Chukas-Balak - Obsessed With Israel

You're listening to the weekly para podcast with Ari Goldwag recorded with Hashem's never ending assistance in Ram 5786 2026. This week's para is paras and in Israel it's parasok and the focus of this para podcast is going to be on the relationship of the Jewish people and the nations of the world. And before I get into that, I want to just let you all know that this para podcast always when we get to para's bulock, it's the completion of a cycle for me. I started 19 years ago with para spinas and that's next week's para in Israel. So when we get to Bulock, it's the completion and for this year we're at 19 years. And one of the things that I want to talk about that has to do with the relationship between the Jewish people and the nations of the world is the 19-year cycle. 19 years of podcasts, 19ear cycle. Every 19 years, we have a realignment of the Jewish calendar and the solar calendar, the lunar calendar and the solar calendar. And in those 19 years, we have seven leap years. Now, this is something that we spoke about in the Msiah podcast which we recorded at the beginning of the war, the October 7th war. And I'm going to speak a little bit, maybe maybe more than a little bit about that cycle, where we are currently in that cycle. It will be a bit of a continuation of what I spoke about in the Msiah podcast two and a half years ago. and understanding what goes on in the cycle and the relationship between the lunar calendar and the solar calendar and how that parallels the relationship between the Jewish people as represented by the moon. Right? The Torah gives the moon to the Jewish people at the Jewish people's inception. how the lunar calendar relates and how the Jewish people relates to the solar calendar which represents the nations of the world. The nations of the world count based on the the sun. 365 days is their calendar. The Jewish calendar is 11 days shorter. 355 days. And so every 3 years we've lost 33 days. Don't worry about the calculations so much. Just understand that we need to add an extra month of 29 12 29 30 days to the the lunar calendar in order to catch up in order for the Jewish calendar to catch up and make sure that we keep pesover is always in the spring. Okay, hold that thought for a moment. I'd like to look at parasukas and I'd like to look at paras Bulock. And I'd like to show you that what's happening here has very much to do with this 19ear cycle, the relationship between the Jewish people and the nations of the world. It also has to do with us very much in our relationship currently with the nations of the world. And it has to do with the fact that in paras we are skipping 38 years of Jewish history. We learned last week if you are in it's about two weeks ago for us in Israel about the story of Korak which was at the beginning of the of the Jewish people's wanderings in the in the wilderness. And we skip in paras to the end of those years to 38 years later when Miriam dies and they lose the well of water. Mosha and Moshe strikes the rock. As we're about to get into Israel, he's not allowed to actually lead us into Israel, but we're standing on the precipice. And then we have interactions as we're coming into Israel. That's when we start to interact with the nations of the world, right? In Egypt, so there was a certain interaction that we had, but we were slaves and then Hashem freed us. It wasn't so much of a national interaction. This is the beginning of the time when the Jewish people are going to conquer the land of Israel, the other side of the Jordan River as well. Killing Og and Sikhon, the Amori, the Amorite people, avoiding the people of Edom, avoiding the people of Moab, avoiding the people of Ammon. And then in in what we're going to read in Israel in part Bok. So we have the Moabitete people seeing what's going on with the Jewish people's interaction with the nations. We'll see more about that. We got to we're going to have to think about it. Okay. But you see the the foundation of both paras and bulock is the beginning of Clai Israel's entrance into the land of Israel which is really the completion of them becoming a nation. Not just the nation that receives the Tyra, which is really what they were doing from the beginning of the 40 years throughout that time. They were just studying Torah. The the Mun was falling. The mana was falling from heaven. They were in paradise. They were in Ganeden, so to speak. They were taken care of. Their clothes never wore out. They were sitting and learning, right? But now Israel is coming into Israel and we're going to be a nation, not just a nation that of course abolishes idolatry, teaches people about one God, teaches people about the the experience at Hari and what it means for everyone to realize the oneness of Hashem and experience that connection between themselves and Hashem etc. talks about what that experience was at RCI. But we're going to be a nation that now represents that and teaches it to the world. So we're going to start interacting with the nations that surround us. We're going to start having interactions with the nations. And if you think about it, that's really what's going on in current Jewish history. Cla is returning to Israel, 7.7 million strong as of the last census, probably getting closer to 8 million. Most of the Jewish people is already in the land of Israel right now. So, and and the Jewish people in Israel are becoming more and more connected to Tyra, more and more connected to Arat Israel, more and more connected to mitzvah, seeking to serve Hashem, seeking to be a nation who serves Hashem in Arit Israel. All right, that's slowly happening. The bones, the dry bones are coming to life. So, but what happens now is, hey, we're here. So something that happens in Paris Balok, I'm a little bit freestyling here on this on this para podcast. I have a lot of thoughts and we'll see what we get to. But something that happens in Paris Bik