Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: Reversing a Curse into a Blessing

Hi everybody. We have a small in-person group but tonight I'm not sure if it's because of COVID which kind of the the unpleasant guest that doesn't go away but as Hashem we hope that everybody will recover and today's share is dedicated to a full shlema to Zvi ben Abraham and Bryna bat Chava. May they have a full shlema betoch shaar cholei Yisrael. And this is also for Benjamin Yisrael ben Halevi Gansher. His first yahrzeit will be coming this Shabbos on Yud Tammuz. And again the Ganshers have become very dear friends of me personally and the Ebanes generally. And we wish them much much comfort and may all of the Torah that is learned both here and all of the other things that they sponsor may that be leilui Nishmat Benjamin Yisrael. Today we're going to be reading Parshas Balak this coming Shabbos. And again you need to understand a few things. The Torah basically skips over 38 and a half years of our history. In other words what happened was the very first year, you know, we leave Mitzrayim, we get the Torah we build a Mishkan that's already the second year because Nissan is the second year. Then a few months later we have the spies and the Jews are condemned to wander for 40 years that counts from the Exodus itself. And the Torah doesn't give us any event that happened during the next 38 years. And all of a sudden like fast forwarding we find ourselves in the 40th year. The year that Aaron dies that Miriam dies and ultimately Moshe Rabbeinu himself dies. So it's quite amazing if you were to simply map out the events at least from Yitziat Mitzrayim onwards we're only given details about the first year and the 40th year. And all the years in the middle are simply skipped. Because as it were nothing of great transcendental significance happened during those years. In this 40th year the Jewish people are now positioned south of Eretz Yisrael. Through their wanderings they are now positioned south and they want to enter the land of Israel from the south going northward. And they will encounter three nations that they would have to go through in order to get to Eretz Yisrael. The first is Edom. Edom is the nation of Esau which is kind of in the let's say south of Eilat in the Sinai Peninsula and northern Saudi Arabia. And you'll recall that we asked Esau for permission to have right of way and Esau said no and they would fight us. And although if God wanted us to win we would have won but God said you are not allowed to wage war with Esau they are still your brother and their land belongs to them until Mashiach and therefore we could not enter Eretz Yisrael through Esau. So we continue moving in an eastern direction. Right in other words we can't enter it from there so we move east of the land and then we proceed north north of Esau's territory and then we encounter the land of Moab. Moab is of course descended from the daughters of Lot. Daughter of Lot. And Moabites too we were commanded not to wage war against Moab so we had to keep on going till we reach the land of the Amorite Sichon and then we waged war and that's where the two and a half tribes settled and we're going to enter Eretz Yisrael from east of the Jordan. Now in addition to the Moabites not allowing us to enter their land they did something much more. Balak the king of Moab hired a professional sorcerer Bil'am and Bil'am is have curse will travel who had a very unusual power. Bil'am had the power of both blessings and curses. Bil'am if he cursed somebody the curse would come to pass. The pasuk also says although it's not clear if that's true because the pasuk puts those words in Balak's mouth that whoever you bless is going to be blessed. So Bil'am I'm sorry Balak hires Bil'am to curse the Jewish people and have them destroyed. And the Torah then tells us that there were three different times when Bil'am tried to curse Am Yisrael and God changed the curse into a magnificent blessing. And Bil'am was sent home in disgrace. He didn't earn his money. So first let me start with a little short vort which is not connected to the parsha really but it's a little bit of a chassidishe vort on the parsha. The Apter Rav one of the great chassidic Rebbes who was known for his Ahavas Yisrael and in fact his his sefer on Chumash is called Ohev Yisrael said that every single parsha of the Torah talks about loving your fellow Jew. So somebody asked him tell me Balak what in Balak deals with loving your fellow Jew. Now on my side I don't hear the question because I think there are beautiful things in Balak how beautiful are your tents Yaakov etc. But the question was where is Ahavas Yisrael marumuz in Parshas Balak? So the Apter Rav as the Apter Rav says oh very very poshut the name Balak is a remez to Ahavas Yisrael. The beis stands for v'ahavta veis the uh lamed stands for l'rei'acha which is true. And the kuf is kamocha. So Balak stands for the pasuk v'ahavta l'rei'acha kamocha. So the the chassid said well Rebbe I'm sorry two of the three letters don't work. V'ahavta starts with a vav and Balak starts with a beis or a veis. L'rei'acha is lamed that's fine. But kamocha is with a chaf and Balak is with a kuf. So how could you say that the word Balak is a remez to Ahavas Yisrael? The and the Ohev Yisrael said the Apter Rav said ah that's the point. When you have Ahavas Yisrael you don't look at things so closely. Right I look at people I analyze them I I suspect their