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Parsha BALAK

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William Hamilton

Jun 29, 2018, 5:58 PM

Justice Kennedy through a more spacious lens

‘Raising the young and pursuing the good’ are two of society’s highest aims. Achieving them, David Brooks reminds us this week, is not a do-it-yourself job. Their realization requires civic responsibility, generous mutuality, and strong community. By contrast, Justice...

Moshe-Mordechai van Zuiden

Jun 29, 2018, 5:54 PM

A warning to wicked leaders: G-d always wins

The Torah Portion of this week is named after a wicked person, Balak, while we normally see such naming as a homage. How can this be? "What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name...

Jun 29, 2018, 2:27 PM

Love trumps hate, right?

Intense emotions can make us lose our minds. People crack their knuckles punching walls in rage. A flaming faribel, ignited by an overreaction to a relatively minor offense, can destroy a friendship or a family. It makes no sense. Love makes no...

Jun 29, 2018, 1:19 PM

Soldiers and semen

From, 'Balaam blessing the Israelites,' as in Numbers 24:1-5, 10-13. Illustration from the 1728 Figures de la Bible; image courtesy Bizzell Bible Collection, University of Oklahoma Libraries (Wikimedia Commons).

If Balaam is so damned despicable, why do we Jews keep quoting him?!

Jun 28, 2018, 4:06 PM

A people that dwells alone

Balaam and the Ass (Pieter Lastman / public domain)

Ever notice how when Jews assimilate, anti-Semitism increases -- and vice versa? (Balak)

Jun 28, 2018, 10:12 AM

‘Eagles and Bats’ Parashat Balak 5778

According to the Talmud in Tractate Megilla , there were forty-eight prophets and seven prophetesses whom Hashem sent to transmit His message to Am Yisrael. The Talmud adds that there were actually many more prophets over the years but...

Sharona Margolin Halickman

Jun 27, 2018, 10:31 PM

Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God

In the Haftara for Parshat Balak (Micha 5:6-6:8), we read the prophecy of Micha which recalls some of the ways in which God protected B’nai Yisrael during the forty years that they spent in the wilderness. One of the...

Ben-Tzion Spitz

Jun 27, 2018, 12:14 AM

Balak: Royal Frailty

Don't forget your great guns, which are the most respectable arguments of the rights of kings. -Frederick the Great The nation of Israel was nearing the end of their punishment of forty years of wandering in the desert. They were...

Ariel Ben Avraham

Jun 24, 2018, 7:45 AM

Parshat Balak: Blessings are forever (II)

“God is not a man that He should lie; neither the son of man that He should repent. When He has said, will He not do it? Or when He has spoken, will He not fulfill it so?” (Numbers...

Jul 24, 2017, 11:57 PM

A blessing and a curse

The rabbi hired to bless a conference then cursed Israel Hired to bless a political conference, Rabbi Sa’ar Shaked took the opportunity to curse Israel. The biblical story of Balaam, inverted, comes to mind. Hired to curse Israel, the wily...

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