In Parshat Balak, Hashem tells Bilham that he can’t curse the Jewish people because they are blessed. Despite what some may think, the blessing Hashem said we had, never left us. We had, have, and will continue to have blessings placed upon us. In the time of Bilam, it was clear because Bilam was only able to bless the Jewish people; however, there are times in our lives and throughout Jewish history that we need to trust in Hashem that the events that seem like curses are blessings in disguise.
For example, a non-religious man told his religious worker, “What would you do if you didn’t have a job with me?” The man replied that it was all up to Hashem, the only reason he had this job with him was because Hashem wanted him too. The boss became furious and responded, “The only reason that you have this job is because I gave it to you! If you don’t think so you are fired!” With that, the man was fired and went home to his wife. In disbelief, his wife said, “This isn’t what I meant when I said I need your help before Pesach. We don’t have parnasa and we need food for the chag. What should we do?” The man said to his wife, “Don’t worry, Hashem will provide.”
Meanwhile, the man he used to work for had a monkey that would always watch his boss go into the jewel chamber. Two days later, the monkey entered the chamber, began to consume the jewels, and died. When the man saw the monkey was dead, he didn’t realize the cause of death and threw it into the yard of his former worker out of spite. When he threw the monkey over the fence, jewels came out of the monkey and onto the yard. Now, the family had money and time to prepare for chag. On Pesach, his former boss passed by his house and saw that they were happy and had a table filled with food. Perplexed with how that was possible, he knocked on the door to ask. The old worker replied, “Hashem sent a dead monkey with jewels to help us have a proper Pesach.” With that, the nonreligious man realized everything was really from God and offered the man his job back.
Parshat Balak is reminding us that we will always be blessed. Now, it is up to us to see the blessing and let everything unfold to be able to see how Hashem is protecting us. May we all witness the protection, favor and blessing of Hashem towards us even when it is difficult.
Shira Sedek is a passionate Tanach teacher at Ramaz Middle School.
