A Thought on Parshas Balak

"...el Bila'am ben Be'or..." "...to Bilaam the son of Be'or..." (21:5) In our collective thinking, as well as in Talmudic and Midrashic thought, Bila'am has come to epitomize the individual nemesis of the Jewish people. He, and others comparable to him, have surfaced throughout our history, working behind the scenes or through deceptive machinations to undermine and destroy us and all that we are meant to represent. The Torah introduces Bila'am here, as well as his lineage. He was the "son of Be'or", that much we know. But, who was he? Who was his father? What kind of origin can we find for this archetype of all who would curse our small nation? The Panae'ach Raza offers some sleuthing. He takes us back to Parshas VaYishlach where we meet Bela the son of Be'or, the first king of Edom, who resided, according to the Torah, in a place called Dinhava (36:32). Whereas we might not know where Dinhava was, the Panae'ach Raza offers that the word is a compound made up of two other words, din and hava. Those two words translate into "the decision of "let's do it." A din is a ruling or decision made by a court, and the word hava, such as in "hava nagila", means first-person plural "Let's do it" or "let us go for it." The Panae'ach Raza then reminds us that this word hava has a sinister history. When Pharaoh in Egypt decreed that the persecution of the visiting Jews must begin, he used that word: "Hava nischachma lo" - let us outsmart them (1:10). What was the background of that horrible decision? Our Talmudic sages (Sota 11a) have told us that Pharaoh convened a tribunal to determine what action he should take in deciding the fate of the Jewish people and of the baby Moshe. Our tradition is that Yisro was one of the judges, who ruled to spare Moshe and to leave the Jews alone. Iyov (Job) abstained. It was Bila'am who condemned the Jews and ruled to begin by executing Moshe. It was at that point that Pharaoh confirmed the earlier sentiment that he had expressed by now invoking it as a legal decree to rid Egypt of its Jews. Thus, it was the ruling (the dln) of Bila'am which prompted the royal order (hava). The Torah alludes to this by telling us that Bela was associated with "Din Hava." Bela was the same as Bila'am, and the father's name Be'or supports this conclusion. Now, Bela, according to that verse in Vayishlach, was the first king of Edom. Apparently, by the time we get to Parshas Balak, he had left the monarchy and had gone into private practice, under the name Bila'am. No longer content to harbor his hatred for the children of his great uncle Yaakov at the nationalistic level alone, he now was a mercenary sorcerer, who could be hired out to invoke malevolence against people. All those individuals throughout history, and in our own turbulent tragic times, who market their hatred for Jews, and spread their venom and prejudice by indoctrination, are the archetypal descendants of Bila'am. They will seek to destroy us with words, rather than with weapons alone. They will seek to damage us through propaganda and spinning of facts. They will ally themselves with those, such as Balak, who attack us with physical assault. And they lend their assistance and power so that those who strike out at the Jewish people can gloat in impunity and with immunity. May HaShem protect us and keep us secure. May we preserve and enact the pure and holy missions of our three slain Benei Yisroel HyD. Good Shabbos. D Fox