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Welcome to our study of Parasha Balak (Destroyer), the weekly Torah
portion that will be read in every synagogue around the world during
this week's Shabbat (Saturday) morning service.
May you be blessed as you read along with us !
“And Balak [בָּלָק] the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites.”
(Numbers 22:2)
Last week’s Parasha (Torah portion) ended with Israel seeking to pass through the land of the Amorites
on their way to the Promised Land. The Amorites responded with war, but with God's help, Israel defeated them.
In this week’s Parasha, we see the overpowering strength of God’s blessing on Israel. When Balak,
the king of Moab, sent a sorcerer named Balaam to curse Israel, he found that he could not do so.
Although Balaam was commissioned to pronounce a curse over Israel, he found he could only
ssue a blessing, saying, “How shall I curse whom God has not cursed?” (Numbers 23:8)
Many might come against the nation of Israel, but no one can curse those whom Adonai Himself has blessed !
The Moabite King Balak, whose name means waste or to lay waste, wanted to lay waste the nation of Israel.
To his dismay, he found that he was unable to do so because of God’s blessing upon her.
You can view this Parasha on our website complete with embedded links ...
Balak: The Power of God’s Blessing
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Parasha Reading Schedule 5775
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"Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the universe,
who has sanctified us with His commandments, and
commanded us to kindle the light of the Holy Shabbat."
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Yavoh ~ He is coming !
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Beloved Ted Belman posts ...
TWO VERY IMPORTANT ARTICLES
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The Plan to Eradicate Israel
by Ted Belman (originally published Sept 2012)
According to Franklin Lamb, Foreign Policy Journal, the pro-Israel Community is all hot a bothered by an alleged new study: “It’s a paper entitled “Preparing For A Post Israel Middle East”, an 82-page analysis that concludes that the American national interest in fundamentally at odds with that of Zionist Israel. The authors conclude that Israel is currently the greatest threat to US national interests because its nature and actions prevent normal US relations with Arab and Muslim countries and, to a growing degree, the wider international community.” The existence of such a study, even in draft form, is hard to credit as no corroborating evidence has been supplied. But what is certain is that the Arabs have long wanted Israel eradicated from the Middle East and that Lamb has been a notorious shill for them. See here and here and here. The same can be said of elements in the State Department, academia and current and past administrations. [...]
http://www.israpundit.org/
Jews, Communists and Democrats
by Ted Belman (originally published in Dec 2011
I just began reading Blacklisted by History; The Untold Story of Joe McCarthy. It seeks to establish that many of the people that McCarthy targeted unsuccessfully were later proven to be communists. It brought back many memories for me. I grew up in the forties and fifties. My father’s family, like many other Polish Jewish families in Canada, were avowed Communists. They were dedicated to Jewish rights, workers’ rights and marched in the streets to advance their causes. They even managed to get one of their own, J P Salsberg, elected to the Ontario legislature representing the Communist Party, then called the Labour-Progressive Party. [...]
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Here is more Truth ...
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem
by Stuart Kaufman
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
Let my right hand forget her cunning.
Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth,
If I remember thee not;
If I set not Jerusalem above my chiefest joy.
Psalm 137:5-7
I am a Jew. I am a man of faith. I believe in the G-d* of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I believe in the Five Books of Moses, called by Jews “the Torah,” called by others the “Hebrew Bible” and by still others the “Old Testament.” I believe in my heart that G-d granted the land of Israel to the Jewish nation to be held for eternity. Finally, I believe that Jerusalem is and will always be the absolute and undivided capital of the state of Israel. [...]
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Will Israel Save America ?
Without a sense of exceptionalism, a country of chosen people cannot prosper
by David Goldman, TABLET
Biblical Israel was America’s inspiration. Its successor, the State of Israel, yet may be America’s salvation, though usually the issue is put the other way around. America’s founders, to be sure, saw in their “new nation, conceived in liberty” a new Israel, and Lincoln dubbed Americans an “almost chosen people.” We long since put the notion of national election on the back shelf along with other memorabilia of the Revolution and Civil War. But Israel’s founding and fight for survival strike a chord in our national character that reminds of us what we were and still should be. The notion of “national election,” to be sure, has scant purchase in a world where every identity group claims the right to the equality of its own narrative. It evokes Europe’s wars of national aggrandizement, foreign wars to make the world safe for democracy, and the marginalization of minorities. The notion that one nation’s narrative might trump another’s offends the leveling Zeitgeist: Identity politics excludes the distinction between good and evil, for every narrative is valid in its own terms. That was the nub of President Barack Obama’s oft-quoted 2009 remark, “I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.” [...]