motives whatever it is. Ahavas Yisrael you look at people with a generous spirit and don't be overly meticulous. That's a little vort about Ahavas Yisrael. Okay. But to go back to the main theme of the parsha. Bil'am was given a commission or a mission to curse. And every time he would try to utter a curse God grabbed hold of him and turned it into a blessing. Now the Moabites later suffered for this. We read in the Torah later that Moabites are not allowed to enter the Jewish people even if they convert. You cannot marry a Moabite convert. And the Torah gives two reasons. Because they did not give you food and water when you left Mitzrayim even though you offered to pay them cruelty and the reason number two is they hired Bil'am to curse you and God changed the curse of Bil'am into a bracha. So this resulted in a permanent estrangement of Moabites from Am Yisrael but you may know the halacha that this only applies to the male Moabite converts. It does not apply to the female Moabite converts because you can't expect the women to bring out food and water to a foreign population. And that is why Ruth the Moabite convert was permitted to marry Boaz and in fact David Hamelech is the great grandson of Ruth and Mashiach will therefore come from Ruth. Okay. Now the Shem Mishmuel asks a very simple question. Why did Balak feel the need to hire Bil'am to curse the Jewish people? God commanded the Jewish people that they were not permitted to wage war with Moab. That God gave just as God gave the territory of Esau to Esau God gave the territory of Moab to Moab the descendants of Lot and we are not allowed to conquer it. We are not allowed to conquer Moabite territory. So, Balak had nothing to be afraid of. Why was there a need to curse the Jewish people? What was his pocket? Now, you might say, "Oh, pishposh." You might say, "Well, who says that Balak knew that the Jewish people could not conquer Moabite territory? Maybe he was afraid." But, you know, if that was the case, why couldn't Moshe tell him? If Moshe is trying to seek safe passage, it would be important to say, "God commanded us. We cannot wage war with you." So, the Shem Mishmuel gives a very beautiful answer. He says, "Balak was not afraid of a military confrontation with the Jewish people. He knew that wasn't going to happen. Balak was afraid of the Jewish people getting to Eretz Yisrael. Even if they don't attack me. I don't want them to get to Eretz Yisrael. Why is that so?" So, this goes back to an idea that we actually brought out several times in preceding parshios, that there is a major difference the way God deals with Bnei Yisrael in the desert and the way he is going to deal with them once they come to Eretz Yisrael. The desert is a spiritual cocoon. Their life is miraculous. Their life is supernatural. They are surrounded by godliness that is obvious and apparent. The manna falls from heaven. There is clouds of glory that surround them. There's a traveling well of water that gives them water. There is no need for laundry. There's no need for parnassah. There's no need to work. They see the hand of God in an obvious, palpable way. Now, that has a cost. When you're in the presence of God in that obvious way, every sin has immediate consequences because you're not living in the world of concealment. You're not living in the world of hester panim. So, if we do our aveiros, you know, thousands of people die here and thousands of people die here because you're in the presence of God and there's kind of a direct reward and punishment system. That's kind of the downside of it. But, the closeness to Hashem and the visibility of the Shechinah in the world was never as clear as it was for the generation of the desert. Once we come to the land of Israel, life is going to be significantly different. There will not be a Moshe Rabbeinu. We know that. There will not be manna from shamayim. We're going to have to plant, harvest, thresh, and grind our grain into flour and bake bread. We're not going to have a traveling well. We'll have to rely on rainfall or digging our own wells. We are not going to have uh clouds of glory. In other words, there'll be a hester panim. In fact, if you recall, that is why the spies didn't want to go to Eretz Yisrael. They wanted to have that close, intimate relationship to God that they had in the desert. But, here is the Chasam Sofer looking at it from the perspective of Balak. As long as the Jews live in a spiritual cocoon, as long as they are divorced from real life, their existence is not a reproach to our societies. The Jews are living a life of kedusha. The Jews are living a life of holiness and dedication. Is that a mussar to Moab? Says, "No. They can live that way because they have the manna and they have the be'er and they have the ananei hakavod. So, they're in a spiritual cocoon. So, they can learn and daven and serve God the whole day. But, we are people with real lives. We have business to do. We have needs. God cannot expect us to live some type of spiritual life when we have to confront the real problems of the real world. So, Balak is perfectly happy to let the Jews stay in the desert. Let them stay in the desert. Let them create their artificial spiritual society that has nothing to do with real people and real life. But, once the Yidden come to Eretz Yisrael and they have to establish a real society, a society with an army and with businesses and with farming and with fields, and they'll still live, at least at