is you see that first of all, it's a story that we wouldn't even know about the story with Bum and Bulock if not for the fact that that Mosher Rabenu wrote it down in the Tyra because it didn't happen directly to the Jewish people. They were trying to curse the Jewish people from afar. They were trying to stop the Jewish people with spiritual means by getting Hashem to cause damage to Kalisra without directly attacking us. They they felt they couldn't directly battle with us. But what's interesting and I saw brought down in Shalomat's safer of Torah on paras Balak he says that there was something about the Moabitete people specifically the king of Moab of Balok which is that he was focused on the Jewish people. He was worried about the Jewish people. He was upset with the fact that they were coming into the land of Israel. He was afraid that they would run him over, mow him down. And because of that, he was obsessed with them. He was focused on them. He was trying to curse them, trying to stop them. And therefore, he hired Bum. And of course, as we know, Bum was unable to curse the Jewish people. Instead, all he could say was was blessings of the Jewish people. And ultimately, interestingly, Bullock had a great great great great granddaughter whose name was Rus Ruth. And she would be the the forebear of Messiah. She was going to be the great grandmother of David, of King David, and ultimately of Messiah himself, the Messiah. May he arrive soon. But Bulock because of his obsession with the Jewish people, he was connected. You know, there there's different ways of dealing with people that we don't like. One way is that we could just ignore them. Now, if I ignore somebody, so then I'm not really connected to them. I'm not connected to them. I'm not really thinking about them. But what happens to somebody who I'm not interacting with, but I'm always thinking about them. I'm obsessed with them. So, I'm very much connected to them. That's what Kabak points out. I'm very much connected to them. Bulock was extremely connected to the Jewish people. He was obsessed with trying to cause them to have a downfall, which ultimately he succeeds with the daughters of Midian at the end of Paras Bulock. the the obsession with or the connection with the Jewish people that he has ultimately right at the beginning it's a very negative type of situation but ultimately say that because of those the the corbonus that he brought I believe that's what say the sacrifices he brought seven sacrifices to try to convince God to curse the Jewish people but ultimately as a result of his connection it was a negative connection his great great-grandchild as as we said was Russ and if we think about things today if we think about the people who hate us if we think about the people who are obsessed with us right so we start to have what what we're looking at right let's say it's the Iranians they're obsessed with Jerusalem alouds they call it which means kadosh the holy location aluds Kadosh, their obsession with the Jewish people is a relationship with us and they're they're from afar. They're looking at us from afar, right? But they're connected and they're connected to you Shalim. And it was interesting to watch during the October 7th war how as we went into Gaza everywhere we went there was a picture of alkuds the holy location the dome of the rock which is the which is on the location of the shakadosh in the holy of holies of our mikdosh. So there's an obsession there with us, with our holy place, with our makadesh, right? It's not even in the Quran. It refers to alaka, which is maybe in Israel, maybe not, right? But it's a mosque on the side. It's not even the golden dome. There's an obsession with Cla Israel. There's a connection with the Jewish people. We see that with Bulock. We see that today. We see that with the everyone is talking about us, worried about us, thinking about us, targeting us negatively, but focused on us nevertheless because the Jewish people represent something to the world. We have an interaction with the nations of the world. And here's where I'd like to return to the concept of the the 19ear cycle. I just want to point out one more time before the 19ear cycle that in paras as well the para that they're reading outside of Israel in that para as well we have that we're coming into Israel we're interacting with we're destroying og we send messengers saying let us through they they don't want to let us through they stop us we plow through we take over their land right there's an interaction there's an interaction here that's going on as we're coming into Israel Well, with the nations of the world over the years of Gulus, over the years of exile. So, our interaction was a different style, a different type of interaction. As we come into Israel, it's like a different it's like a we become a nation. We stand up as a nation. We're ready to have an influence on the nations of the world. It's important to understand that. Now, let's look for a moment at the 19ear cycle. And something that I spoke about in uh in the Messiah podcast was how the eighth year of the cycle, the eighth year of this 19ear cycle, which is which was already almost 3 years ago, which was the year 2023 or the end of 2023 going into 2024. The eighth year of the 19ear cycle is a special year. Now, what happens is, and follow with me, I'm going to try to say this in a non-technical way. The the Jewish calendar, the lunar calendar is always falling behind. If you notice, Pesak is at a different time each year. If you look at the at the solar calendar, right, it falls back each year. Usually, it falls back except when there's a leap year. It pushes forward. Okay? every year falls back about 11 days and when there's a leap year it pushes forward 33 days or I'm sorry 30 days 29 or 30 days. So this year so this year Pesak was 11 days earlier than last year and actually this year's Pesak was the one of the earliest that it could be