Why Nothing Goes Unrewarded? - Ari Abramowitz: The Land of Israel Fellowship

So, one of the the themes we've been exploring together is the incredible spiritual power of our prayers and uh and the the strengths of every single word that we utter. And I sometimes I get into these things and it's like it could be three weeks, it could be a month, it could be two months. I'm just hyperfocusing on that. And I feel like we are in the times of prayer. I keep telling Jeremy on so many different fronts, you know, when you go to the uh to get a car wash and the wheels get into the groove and he says, "Put it on neutral." It's like out of your hands now. That's sort of how things feel for me right now. And all we really have to do to contribute at this point, although it may feel like we have a lot that we can do, really the most powerful contribution is our prayer. We are in times of prayer. And every word we speak, prayer or not, within prayer, every word we speak releases immense creative energy whether we're aware of it or not. Uh so last week we discussed how what you know might appear to be a relatively minor incident, right, where Moses struck the rock instead of speaking to it, it was in truth anything but minor. In that moment, Moshe may have missed a golden opportunity to show the nation the transformative strength of prayer and the the the creative power just of the spoken word. A lesson that is so profound that it might have prevented the sins that ultimately led to the destruction of the beta mikdash of the holy temple itself. That if he spoke to that rock instead of hitting it, the temple may never have been destroyed. We talked about that last week. If you weren't here, it's worth giving it a listen. But, you know, I guess when you are a hammer, right, everything's a nail because when I was studying this week's para, this very lesson leapt out at me again in what felt like was the most powerful way imaginable. And I truly believe that if we open our hearts right now, it can transform how we see our own challenges, our own imperfections, and uh and the way that we pray. You know, so the portion begins with one of Israel's greatest enemies, Balak, the evil king of Moab, who spent enormous resources to hire Bilam to curse the Jewish people, hoping to destroy them, not through open battle, but through supernatural means. His motives were purely self-serving and malicious. He wanted Israel gone because he saw them as a threat to his power, despite Israel not attacking Moav in any way at all. Israel expressing that it didn't want to attack Moaf in any way at all. There is a very pure and unadulterated uh desire within his heart to destroy Israel. And yet hidden inside this man who dedicated himself to cursing Israel and destroying Israel. Hidden within his heart is the spark of Mashiach himself. I I believe this story has everything to teach us about the power of our own deeds. even the imperfect ones, about the hidden ripple effects of our choices, and about how if Hashem can turn even the twisted sacrifices of Balac into the spark of redemption itself, how much more so can he transform the pure, sincere prayers and desires and deeds of every one of us. And so that's where we're going today, my friends. So, let's dive in. Let's let's set the scene here, right? It was Balak, the king of Moab. standing on the edge of his land and he looks out across the wilderness and he sees Israel encamped on his borders and he panics. He panics. Which is so ironic. I have to mention it every single time that the spies came back and they said, "We're grasshoppers in their eyes. They want to crush us. They see us as nothing." And then we hear that that was actually just projection. That wasn't true at all. The nation that just emerged from Egypt, crushing powerful kings, is now moving closer and closer to Balak's territory. And he is terrified and he wants to curse the nation. And therefore, he reaches out to the king of curses, the renowned evil prophet Bilam, who wanted to curse the Israelites as well on his own. By the way, now he didn't want just riches, esteem, and honor from Balak. I'm sure he wanted that. But even without all of that, he wanted from his own deep place of hatred for Israel to curse them. And so Balak and Bilam are the most natural allies. Now there's a lot of things to say about all of this, how they came back and he dreamt and Hashem spoke to him in the dream and the talking donkey. So much of it, you know, it's such a rich and a beautiful portion. But I want to jump straight ahead to Bilam's arrival on the scene. The minute he arrived, the sacrifices to Hashem began. Sacrifices that Balak hoped would curry favor would curry Hashem's favor for the Moabites at the expense of his favor for the children of Israel. So let's look inside at chapter 22:40. Balak slaughtered cattle and sheep and sent them to Bil and the officers who were with him. From the very beginning, Balak