our best, a life of commitment, a life of spirituality, a life of Torah, that is a reproach to all of the nations of the world that were living corrupt and immoral lives. Their argument was, "You can't function in the real world without all that we're doing." Klal Yisrael would be a negation of that. So, Balak's fear was not that the Jewish people would wage war against his nation. He knew that was not the case. His fear is they would create a spiritual, holy society in the land of Israel, which would mean that all of the other nations, of course the other nations don't have to follow the Torah, but at least follow the Noahide code. All the other nations no longer have their excuse. Their whole excuse was to God, "You can't expect us to live like them because they're in this cocoon." But, once the Jews are not in the cocoon and they still live lives of holiness, that will be a reproach and a tochacha and a mussar on all of the degenerate lifestyles of these societies. And therefore, the Shem Mishmuel says, "Balak's goal was to prevent the Jewish people from coming to the land of Israel at all costs. That was his fear." Again, it's an interesting idea that in some ways you see that it's a higher spiritual level to live a life of involvement in a material society and still still have holiness than it is to be in a spiritual cocoon where all you have is holiness and you're not involved in real life. This is a famous story with the Vilna Gaon. That uh one of the famous preachers in Europe, maggidim, these are itinerant people who would go from town to town to give drashos for teshuvah and the like, was Rav Yaakov Krantz who was from Dubna, and he's known as the Dubner Maggid. Right? The Maggid of Dubna. Now, some of the maggidim were just speakers. They were not necessarily great rabbis, but it's absolutely very clear that the Dubner Maggid must have been an exceptional talmid chacham because he was a very good friend of the Vilna Gaon. And although the Vilna Gaon normally did not leave his house that much, whenever the Dubner Maggid was in town, he asked the Dubner Maggid to come to him and give him a private mussar talk. "Tell me what I need to correct, how I could perfect myself, how I could be a better person." The Dubner Maggid didn't really enjoy doing that. You know, I mean, who was He said, "Who am I to tell the Vilna Gaon what he should be?" And the Vilna Gaon said, "No, no, no. I need mussar also. I need I need to be corrected. I need to be told what it is that I'm falling short in." So, the Dubner Maggid finally said to him, "Baruch Hashem, you learn Torah. You're so righteous. But, you lock yourself up in a room all day. So, you don't face the temptations of life. You're not involved in business. So, you don't have the challenges of being honest." He says, "For what you're doing, it's easy to be a servant of God. But, what if you had to face the challenges of making a living and you had to deal with all of the ethical problems of business and you had to deal with the temptations of the street? Do you think you would be so righteous?" And the story goes that the Vilna Gaon broke down crying. And the Vilna Gaon says, "I don't know. I don't know." Now, I feel I do know and I'm sure I'm sure the Vilna Gaon would have been righteous no matter what, but the Vilna Gaon himself had a sense that those challenges are enormous. And the fact that those challenges are enormous actually means that if you surmount those challenges, that is a higher spiritual level. The spiritual level of living in the world of physicality and materialism and still maintaining your kedusha. And it is that that Balak said it cannot be allowed to happen. And that's why he hires Balaam. Now, Chofetz Chaim points out that why, if Balaam could give either blessings or curses, so why does Balak ask Balaam to curse? He ought to ask Balaam to bless bless his nation. In other words, uh But, but according to the Shem Mishmuel, it's not really a kasha because Balak doesn't want a blessing for his nation. His nation is doing fine. He wants a curse that the Jewish people will not enter the land of Israel. So now let's talk about this a little bit. Uh what was Balak's secret? So Hazal say that Balak was a prophet who on some level was as great as Moshe Rabbeinu. I'm sorry, Balaam. I'm sorry, Balaam. Yes, yes. Because the umot haolam are going to say to God, "Hey God, if you would have given us a prophet as great as Moshe, we too would have been righteous. And we too would not have sinned." So God gave them a prophet called Balaam. So let me ask you a very simple question. He gave them Balaam. He didn't give them Moshe. I mean, there's a problem here. They're basically saying, "Hey God, it's unfair. You have to level the playing field. If you would have given us a man like Moshe Rabbeinu, we would have been righteous." So God says, "Ah, I gave you Balaam and you weren't righteous." Well, after all, you gave us a Balaam. You didn't give us a Moshe. How is giving them Balaam an answer to their claim of unfairness? God is still stacking the deck. Keep that question in your mind. I'm probably not going to get to it till the end of this year, but that's a question to think about. Point number two. The Gemara in Berakhot explains that Balaam's special talent, at least for cursing, is because there is a fraction of a second in the course of the day that God has tremendous fury against the world. This is called Eidan Rish'a, a moment of wrath. It is