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Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.
Proverbs 14:34 KJV
Shabbat Shalom - Parasha Balak (Destroyer) - Power of God's Blessing !!!
The yad (Torah pointer) helps readers keep their place in the passage without touching the handwritten text and without obstructing the view of other readers standing on the podium.
Shabbat
Shalom from the Holy Land !
Welcome to our study of Parasha Balak (Destroyer),
the weekly Torah portion that will be read in every
synagogue around the world during this week's Shabbat
(Saturday) morning service.
May you be blessed as you read along with us!
BALAK (Destroyer)
Numbers 22:2–25:9; Micah 5:6–6:8; 2 Peter
2:1–22
“And Balak [בָּלָק]
the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the
Amorites.” (Numbers 22:2)
Last week’s Parasha (Torah portion) ended with Israel
seeking to pass through the land of the Amorites on their
way to the Promised Land. The Amorites responded with war,
but with God's help, Israel defeated them.
In this week’s Parasha, we see the overpowering
strength of God’s blessing on Israel. When
Balak, the king of Moab, sent a sorcerer named Balaam to
curse Israel, he found that he could not do so.
Balaam Prophesies the Glory of Israel, by James Tissot
Although Balaam was commissioned to pronounce a
curse over Israel, he found he could only issue a
blessing, saying, “How
shall I curse whom God has not cursed?” (Numbers
23:8)
Many might come
against the nation of Israel, but no one can curse those
whom Adonai Himself has blessed!
The Moabite King Balak,
whose name means waste or
to lay waste, wanted to
lay waste the nation of Israel. To his dismay, he found
that he was unable to do so because of God’s blessing upon
her.
Why did King Balak feel so threatened by Israel that he
felt the need to have her cursed? It is because Balak,
along with his elders, had heard of the Israelites stunning
victories over the mighty enemies of Sihon and Og.
Therefore, deciding that it would be too risky to fight
Israel directly, they hired a “spiritual mercenary,” Balaam,
who was a heathen sorcerer, to put a “hex” on their enemies.
Although we may consider this an ancient superstition, many
practice magic even today.
For instance, in the United States there exists a form
of Louisiana Voodoo (also known as New Orleans Voodoo). It
is rooted in West African Dahomeyan Vodun came to the
American south through the slave trade.
The Bible strictly forbids the people of God to
practice such sorcery; neither are we to seek guidance
from astrologers, sorcerers, psychics or those who consult
with the dead:
“When
you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving
you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of
those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone
who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire,
or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one
who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures
spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up
the dead.
“For
all who do these things are an abomination to the LORD,
and because of these abominations the LORD your God drives
them out from before you. You shall be blameless before
the LORD your God. For these nations which you
will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners;
but as for you, the LORD your God has not appointed such
for you.” (Deuteronomy 18:9–13)
Handwritten Torah scroll
Sadly, the rise in the popularity and
acceptance of books and films such as the Harry Potter
series has led some Christians to break this serious
commandment at their own peril.
As the world becomes darker and more terrifying, many
people seek guidance and comfort from such sorcerers and
others skilled in the occult arts; but as God’s people we
are to “come out from among
them and be separate.” (2 Corinthians 6:17)
The adversary of humankind seeks to deceive and enslave
people through a variety of methods—false doctrines mixed
with true doctrines, false religions, fleshly
temptations—through spiritists, books, TV, and more.
But those who
follow Yeshua (Jesus) actually have an advantage that is
superior to any of those methods. Believers have the
Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) to lead and
guide them into all truth; therefore, they do not need to
stumble around in the kingdom of darkness looking for
direction from those who serve the evil one.
God promises that if we seek Him with all of our heart,
we will find Him (Jeremiah 29:13), and that those
who are His sheep will hear His voice (John 10:27).
He has not left us to our devices wondering which way we
should go.
People walk down a narrow street in the Old City of Jerusalem.
The Power of the
Tongue
Even though most people in today’s modern,
Western culture do not purposefully engage in placing
curses on others, people frequently unknowingly affect
others in a negative sense with their words.
