Posted on 07/09/2011 5:44:39 AM PDT by jjotto
[From an e-mail:]
Dear Friends,
In this week's parsha, Balaam blesses and praises the Jewish people.
Following are two insights into one of his praises, selected from the Kehot Chumash.
He does not look at evil in Jacob, and sees no perversity in Israel; G-d, their G-d, is with them.
The reason G-d does not look at the evil "in Jacob" is because He looks at the Jew as having already fulfilled his potential to reorient the animal concerns of his consciousness (his animal "soul") toward Divinity. He thus transforms the animal soul into a positive force in his Jewish life, harnessing its raw power to pursue its interests in the service of his higher, Divine consciousness (his "Divine soul").
This is certainly not easy; what enables the Jew to effect this transformation is his Divine soul. Since G-d is omnipotent, the Jew, possessing a spark of Divine consciousness within him, possesses the power to overcome the down-sliding entropy of the animal soul.
This is the inner meaning of this verse:
He does not look at evil in Jacob: i.e., G-d sees that the Jew can conquer his animal soul, because--
G-d is with him, i.e., within him, referring to the Divine soul, which enables the Jew to transform his animal soul.
He does not look at evil in Jacob, and sees no perversity in Israel; G-d, their G-d, is with them.
"Jacob" refers to the Jew as he is involved in the mundane reality of the workweek, while "Israel" refers to the Jew in his transcendent state on the Sabbath.
When we attempt to pray during the week, we must strive to overcome the many confusing and distracting thoughts that intrude from our involvement in worldly affairs. We are only able to succeed in this struggle because "G-d, their G-d is with them."
On Shabbat, however, we do not have to expend any effort to rise above the distractions of the mundane world; all we need to do is cultivate sensitivity to the special illumination of our soul that is revealed on Shabbat.
This is the meaning of the phrase, "G-d, their G-d is with them" that applies to Shabbat.
---From Kehot's Chumash Bamidbar Good Shabbos.
Rabbi Yosef B. Friedman on behalf of the Kehot Publication Society
- Shabbat Shalom!
Ping for the parsha!
Zionist Conspirator, how ya doing?
INTERESTING.
Except that, being the Chosen of God,
WHEN they go occultish, satanic, they do so in a much more dreadful way . . . witness the globalists atheist Jews involved in such genocidal planning etc.
Fascinating discourse.
Thanks.
But there is always a remnant who will do G-d's will:shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach7. Phinehas the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron the kohen saw this,
arose from the congregation, and took a spear in his hand.8. He went after the Israelite man into the chamber and drove [it
through] both of them; the Israelite man, and the woman through
her stomach, and the plague ceased from the children of Israel.
PRAISE GOD!
AMEN! AMEN!
Thanks for this. I miss ZC too.
¨How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, Thy dwellings, O Israel!¨
Thanks for the ping.
Jewish tradition records that Balaam was a very great prophet, the non-Jewish counterpart of Moses.
When Balaam said, “He does not look at evil in Jacob, and sees no perversity in Israel”, it is like an experience I had recently:
I was a passenger in a vehicle that was struck by a vehicle driven by a very young driver. He made a sharp left turn in front of our vehicle without yielding. Just something dumb. His father showed up 10 minutes later and began arguing with police: Maybe the other vehicle was going too fast, maybe the driver was distracted, shouldn’t they have stopped even if they had the right of way? At home, the father may have been infuriated at his son, but he would unquestionably defend him to outsiders.
When God says, “Israel, my son”, it is best to keep in mind the behavior of a father toward the son, even when the son has done something dumb.
INDEED.
THX THX.
“When God says, “Israel, my son”, it is best to keep in mind the behavior of a father toward the son, even when the son has done something dumb.”
Interesting. And often speaking, a good father’s punishment is far worse than what the outside would impose.
Pn the flip side, I’ve always seen this as reading that G-d, being outside time, saw the enternal “good” that was there and did not see the temporal “bad.”
I agree.
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