alluded to in the pasuk we say in Tehillim every morning in Mizmor Shir, ki rega beapo. God's anger lasts a rega. We translate rega as second, but but rega is a small amount of time. And the Gemara says the Eidan Rish'a is rega kememre, the amount of time it takes to say the word rega, which is actually less than a second, is the Eidan Rish'a. Now, and the Gemara even says you can actually observe this Eidan Rish'a because the red comb of a rooster turns white with fright in that Eidan Rish'a. And the rule is any curse that is uttered in that time of anger becomes activated because you got your curse in in the moment of anger. You pushed the anger button. Balaam's success at cursing was he knew when the Eidan Rish'a was and was able to curse during the Eidan Rish'a. Now, the Gemara says Rabbi Meir had enemies that he wanted to curse. And Rabbi Meir wanted to determine the Eidan Rish'a to curse them. So he tied a rooster to his bed. Now, I don't really get this because the we blink, so you you you could lose it in the in the blink of an eye, literally. But he was watching the rooster and he was going to pronounce a curse when he saw the comb turn white. And what happened was he fell asleep. So he realized Hashem does not want us to use this koach of cursing. Even with the Chofetz Chaim, when people go to the Chofetz Chaim and the Chofetz and they would ask him to curse this anti-Semite or that anti-Semite who is doing bad things to the Jews. This was before Hitler. Wasn't Hitler was not included in this. The Chofetz Chaim said he does not want to be mishtamesh. He does not want to utilize the koach of curse against anybody, only the koach of blessing. So he'll bless the Jewish people. He doesn't want to curse. Curse is not something you're mishtamesh with. But Balaam knew the Eidan Rish'a and he was able to tap into it. And that's why his curses were so devastating. Tosafos in Maseches Berakhot asks a very simple question. Given the fact that the Eidan Rish'a is so short, less than a second, what type of curse could you utter in the Eidan Rish'a that's going to be effective? By the time you finish the curse, you've missed the time. So Tosafos gives two answers. Answer number one is the way this works is as long as you began your curse in the Eidan Rish'a, you kind of keep the window open. Like you got your finger in the window, the window doesn't close. It's like with banks or with stores, right? The closing is 1:00. If you're in the you're in the bank at 1:00, you know, you're allowed to stay. If you got your curse if you began your curse in the Eidan Rish'a, you can stay until the end. Some sefarim bring a rayah to this. They say the following. We know that God's middah of generosity is 500 times greater than his middah of retribution and punishment. Where do we get the ratio of 500 times? From the Aseres Hadibros because the Aseres Hadibros says God visits the sin of the fathers onto the children unto the fourth generation. And then it says he rewards goodness for 2,000 generations. So the ratio of four to 2,000 is one to 500. And from this Hazal make a general statement, whatever that means. It's not so clear what it even means, but it says the middah tovah of Hashem is 500 times more expensive than the middah of peraniyos. So here's what they want to say. This is kind of an outrageous conclusion, but listen to this. They say, "Ah, if we see by a curse, as long as you start it in the right zman, you can continue the curse even after the zman, kal vachomer, when it comes to mitzvos, as long as you began the Shema before the end of the zman of Shema, you could finish it even afterwards." Right? This is a whole big shaila. We know that Krias Shema, particularly of the morning, has a zman. You have to say the Shema before a fourth of the day. That's called sof zman Krias Shema. Now, a fourth of the day will vary because this is not three fixed hours, but three halachic hours in which you take the total amount of time, let's say from sunrise to sunset, 1/12 of that time is a halachic hour. Three halachic hours is the end of the zman of Shema. So in the winter, an hour may only be 50 minutes long. In the summer, an hour might be 70 minutes long. Right? So the zman Krias Shema ends is different every week really, and certainly between summer and winter, there're going to be big differences. Now, you know that one of the criticisms of some Hasidim, not not all, is that they're not that makpid, they're not that particular in complying with the zman of things. So one of the arguments was, "Hey, as long as we began before the zman, we could finish afterwards because we'll make a kal vachomer from cursing. We know that God is more generous with his benevolence than he is particular with his punishment. So if for punishment we have the principle, as long as you start you could finish later, that'll be true for davening and Krias Shema." So first of all, even if you accepted that argument, that would only justify beginning Shema before the zman. If you don't even begin Shema before the zman, that's not going to help you. All right, so that's a talk for another time. Okay, that's answer number one. Answer number two is there is a short curse that Balaam could have gotten in before the time expired because remember the the amount of time is equal to rega. Rega is two syllables. There was a two-syllable curse he could have uttered. Chalam. Chalam with a chof. Chalam is destroy them. Chalam has the same number of syllables