The Bible tells us
that the power of life or death is in our tongue
(Proverbs 18:21); therefore, we need to be
deliberate when we speak about or over other people, ensuring that our words are
constructive and lifegiving.
Not everyone has been so privileged to have blessings
spoken over their life, especially as a child. All too
often parents, teachers, and other children are unkind or
speak appallingly ungodly words over another.
Name-calling, criticism, and belittling comments are
common occurrences in our human experience.
Oftentimes these negative words can pierce the heart and
soul of a child or adult. Such false labels as the
following are taken to heart and believed to be true:
loser, stupid, clumsy, lazy, hopeless, ugly, bad,
worthless, inept, idiot, jerk, brat, or unlovable.
What is the answer to this very real problem? How can
we escape the multitude of word curses spoken over us? The
answer is found in Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus the Messiah)!
Not only do we find unconditional love and acceptance
with Yeshua; but also the blood of the Messiah has the power
to break every curse that has ever been spoken over
us—whether intentionally or out of ignorance.
Yeshua became a curse for us so that we could be
redeemed and set free from every curse: “Messiah redeemed us from the curse
of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written:
'Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.'" (Galatians
3:13)
Two four-year-old Israeli boys discuss football (soccer).
Blessing and
Cursing the Jewish People
By taking upon himself the task of cursing the Jews,
Balaam entered into Jewish history books as Balaam HaRashah
(Balaam [or Bilam] the Wicked). Although
he called himself a prophet of God, he was motivated more
by profit than the gift of prophecy.
In Judaism, some consider his name to mean without a nation or people (bli
– am), suggesting that by going to curse
Israel he became excluded or cut off from a place in the World to Come (Olam
haBah).
The reality that Balak and Balaam ignored is that God
has promised to bless those who bless the descendants of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; and to curse those who curse us. (Genesis
12:3)
How many people or nations are cutting themselves off
from blessing and a place in Heaven by attempting to curse
the Jews?
Although Balaam
possessed legendary powers, they were tiny compared to
God’s power.
Three times Balaam tried to curse Israel and three times
he involuntarily blessed them instead.
A Jewish father holds his child close as he
prays at the Western (Wailing) Wall in the
Old City of Jerusalem.
Over the centuries, many peoples and nations
have tried to destroy Israel, like Balak, but none have
succeeded to wipe Israel off the map as they have desired.
Hamas and other Islamist terrorist groups have written
into their charters the goal of annihilating Israel and
driving her people into the sea. This desire to annihilate
the Jewish People has been shared by Nazi Germany, the
Spanish Empire, Byzantine Empire, Assyrian Empire,
Philistines, ancient Persia (see Book of Esther), and more.
Why has Israel
survived against all odds even to today?
It is because of God’s covenantal promise to the seed or
offspring of Israel:
“Thus
says the LORD, who gives the sun for a light by day, the
ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night,
who disturbs the sea, and its waves roar (The LORD of
Hosts is His name): ‘If those ordinances depart from
before Me,’ says the LORD, ‘then the seed of Israel shall
also cease from being a nation before Me forever.’” (Jeremiah
31:35–36)
God has blessed the Jewish People, and they are as
secure as the stars in the sky.
The Milky Way Galaxy over Israel's Negev Desert
Even though God has made the survival and
ultimate salvation of Israel secure, Psalm 83 prophesies
that in the Last Days, a confederacy will be formed before
our very eyes that intends to wipe out the name of Israel
forever:
“They have taken crafty
counsel against Your people, and consulted together
against Your sheltered ones. They have said, ‘Come, and
let us cut them off from being a nation, that the
name of Israel may be remembered no more.’” (Psalm
83:3–4)
In a recent move that may prove extremely dangerous for
the United States, a Supreme Court ruling declared that any
American citizen born in Jerusalem may not declare “Israel”
as the country of birth on their passport. The court can
try to wipe the name of Israel off American documents, but
they will not succeed in causing the name of Israel to be
remembered no more.
There is only one
way that Israel may be defeated; that is, through her
own sin—by turning away from God. This
is what happened to the people of Israel in this Parasha.
Although Balak and Balaam failed in bringing a curse upon
Israel, they brought destruction upon themselves by
committing sexual immorality with the Moabite women and
worshiping their god Baal-peor.
“So Israel was joined to
Baal of Peor, and the anger of the LORD was aroused
against Israel.” (Numbers 25:3)
Seeing His Chosen People worship pagan gods enraged God
and resulted in a plague that killed 24,000 Israelites.