next year because it's a leap year. Next year because it's a leap year pesak is going to be 30 days later than it was last year. this this year. Okay. The idea here is that we have this relationship, this back and forth between the solar calendar and the lunar calendar, but also between the Jewish people and the nations of the world. There's an interactive play. There's a there's an interplay between us. And it represents the fact that there are times when the Jewish people is stronger. When the Jewish calendar gets ahead, when the Jewish calendar move calendar moves forward in the solar calendar, so then the Jewish people have more power so to speak. It represents the fact that the Jewish people, this the who are represented by the moon, we have more power. So, for example, the eighth year of the cycle, what's special and unique, it's the only year of the 19ear cycle where the Jewish calendar pushes ahead of the non-Jewish cal of the secular calendar, the solar calendar. On the 19th year, it returns to the same place. Every 19 years, the Jewish calendar and the solar calendar are aligned exactly. After that it falls back every year for three years falls back. 11 days 11 days it falls back. It gets gets closer on the third year there's another there's a leap year and then three years later there's another leap year. But now here's the thing. There's two spots where instead of waiting three years instituted that you only wait two years before you have a before you have a leap year. Stay with me. Stay with me. I know it's a little technical, but stay with me. So, it's the eighth year and the 19th year. The eighth year and the 19th year of the cycle, we have a push forward that pushes us past. So, in the eth year, it pushes us past the secular calendar. And in the 19th year, it it realigns it exactly with the secular calendar. Now, what happens in the eth year? What happens in the eth year? 1848 was the eighth year of the cycle. 1967 was the eighth year of the cycle. which was the year of gushkif was the eighth year of the cycle. And 2024 was again the eighth year of the cycle. The next one will be in 2043. But what happens is the beauty of it is that there's a push forward and I I like to say there's a push forward in the Messiah process because really the Messiah process is about clal Israel being in a state where we are sometimes crushed because our egos need to be crushed because we've gotten too far into thinking that it's our power. But either it's our egos are crushed or as it was in 1940 1967 there's a huge movement forward for KL Israel 1967 we got backim we got back Harabayas we got back the Kaiso but as we get complacent as we start to lose sight of what we're doing here so there's there can be a crushing of the ego that's what happened in 2005 that's what happened again starting with the October 7th war which was at the beginning of the Jewish year of Tshin Palid which was the leap year. Now what happens after that? Right? This is something I've always thought about. I've wondered about what happens after that. So look at the pattern. The lunar calendar falls behind 11 days and then falls behind 11 days and falls behind 11 days. So in our relationship with the nations of the world, we are losing power. We are losing. They're ahead of us, so to speak. They're ahead of us. So, interesting thing. If you look at the calendar, this year on the 23rd of Son, we had less power. How do I know? Because last year on the 23rd of Son, there was a war that started with Iran. This year as well, there was a one-day war. Oh, a few hours. But last year, we had a 12-day war. This year was a 12-h hour war. But there's a push back. there's a move back away from us having the power and and also notice like at the beginning of the October 7th war. So we had a certain strength. We were not being as supported by American administration. And then at this point in the war, right, of course we did have a battle with Iran from Purum until Pesak till the end of Pesak. But it was it was being led by Ed. It was being led by the nations of the world. So in a certain sense, the nations of the world were taking charge, taking power, taking power away from us, leading that war. Maybe on our behalf, maybe for their own benefit. Not clear. We'll see how it plays out. But the essence of the idea is that there's an interplay between us and the nations of the world. Kal Israel sometimes has power and sometimes loses power. The nations of the world sometimes have more power, sometimes have less. Depends where we are. If we ha if we have our leap year, but we're coming in now to a leap year and leap year start, if you remember, you may not. what I spoke about in in the Mashiah podcast, go look at that if if you're interested, is that the leap year really starts. We have that month of the leap month, this extra month, which is Ad Base, the second month of Ad. That's going to be next year right before Pes before Passover. But if you count nine months before, it's called it's called which means the pregnant year, right? Because we get an extra month. There's a pregnancy. There's a there's something that's being born in the in the extra in the month in the year with an extra month. And what's being born is a move forward for the Jewish people, a forward movement in our power, in our standing in the world, in our relationship with the um with the nations of the world. So if you count back nine months, right, nine months is the Eburn Roesh, right? I pointed that out last year. And it comes, it starts to un unravel, reveal, right? When do you see a woman is pregnant? After 3 months. So a el tish at the end of tish. So three years ago, the end of tish was October 7th. It was at the very end of susra. Right. So we're we're going to start to see a re a revelation a manifestation of a process where Israel by other time next year we're going to be in a state of movement towards getting ahead so to speak in the balance of