as rega. So when Balaam wanted to curse, he could have said chalam. And that would have been effective. The Chasam Sofer has a very, very interesting interpretation of the inner significance of chalam. And this in effect goes back to the earlier question I raised. God gave Balaam the gift of prophecy equivalent, on some level, to Moshe Rabbeinu. So the nations shouldn't complain. If you would have given us a prophet, we wouldn't have sinned. So I raised the question, and how does this negate their complaint? They're still going to complain. You gave us a Balaam, not a Moshe. So here is the suggestion that I think you get from the Hashem server. He doesn't say totally explicit and that is Who says Bilh and Mosha started off differently? There's a Bilh and there's a Mosha. They're exactly the same. God gives them extraordinary gifts. Extraordinary powers. The power of prophecy, the power of blessing, the power of curse. What do those powers do to you? How do they transform you? How do they change you? You could imagine that if one day you wake up and all of a sudden you have phenomenal gifts of prophecy, you can tell the future, you can bless, you can curse. You can build, you can destroy. You feel god-like and invincible in everything you can accomplish. That can give a person arrogance, greed, a sense of invincibility. Bilh was not evil when he became a prophet. Bilh became evil as a result of his prophecy. Mosha on the other hand was given all of these gifts and he remained humble and submissive. So, the nations can't complain to God if you would have given us a Mosha we would be righteous. God says I gave you the same person I gave to the Jewish people. It was their free will that Bilh went in one direction and Mosha went in another direction. Don't blame God for that. An amazing thing. It's not that Bilh had been a Russia. It was the powers themselves that made him a Russia. The old statement from Lord Acton, famous British political theorist power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely is exactly the situation that Bilh faces. Now, Pirkei Avot tells us How does that answer the contract at that point? At some point at some point God says it's not my responsibility, meaning I gave you the same raw material. Maybe Bilh was led astray because he was in that environment of of other people who were not righteous, meaning God said you can't blame me at this point because I did not stack the deck against you. People made choices, so that's that's what happens. People make their choices. Now, Pirkei Avot describes three attributes that are characteristic of the Talmidim of Avraham and three attributes that are characteristic of the Talmidim of Bilh. They're just opposites, you'll see. The Talmidim of Bilh have what is called Ayin Ra'ah literally an evil eye Nefesh Rechava an expansive soul, I'll explain that. Veruach Gevo'ah an arrogant spirit. So, basically what it means is the following. This actually corresponds to another Mishnah that talks about three negative forces that destroy the world. Kinah jealousy lust and Kavod, a desire for ego. So, let's plug this into Bilh. Ayin Ra'ah is essentially a sense of envy and jealousy. I look at the successes of other people and I begrudge them. I'm angry and upset that they're Matzliach in the world. I'm jealous and envious of anybody else's good fortune no matter how much I have. So, the Ayin Ra'ah mamash corresponds to jealousy. Nefesh Rechava an expansive Nefesh. Nefesh is the term for the animal soul. That refers to Ta'avah. Eating, drinking, wealth, power. Right? So, that's Ta'avah. The Ayin Ra'ah is Kinah. The Nefesh Rechava is Ta'avah. I have to have everything. And the Ruach Gevo'ah, arrogance, Ga'avah corresponds to Kavod. So, essentially Bilh is a person consumed by the negative forces of Kinah Ta'avah Kavod. Because again, Chazal used different Leshonos to explain that. They use it Ayin Hara Nefesh Rechava Ruach Gevo'ah. But, that is the same as Kinah, Ta'avah and Kavod. The Talmidim of Avraham Avinu and all Jews have to endeavor to be a follower of Avraham Avinu and even non-Jews should try to follow him are exactly the opposite. Ayin Tovah Ayin Tovah is I look at the success of other people and I'm happy for them. It's interesting, the Meshech Chochmah says this is not an easy thing to do. The Meshech Chochmah says a fascinating psychological insight. We know that when somebody is suffering there's a great mitzvah to feel empathy, feel their pain. That's called Nosei Be'ol. I share your yoke. I share your struggles. And that's a source of great comfort to a person. And that's a great Madregah to feel the suffering that people are going through. But, the Meshech Chochmah says it is easier to commiserate in someone's suffering than it is to rejoice in their successes. Because somebody's suffering I feel sorry for them. I have compassion. I have empathy. But, when somebody is successful that awakens kind of a jealousy in me. So, he says it's a higher Madregah to rejoice in someone's success than it is to empathize with their sufferings. I I I've mentioned this before, but I guess I I you know since I don't see my son that often, I I like to mention my son when I can. But, I remember uh when uh my son Mosha was in second grade. So, they have a Shabbos Abba on uh Friday, right? Friday afternoon they make a Shabbos Abba uh E was a co-ed school. Shabbos Abba and E to be uh you know, to run the Shabbos table and the like. So, uh he came home