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The summary of the entire Torah is as simple as this:
Love what HaShem loves; hate what HaShem hates.
All else is commentary.
בּמִדְבּר • B'midbar
(“In the Wilderness”)
The Fourth Book of Moses,
Commonly Called
Numbers
פָּרָשָׁה בּלָק
Parsha 40: Balak • Continued
iii. Balaam Blesses Israel (23:1-24:25)
1 Bil‘am said to Balak, “Build seven altars here for me, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams here for me.”
2 Balak did as Bil‘am had said; and Balak and Bil‘am offered a bull and a ram on each altar. 3 Bil‘am said to Balak, “Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps ADONAI will come to meet me. Whatever He shows me I will tell you.”
He went to a bare height. 4 God met Bil‘am, and he said to Him, “I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.”
5 ADONAI put these words in Bil‘am’s mouth: “Go back to Balak, and this is what you are to say.”
6 He returned to him, and Hinneh, he was standing by his burnt offering, he, and all the chiefs of Mo’av. 7 He took up his parable, and said,
“From Aram has Balak brought me,
the king of Mo’av from the mountains of the East.
Come, curse Jacob for me.
Come, defy Isra'el.
8 How shall I curse whom God has not cursed?
How shall I defy whom ADONAI has not defied?
9 For from the top of the rocks I see him.
From the hills I see him.
Hinneh, it is a people that dwells alone,
and shall not be listed among the nations.
10 Who can count the dust of Jacob,
or count the fourth part of Isra'el?
Let me die the death of the righteous!
Let my last end be like his!”
11 Balak said to Bil‘am, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and Hinneh, you have blessed them altogether.”
12 He answered and said, “Must I not take heed to speak that which ADONAI puts in my mouth?”
(LY: v) 13 Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place, where you may see them. You shall see just part of them, and shall not see them all. Curse them from there for me.”
14 He took him into the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered up a bull and a ram on every altar. 15 He said to Balak, “Stand here by your burnt offering, while I meet God over there.”
16 ADONAI met Bil‘am, and put a word in his mouth, and said, “Return to Balak and say this.”
17 He came to him, and Hinneh, he was standing by his burnt offering, and the chiefs of Mo’av with him. Balak said to him, “What has ADONAI spoken?”
18 He took up his parable, and said,
“Rise up, Balak, and hear!
Listen to me, you son of Zippor.
19 God is not a man, that he should lie,
nor a son of man, that he should repent.
Has he said, and he won’t do it?
Or has he spoken, and he won’t make it good?
20 Hinneh, I have received a command to bless.
He has blessed, and I can’t reverse it.
21 He has not seen iniquity in Jacob.
Neither has he seen perverseness in Isra'el.
ADONAI his God is with him.
The shout of a king is among them.
22 God brings them out of Egypt.
He has as it were the strength of the wild ox.
23 Surely there is no enchantment with Jacob;
Neither is there any divination with Isra'el.
Now it shall be said of Jacob and of Isra'el,
‘What has God done!’
24 Hinneh, a people rises up as a lioness.
As a lion he lifts himself up.
He shall not lie down until he eats of the prey,
and drinks the blood of the slain.”
25 Balak said to Bil‘am, “Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all.”
26 But Bil‘am answered Balak, “Didn’t I tell you, saying, ‘All that ADONAI speaks, that I must do?’”
(RY: vii, LY: vi) 27 Balak said to Bil‘am, “Come now, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there.”
28 Balak took Bil‘am to the top of Peor, that looks down on the desert. 29 Bil‘am said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.”
30 Balak did as Bil‘am had said, and offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.
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ANXIOUSLY WATCHING FOR MASHIACH’S RETURN,
SPEEDILY AND IN OUR DAY. MARANA, TA!