Scripture reveals that it was Balaam, who counseled the
Midianites to ruin Israel through association with their
women. (Numbers 31:7–16)
The Rabbis, therefore, also discern another meaning of
the name of Balaam as bilu-am—one
who confused the nation.
An illustration from The Bible and Its Story
(1908) depicting the Midianite women
seducing the Israelite men as a means to
bring them under a curse.
What happened in the end to Balaam? After being
ridiculed by his own donkey, who miraculously tried to save
him by telling him about the end that lay before him, Balaam
finally died in a battle with the Israelites. (Numbers
31:8)
So ended the life of one who was motivated by
greed and selfish ambition rather than by God’s
righteousness.
The Book of Jude underscores the error of false prophets
like Balaam: “Woe to them!
For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily
in the error of Balaam for profit, and
perished in the rebellion of Korah.” (Jude 1:11)
What was this grave error of Balaam that was serious
enough to be included alongside Cain, who murdered his
brother (Genesis 4), and Korah, who led a
rebellion against Moses that resulted in the deaths of many
Israelites (Numbers 16)?
The Pirkei Avot
(Ethics of the Fathers) contrasts Balaam’s sins with
Abraham's righteousness:
Whoever possesses the
following three traits is of the disciples of our father
Abraham; and whoever possesses the opposite three traits is
of the disciples of the wicked Balaam. The disciples of our
father Abraham have a good eye, a meek spirit and a humble
soul. The disciples
of the wicked Balaam have an evil eye [greed/envy], a
haughty spirit and a gross soul.... The
disciples of our father Abraham benefit in this world and
inherit the World To Come, and as is stated, "To bequeath to those who love Me
there is, and their treasures I shall fill" (Proverbs
8:21). The
disciples of the wicked Balaam inherit purgatory and
descent into the pit of destruction, as
is stated, "And You, G-d,
shall cast them into the pit of destruction; bloody and
deceitful men, they shall not attain half their days. And
I shall trust in you"
(Psalm 55:23). (Chabad)
(Psalm 55:23). (Chabad)
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men in Tel Aviv show passersby how to put
on tefillin (phylacteries) and pray.
Yeshua also referred to Balaam, saying
to the Believers at Pergamum: “Nevertheless,
I have a few things against you: You have people there who
hold to the teaching of Balaam, who
taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating
food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual
immorality.” (Revelation 2:14)
Peter also
referenced Balaam in his warnings to Believers—may the
people of God today take heed:
“They
have left the straight way and wandered off to follow
the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of
wickedness. But he was rebuked for his
wrongdoing by a donkey—a beast without speech—who spoke
with a man's voice and restrained the prophet's madness.
“These
men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm.
Blackest darkness is reserved for them. For they mouth empty,
boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires
of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just
escaping from those who live in error.”
(2 Peter 2:15–18)
(2 Peter 2:15–18)
A woman hikes in the Hittin Region of Israel. (Israel Tourism photo
by Tal Glick and Amir Moran)
Why are there so many warnings about Balaam? And how
are they relevant today?
Balaam, even after failing to curse Israel
directly, continued to associate and co-operate with those
who sought Israel’s destruction.
There are some within the Christian Church who not only
associate with, but also financially support people,
charities, and causes with an anti-Israel and even
anti-Semitic agenda.
From the example
of Balak and Balaam, we can see that being drawn into
despising Israel is a dangerous path—and “talking
donkeys appear to be in short supply these days!”
(Wild Olive)
May God’s people disassociate from those who curse
Israel and teach anti-Semitic lies. May the followers of
Yeshua, both Jews and Gentiles, choose to stand with Israel
to the very end and continue in holiness.
Let us bless Israel and pray that God will save her from
all those enemies who try to curse her. Let us also pray
that the Jewish People will seek after God with all of their
hearts and will walk in righteousness before Him. It is
then they will find Him.
Many have falsely said that God is finished with His
Chosen People; however, Bible prophecy clearly states that
this will never be so. In fact, in these Last Days, God is
moving among His people to physically and spiritually
restore them.
"Hear the word of the
LORD, you nations; proclaim it in distant coastlands: 'He
who scattered Israel will gather them and will watch over
His flock like a shepherd.'" (Jeremiah 31:10)
"Then I will give
you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with
knowledge and understanding." (Jeremiah 3:15)
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