and all the other different awards they get he comes home one day and he's really, really excited because his best friend Mayor got a special award for being Shabbos Abba and he was so excited that Mayor got the award. So, I was thinking to myself, I didn't say it. What are you so happy about? You didn't get You didn't get anything. I mean, okay, Mayor got it, you know. Why didn't you get it? I mean, I I didn't I didn't say that. But, then I thought to myself and I still think to myself what a beautiful, sweet idea that it was that he felt genuine excitement that his friend got something. We as adults even if our friends get some honor that could have gone to us we'll be happy for them, but we'll also be you know, I mean I could have gotten it too or something, you know? But, this was like an unbridled joy at somebody else getting something that was as he was as happy as if it would have gone to him. Right? That's called an Ayin Tovah. I rejoice. I'm happy when people have Hatzlachah in life. Doesn't have to be me. This is a problem sometimes, you know, when older singles, you know, your friends get engaged. You know, why not me? Or even married couples as well, you know, some people are having children and some are not. Right? And it's it's hard and it's instinctive to feel a little bit sad. But an Ayin Tov genuinely has a Simcha in the Hatzlachah of other people. So, that's Ayin Tovah. Nefesh Shefalah means a soul that is not so hedonistic, needing so many Ta'avahs. And Ruach Nemuchah is humility. Okay. So, again therefore this goes back to the notion of tragic figures that we talked about with Korach. Remember the Greek idea of tragedy. The Greek idea of tragedy is not that you're walking in the street and a building collapses on you. That's very sad. That's not a tragedy. Tragedy is when you are destroyed not by something outside of you but when you're destroyed by something within you. In other words, there's greatness but there's rot. Remember we talked about Korach as being a great, great person. Bilh'am is now exactly in the same situation. Bilh'am was a man of greatness. We are told he was worthy of being a prophet of the spiritual level of Moshe Rabbenu. I mean, imagine that. Moshe Rabbenu is the greatest of all prophets. Bilh'am was on that level. But Bilh'am was destroyed because as a result of all of this power, the forces of kina, ta'avah, kavod, destroyed him from within. And that is a tragedy. Tragedy is when there was so much greatness. There was so much potential. But it gets destroyed and ruined because of the greatness from within. Or or I'm sorry, because of the flaw from within. That's why I think in many ways, I mean, I don't want to elaborate on this too much. When we have sometimes rabbis or prominent people who have done a lot for the Jewish people. But their flaws are uncovered in very disgraceful ways. Sexual abuse or whatever it might be. There is a double layer of tragedy. The the first and foremost tragedy, of course, is for the people who were victimized. That is the the main tragedy. But there's also a tragedy for the victimizer. Because the victimizer had so much potential to do good. And he destroyed it. He blew it up. That's a tragedy. It's a tragedy to the victimizer. It's a tragedy to the Jewish people who can no longer benefit from what that person had to offer. Again, I don't want to get into too many specifics, but but tragically, tragically, tragically, there were some people who had formally been outstanding teachers and writers. And yet, the flaw within destroyed them. That's Bilh'am. Bilh'am was destroyed by the fatal flaw. But now, to add another level of tragedy on top of tragedy, Bilh'am was too smart to be ignorant of this. You know, sometimes a person is oblivious that they're kind of on a train wreck or whatever it would be. Bilh'am understood. Bilh'am knew that he had this greatness. Imagine the psychic pain. He knew he had this greatness. He knew he had this ability to connect to God. But he also knew that he was being pulled down, down, down by kina, ta'avah, and kavod in a way that he thought there's He thought Reminds me, there's always teshuvah, but from his perspective, he thought there was no possible way out. Can you imagine the anguish? The anguish of greatness coexisting with the lowest desires and passions. Feeling that every time you want to achieve something, it's pulling you and you have no way of escape. So, here's the thing. When Bilh'am chooses how to curse somebody, the biggest curse he could give them is "May you be like me. May you be tortured like me. May you feel your greatness and then know you'll never be able to achieve it." The Chasam Sofer says, this is the inner meaning of the curse. Kalam. Remember Tosefta asks the kasha, um how could Bilh'am curse in the requisite time? By the time he finishes the curse, the time is up. So, what did Tosefta answer? He could have said a two-syllable curse. And the curse would have been the word kalam. Now, kalam does mean destroy them. But the Chasam Sofer says with derech drash, that kalam is a rashei teivot. Kalam is an abbreviation. Kavod, kavod means liver. Lev, heart. And mem is moach, mind. Now, in rabbinic symbolism, the kavod, the liver, although it doesn't really fit modern biology, is kind of a seat of sexual passion and the like. And the lev is emotional turbulence. The moach is the mind, the intellectual and moral sense of a person. The biggest curse that Bilh'am can come up with