problems of his day. God would cause the
animals of prey, namely Israel’s adversaries, to dwell in peace with their
victims, Israel.
Micah offers a contrasting picture: “The remnant of Jacob shall be among
the nations, in the midst of the many peoples like a lion among beasts
of the wild, like a fierce lion among flocks of sheep, which tramples
wherever it goes and rends, with none to deliver.” (5:7) In this vision, the
metaphors are reversed. Israel is identified with the lion and the flocks
of sheep as Israel’s adversaries. In this prophecy, it is Israel who would
bring about the redemption by overcoming its enemies.
Rabbi Y. ben Nun and Rabbi B. Lau suggest that it is no coincidence
that Micah chose the same metaphors as Isaiah. They note that Micah’s
message was likely a challenge to Isaiah’s. Where Isaiah presumed that
the world’s troubles would be healed by God, who would bring a utopian
solution, Micah was pragmatic, asserting that problems were to be
resolved on the ground in a realistic fashion. (Yishayahu, pp. 301-2)
The conflict between these two approaches is just as apparent today as
it was then. There is a presumption among some that idyllic solutions
to problems exist and that they will miraculously cure Israel’s or the
world’s troubles. Blink an eye and utopia will appear just like that. If
the suggested interpretation is right, Micah is challenging this idea.
The solution to problematic situations is a difficult and arduous process
which people must make happen without abdicating responsibility
and without the expectation that miracles come without toil. Micah’s
message is a good reminder that miraculous messianism in all of its
ideological permutations may ultimately be an impediment rather than
a booster to a better world.
“...rautn vhfnu`u vc ohehzjnk thv ohhj Jg”
“She is a tree of life to those who embrace her;
Remember
those who
Lunch-N-Learn
hold her tight are happy…”
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