The events of our sedra this week are chillingly prophetic of the current crisis in Israel, and thus offer crucial lessons for us as to how to respond to the drama unfolding before us.
Moav and Midian are long-time, bitter enemies of one another, and yet in order to destroy Israel, they are willing to forget their past differences so as to forge a most unholy alliance. Indeed, when you take the last two Hebrew letters of “Bilaam” and join them together with the last two letters of “Balak,” you get … Amalek, the arch-enemy of the Jewish people!
Of course, it would have been infinitely more productive and proper for them to bless their own nations—rather than curse ours. But our enemies have always chosen to spend most of their time blaming others for their many problems—rather than using that same energy to solve them.
Unable to defeat us physically, they embark upon a strategy of delegitimization. They denounce and defame us, screaming from the highest cliffs to all who will listen that we are a different breed—a threat to humanity undeserving of being part of the community of nations.
Of course, the Almighty presides over the truth, and God systematically changes these curses into brachot/blessings. Are we truly “a nation that dwells alone?” Yes, in many ways we are, but that is not a negative! In fact, it is a crucial key to our very survival; by not mixing or melting into the world at large, we have been able, throughout the centuries, to be able to maintain our particularity. Is it true that “we do not compute among the nations?” Yes, certainly, but that means that the norms of the world do not necessarily apply to us; we skew all the graphs and defy all the odds as we march on throughout history. Our survival is statistically improbable—if not impossible—but we are here nevertheless. Are we “rock-like,” stubborn and unmoving? Yes, we certainly can be, but that, too, explains why we and our traditions stubbornly survive and why our enemies—despite their incessant efforts, cannot dislodge us, baruch Hashem.
In the end, when the curses do not work—just as the worldwide, current campaign of demonization against us will also ultimately fail—Balak and Bilaam devise a new plot, one that is even more diabolical than the others. They will seduce us into turning away from Hashem, worshiping all manner of false gods and succumbing to our baser lusts and desires. This, in turn, will create a schism in our nation, and that resulting disunity will have dire consequences for us.
Here, indeed, our adversaries have located our Achilles heel. When we fragment into different camps, we are made vulnerable. When we cast aspersions—or throw stones—at each other, we open the door to being stoned by our enemies. When we fail to close ranks and even, instead, take the side of our enemies—indeed, there were/are Jews who question our military’s behavior, or even march with those who would expunge our country from the list of nations—we sap our strength and validate their racism.
The end of our sedra finds Pinchas stepping forward to take bold action and end the madness. In reward, Hashem validates Pinchas’ courage and bestows upon him what God calls a “brit shalom.” The message is crystal-clear: Only when we are closely bound by one, enduring covenant of brotherhood will we find that lasting peace we so desperately seek.
Rabbi Stewart Weiss is director of the Jewish Outreach Center of Ra’anana, a popular columnist for the Jerusalem Post, and a member of Mizrachi’s Speakers Bureau (mizrachi.org/speakers). The RZA-Mizrachi is a broad Religious Zionist organization without a particular political affiliation.