is "May your intellectual and moral faculties be subordinate to your passions and to your emotions." Meaning, "May your passions and emotions rule you without being directed by your intellectual and moral conscience." And that is called destruction. Destruction is when I am a creature of my passions and emotions, which can change from second to second to second. So, in a sense, Bilh'am is aware that he's a train wreck. And Bilh'am's preferred curse is, "May you experience what I'm experiencing, the tragedy of failed potential." Now, the opposite of kalam, kavod, lev, moach, is melech. Reverse the letters. King. What is a king? Moach. My brain, my mind, my intellect and moral sense rules over the lev and the kavod. And that's why you find the word melech so frequently in Bilh'am because God reverses, right? Literally, he reverses the curse to the blessing. The curse was kalam. The blessing is melech. So, what is a melech? A melech is not one who rules over countries. A melech is one who rules over himself. Pirkei Avot says, "Ezehu gibor? Who is a heroic person? Ha koves es yitzro." One who conquers his yetzer hara. Now, the Baal Hatanya writes Biur Halacha, the fundamental idea of ha moach sholet al ha lev. The mind must rule over the heart. And that's melech. Melech, lev, kavod. But it's very important to understand what that means exactly. Ha moach sholet al ha lev has two different meanings. There is a lower meaning, and then there's a higher meaning. The lower meaning is simply on the level of self-control and self-discipline. Meaning to say, I have angry feelings, I have lustful feelings, but my mind can control how I react. I don't have to react right away. Right? So, that's the mind, meaning intellect and morality, intellect and morality, can control the expression of negative emotion. And we'll call that musar. We'll call that discipline. We'll call that self-control, impulse control. We'll call that maturity. You know, even on a from a secular standpoint, the ability to kind of control the expression of negative emotions is a sign of normal, healthy mental health. If you can't control the expression of your emotions, you might be a sociopath or what what whatever it would be. However, the Baal Hatanya writes, that is only a lower level. Because what what I've just described is you have these negative emotions, but you control them. The problem is that that can only work for certain amount of time. If you're constantly angry and you constantly wanted to degrade people or denigrate them or hurt them. So, you bite your tongue and you control yourself, but at some point, you explode. So, there's another meaning of ha moach sholet al ha lev. And that is not that the mind controls the emotions, but the mind can reeducate the emotions to have different feelings. This is quite amazing. We normally look at our emotions as just existing, and we don't really think they can change. Sometimes we're happy, sometimes we're sad, sometimes we're angry, sometimes we're calm, but it's kind of like a force that's within us, beyond our control. The truth of the matter is, and this is why the Alter Rebbe started a Hasidus called Chabad. Chabad is Chochma, Bina, Daas, intellectual Hasidus. The mind is not just an agent, like a lion tamer. The mind is not just taming the lion. Although you have to do that, too. The mind re-educates our feelings. And as the Rambam writes, virtuous actions can generate emotional changes. Instead of looking at actions as outgrowths of emotion, actions can cause those emotions. Right, the marriage counselor might tell a couple of if a spouse complains, I don't feel love towards my spouse. So the therapist might say, behave as if you did. And over time, as the Sefer HaChinuch writes, Adam nifal kefi pulosaav. I am influenced by my actions, which are directed in turn by my mind. Right, the Moach, the intellect and the moral sense, directs your actions. So you see this is very important. The notion of the mind ruling over the heart in its lower initial level is on the level of the lion tamer or the self-control. That's kind of how Freud looked at it. But Freud basically said the super ego tames the id. The id is this wild animal, and the super ego is your conscience, your morality that kind of tames it. So according to Freud, there's always going to be this kind of animal thing in me, but I learn to control it. Now the Baal Tanya also acknowledges you're always going to have a struggle. But he says, on a deeper level, you can re-educate your emotions and your feelings. In fact, that's really the key to Lashon Hara. We you know, we know Lashon Hara is a big sin. So we always think Lashon Hara is a sin about speech. I got to control my mouth. But in reality, if you change your thinking process, it becomes less of a problem. Because if I'm filled with negative thoughts about people, but I'm just commanded to shut up, that may work for a while, but after a while if I'm biting my lip constantly, I'm going to get a bloody lip. The real antidote to Lashon Hara is not merely controlling your speech, but learning to look at people in a different way. Look at them with an ayin tova. Look at them with kindness. Look at them with understanding. Look at them with empathy. And then what happens is, you lose the desire to denigrate. I mean, why do I want to say bad things about somebody when I know he's going through a difficult stage in his life, etc. In other words, it's not that you're controlling your