is offering sacrifices. Again, not to bless Israel, but to curse them. I mean, in our eyes, this seems ridiculous and absurd, but in his eyes, why not? There's a God, and if you offer him a lot of money and power, a lot of blood and sacrifices, then it's like a bribe. That's the that was their relationship and that's what Bilam thought and that's what Balak thought and so the sacrifices began and then Bam says to Balak uh 23:es 1 and 2 and Bam said to Balak build for me here seven altars and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams and Balak did as Bilam had spoken and Balak and Bam offered a bull and a ram on each of the altars on each altar. Seven altars, each with a bull and a ram. That's 14 sacrifices right there. Then Bilam tries again. He changes places thinking that perhaps from another vantage point, Balak sacrifices could successfully curse Israel. And the Torah says, "And he took him to the field of Sofim to the top of the mountain, and he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar." Okay, so that's another 14 sacrifices. So now we're at 28. But Bam still can't curse Israel. So Balak tries a third location. And the Torah tells us, "And Bam said to Balak, build for me here seven altars, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams." And Balak did as Bilis said and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. Another 14 sacrifices. That is three sets of 14 sacrifices. Just imagine the exhaustion, the blood, the animals, the altars built again and again, all in hopes of cursing Israel. But here's the turn that really spoke to me so deeply. Even though Balac's motives were utterly evil, he wanted Israel destroyed. Now, this may be hard to swallow, but this is really just even without the sages of Israel, just a very clear teaching. He wanted Israel destroyed with all of his heart. He wanted to destroy Israel. These corbanote Hashem, Hashem would not ignore them. He would not let them go unrewarded because of the principle in the Torah that Hashem does not let any act of service go unrewarded as the sages teach. The Holy One, blessed be He, does not withhold the reward of any creature. That's right. Even someone as evil as King Balak who wanted to destroy the entire nation of Israel, God's beloved people. Even someone as evil as him who offered sacrifices to Hashem for the most sinister and nefarious motivations. As hard as it may be for us to imagine, Hashem would not deny him reward for those sacrifices. And now we come to one of the Torah's greatest secrets. Balak's story doesn't end in his own lifetime. And by the way, it didn't really begin there either. But it doesn't end in his lifetime because we learn the astonishing lineage emerging from Balac. From Balac emerged Eglon. Eglon. Who remembers this? Take a second and think. Who was Eglon? I'm looking in the comments to see if anyone writes it. I'm really interested because on my Shabbat table, there were four girls that were in seminary that just finished seminary. And we asked who was Eglun? And no one could really remember who he was. People like, "Oh, I sort of remember. If they went to middle school with me, they would have remembered the way my rabbi described it." But something tells me that there are many in this fellowship. Yes. Yes. Yes. Graham. Correct. Fat king. That's right. You wanted to be the first to write it. Two big words. That is the two words. No, not the father of Ruth. Um, but yes, exactly. The king of Moab. Right. So, Eglon, he emerged. Eglon was the king of Moab and he was an enemy of Israel during the times of the judges. Eglone was not simply a passive king. He led coalitions. He seized territory. He subjugated Israel. He was very much an enemy of the Jewish people and he oppressed the Jewish people horribly for 18 years. Then Hashem raised up a deliverer, Ehood Benger Gera. Ehood, who was the You remember who Ehood was? He was the the lefthanded judge from the tribe of Benjamin and he had a uh you know his right hand was like crippled and uh he was not a very um scaryl looking man. Anyways, he devised a daring plan. He made a double-edged sword and hid it under his clothes and he went to meet Eglon to deliver him a tribute. Then he says right and said to him, "I have a a secret matter for you, O king." And he said, "Silence and all those who stood around him left." And then comes the verse that connects us to the story. And Ehood came to him and he was sitting alone in his cool upper chamber. And Ehoud said, "I have a word of God for you." And Eglon stood up from his seat. And at that point, Eglon assassinated uh I'm sorry, Ehood assassinated Eglon, which played out in such a gross way that I remember learning it in grade school as if it was yesterday. And I'm just going to tell you guys, even though I was planning on not, but he was this morbidly, morbidly obese king. And when he stuck the knife into Eglone's stomach, the his