the power between the Jewish people and the nations of the world. That's how things are going to reveal themselves, right? That's how things reveal themselves. I don't know what it's going to look like. That's not what I'm coming to say. But what I am coming to say, what I am trying to show is that the Jewish people has a relationship with the nations of the world. And one of the things that you see is that the Jewish people, we are the ones who count by the moon. They count by the sun. And says as as Bum says in his blessing of the Jewish people, we are a unique nation. We're not counted in the nations, right? Uh the the nations of the world and when they start to see us getting too cozy with them, they point out to us that we are separate. So they have this relationship with us, this lovehate relationship with us because really we are meant to be the light unto the nations. We are the soul of the nations of the world. Right? The soul is separate from the body. The soul animates the body. But the soul has its own thing. It inhabits the body. The body is its own thing. The soul is its own thing. Right? That's why when a person dies, the body goes to where it came from and the soul goes back to where it came from. Right? The Jewish people are also the soul of the nations of the world. So we we are one nation. We we dwell alone and when we get confused about that we need a reminder and we need a reminder and that's what happened and history repeats itself. But the idea here is that as we come into Israel, as we said at the beginning, as we come into Israel, we are establishing ourselves as a nation, a unique nation, a special nation. We're no longer mixed up amongst the nations of the world. We're no longer in a place of where we can so easily assimilate and believe ourselves to be like them. Right? What happens when a person who's spiritual gets caught up in physicality? We forget who we really are. We get confused. We get caught in the illusion. When we come back to Israel, we're in that process right now. And that's what we're seeing in parasel is coming to establish themselves as a nation in Israel. And they have to interact with the nations of the world. And the nations of the world don't know what to do with us. What what are the Jews doing here? Why are they coming to battle us? We don't even want to deal with Moab. The Moabitete nations were we're enjoying not to not to mess with. Don't start up with them. Right? But still they don't know what to do with us. Are they supposed to engage with us? They sense that there is some kind of engagement. There is some kind of connection. When Kaiso returns to Israel, there is some kind of connection. There is some kind of something that's going on. We're establishing ourselves, but we have to remain clear who we are. We have to remain clear. What's the mistake that we make? What's the mistake that Bum gets us to make? It's that we fall prey to the Midionite women. We fall prey to their idolatry. We fall prey to their ws. And the result is that we lose our specialness. We lose our kaduca. Right? at the end of paras Balak. So we have the Midionite princess is losing is causing Zimry Ben Solo the the prince of Shimon to lose his specialness and Pinas comes and he brings back the specialness of he stops them again for the plague stops. when we have lost our sense of who we are and our separateness from the nations. We have to be who we are in order to have an effect on them. And so our calendar represents that because there's a different way that we count things. But there's an alignment. We're we're bringing it into alignment. Every 19 years we have an alignment but it goes out of alignment because we are who we are and they are who they are and we need to be the spiritual inspiration for the nations of the world. We have to get clarity about what is our purpose here in Israel. What is our purpose in the world? Part of that is recognizing where we belong. We belong in Israel. And I'll tell you that even individuals within Israel, we need to get clarity about that. When we have boys being sent to jail because they're not joining the army because they're learning Torah, right? That's a reminder how important the Tyra is. and the secular part of the Jewish people. The fact that they're obsessed with theim, they're obsessed with the lime trying to get them is a similar parallel to the nations of the word world versus the Jewish people. So within the Jewish people, we also have this and we need to have the clarity about who we are. We have the clarity about what is our toughkit here. Our purpose is do I know why I'm sitting and learning? Do I know what the purpose is? Do I know that the point is to give me a real relationship with to give me a real relationship with God? I need to have that clarity. If I have that clarity, then the relationship the relationship is no longer a waring relationship becomes a relationship of me being an example. Once I'm that example properly, all of the animosity falls. When Cl Israel is doing what we're supposed to do, the nations of the world see that their animosity falls. We won't need this kind of army if we're doing what we're supposed to do in Israel because they will respect us and they will learn from us. I want to bless you, ask you to bless me. Shem should help us to understand and see the relationship that each and every one of us has in relationship to those around us. Each one of us has the ability to be a spiritual being that inspires those around us just like the Jewish people are meant to do to the nations of the world. And each one of us has the ability should help us to see that we all have the ability to be the kind of great person that we can be and inspire everyone around us. Thank you so much for listening. Have a wonderful Shabas. This podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you. For more podcasts like this, please visit www.ariegoldwag.com or search on iTunes Arig Goldwag.