mouth from saying negative things. You simply lost the desire to say negative things. Don't want to do it. Right, so that's the idea of changing your perception. And this was the tragedy of Bilam. Bilam, maybe he was, or but he certainly thought this way, thought he was frozen. He thought what he is is what he is. And side by side with greatness is this inner rot that destroys everything. And the worst curse that Bilam could think about is, be like me. Elisha ben Avuya is another example of this. Elisha ben Avuya was a great, great, great scholar. A great Talmid Chacham. The Rebbe of Rabbi Meir. And Elisha ben Avuya, for reasons that are a bit complicated, and even obscure, became a heretic. He became an Apikorus. And Rabbi Meir continued to learn from him. And the Gemara even says, people asked Rabbi Meir, how can you learn from a heretic? I mean, he'll poison you. He'll give you ideas that are against God and the Torah. And Rabbi Meir said, famous words, I treat him like an a pomegranate with an inedible rind and good edible seeds. I throw away the rind. I eat the seeds. So some people use this as justification to take Jewish studies courses in universities which are often often taught by people who don't believe in the divinity of the Torah. And they say, oh, I'll take the good and I'll throw away the bad. The short answer is, Rabbi Meir could make those discriminations. We're not always capable of differentiating the good and the bad. Okay. But be it as it may, at some point, Elisha ben Avuya became known as Acher, the other one, the other one. We don't even call him by name. And Rabbi Meir used to say to his Rebbe, why don't you do Teshuvah? Come back to God. You can do Teshuvah. And Elisha ben Avuya said, I heard a voice that said, I heard God's voice saying, Shuvu banim shuvavim, wayward children, come back to me, chutz me Acher, except for Acher. God said, for you, there's no Teshuvah. Rabbi Soloveitchik used to say that this was an illusion. There was no such voice. Elisha ben Avuya convinced himself that for everybody there's hope, but not for me. He convinced himself. He said he was too far gone. But that was his voice. That wasn't God's voice. And we make a mistake sometimes when we attribute our thoughts to God's thoughts. In reality, Elisha ben Avuya could have done Teshuvah as well. Perhaps, although I don't have a clear proof of this, maybe even Bilam could have done Teshuvah as well. But precisely because of Bilam's greatness, he had a sense that he was too far gone. And therefore the curse of Calem is, may you be ruled by your emotions rather than your intellect. And then you, too, this is the curse, you, too, will be at the point of no return. The practical lesson for us, number one, is to understand that ultimately this is not true. Ultimately, there are many, many struggles in life that are going to be difficult, to be sure. But the ways of Teshuvah are always open. And we can't give up hope. Uh Rabbi Tzadok says, I mentioned this many times, but it's a a classic statement, K'shem shechayav adam l'ha'amin b'Kodesh Baruch Hu, just as a person must believe in Hashem, kachu mechuyav l'ha'amin b'atzmo. You have to believe in yourself. The ways of Teshuvah are open. God is waiting. Now there's an old Hasidic award that you know, Rosh Hashanah is coming in in 3 months. They they say that you begin the Teshuvah process already in the month of Tammuz. I know, Elul itself is you know, nervous enough for guys in Yeshiva, but some begin the Elul process in Tammuz, and they make a resolution. It's not in order. I'm just writing here. What does it say? Zerizim makdimin. Right, so the Zion is Zerizim, those who act with alacrity, mem makdimin, they start early, vav v'osin, and they do Teshuvah. Zerizim makdimin v'osin Teshuvah. So the process already begins in the month of Tammuz. But be it as it may, the truth is, Teshuvah is something we do every every single day of the year. Remember the statement in the Gemara where I think it was Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai told his Talmidim, do Teshuvah one day before you die. And they asked him, when is that? Says, don't know. All right. So every day. When should you do Teshuvah? And the most important lesson of Teshuvah is to have faith in ourselves, that we are capable of becoming greater people, better people. And because we have that capacity, that also means we have the responsibility. So have a good Shabbos and and be well. to Say again, then? Balak asked him to curse Klal Yisrael rather than bless. Well, so so like the the Shem MiShmuel, it's actually very good because Balak was not afraid of anything that that Yisrael would do to him. He didn't want them to get to Eretz Yisrael. So bedafka, the curse was necessary. Now the Chofetz Chaim himself gives another one. Chofetz Chaim simply says that it's the nature of people who hate that they care more about cursing than blessing. Meaning to say, he would rather hurt the Jewish people than get a blessing on himself. That's the koach of of this type of hatred. Again, you see it with Hitler. I mean, Hitler's war against the Jews was devastating for the German self-interest. I mean he he the scientist that he lost, he lost Albert Einstein. I mean he lost brilliant brilliant scientists that actually could have helped him win his war. Had it not been for his rabid anti- anti-semitism. So you see that it's more important to hate the Jews than to help your own country. Didn't tell him to