stomach subsumed it and out came the fecal matter. And so Eud ran from the from the room and said, "The king is in the restroom." And his his servants waited hours and hours for him because they definitely smelled what was going on in there. And and he was able to flee and and leave in time. But the point is that a glun following after his ancestor Balak performed a meritorious act which just like that of Balak would not go unrewarded. The sages teach us this in in Ruth Rabba. It's actually in numerous places. But come and see how great is the power of a single righteous act done for its own sake. For if Eglon, king of Moab, who did only one good deed, that he rose from his seat when Ehood said to him, "I have a word of God for you," merited that Ruth descended from him. Friends, think about that. Eglon, a king who oppressed Israel for 18 years, who ruled through violence and fear and murder, did one respectful act. And when he hears the words, "I have a word of God for you," he stood up. And because of that single act of cavode of honor for God's name, he merited that Ruth would come from his descendants. Ruth, the righteous convert. Ruth is the very embodiment of loving kindness. She leaves her home, her nation, her comfort to join Israel. I always think of you as an entire fellowship of Ruth's on some level, one or another. I I just always feel like that, right? She says, "Your people will be my people. your God, my God. That was Ruth. And from Ruth comes David, the sweet singer of Israel and ultimately Messiach. So Balac, who wanted nothing more than Israel's destruction, ends up being the ancestor of Israel's eternal kingship. How wild is that? Why does Hashem arrange the world like this? Why does he allow the spark of Mashiach to emerge from Moav, a nation conceived in immorality and steeped in hostility towards Israel? Moav, where did the word moave come from? Meav from the father. When Lut's daughters seduced him in an act of incest. Incest being one of the three sins that you should ra prefer to die than commit. One of the most egregious sins. And she named her father after that very act. Moava from the father, right? Which by the way, I mean, you can understand deep down her desire, her intention, both of his daughters intentions was they thought they were the last people on earth. They thought they were propagating all of humanity. So they had holy intentions and they did the worst of things. And then then um Balak had the worst of intention. He did the holiest of things. be why does it have to be that the world is arranged like that? Because the Torah shares a profound truth in a thousand different ways that the highest lights fall into the lowest places. And then when we bring them up, when we bring them up from those low places, the light is even more beautiful than it was to begin with. Sometimes the greatest light is hidden in the deepest darkness. Sometimes it's precisely from the place that seems the most broken, the most impure. Sometimes it's from that great darkness that the seeds of redemption are planted. Moav was darkness. Yet from that darkness came Ruth. From Ruth came David. And from David will come the Messiah that we're waiting for imminently any moment. So what does this mean for you and me? I think it means a lot for us. But one of the things that spoke the most to me is that we really need to remember that even our imperfect efforts have eternal value. It means that even when our prayers feel weak and distracted or mixed with doubt, they still rise before Hashem in ways that we can't even imagine. Because if Balak's sacrifices brought with evil intentions could generate spiritual merit that ultimately contributed to the coming of Messiah, how much more so are the prayers of people like you and me who are striving for holiness, striving for truth, striving to bring light to a dark world. How much more powerful are the tears that we shed for Israel, for our families, and for our healing? Right? Your your smallest act of kindness can bring tremendous light. Your whispered prayer in the middle of the night, your effort to choose patience when you want to rage, all of it matters. None of it goes unrewarded. Sometimes we look at ourselves and we see our flaws and we see our impatience and our fears and our ego, our moments of doubt and we think, you know, who am I? What difference do my actions really make? But Balak teaches us teaches us otherwise because if Hashem can transform the hatred of a Moabitete king into the spark of Mashiach, then he can certainly transform our sincere efforts into boundless light. So I want to bless all of you, all of us. May Hashem bless us to see the hidden light within our own struggles and transform even our smallest deeds into sparks of redemption. May our prayers and words create ripples of goodness far beyond what we can imagine. And may we merit to witness the coming of Msiach soon in our days. Amen. [Music]