Parshas Balak: The Zeal of Avraham vs. the Passion of Bilam

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In this crazy world that we live in, if we want to understand it a bit and understand God, then we should follow Rav Moshe Feinstein's advice, because it is the path towards to understanding a bit of heaven.

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The following idea I am incredibly enthusiastic about, incredibly bullish, because it has helped me in unimaginable ways.

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The idea is rather natural but if used right, if put into practice a bit more, the fruits are glorious, the clarity is perfect.

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And, without wasting a moment, if, moshe Feinstein, you can find this piece in in Dorash Moshe and Rabbi Moses Feinstein's book on the Torah, parashas Balak.

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The situation, the scene is that Vayokam Bilaam Baboker, that Bilaam set his alarm clock and arose early in the morning to go and curse the Druze.

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He's going to go on top of a mountain, perched up on high, looking down at the group of people, and he went traveling with the officers of Moab.

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After he has now gotten his fair share of honor, balak has finally sent a fancy limo to pick him up.

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So, after saying no a couple times, now this chauffeur seems to do the trick.

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Balaam opens the door, gets in the limo and he's on his way, but on his way.

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The Torah is very descriptive about his getting there.

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The Pasek says it's the very first Pasek and the third Aliyah and Balaam arose in the morning and he girded his she donkey with a saddle and he went along with the diplomats and the fancy people of Moab.

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Rashi seems to be immediately puzzled by something, and it would seem to be the fact that the Torah is very oddly descriptive about his travel plans.

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When people travel, normally we get one word Vayelech, avroham, or he arose and went, but here we get the Vayakam he arose.

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Who arose?

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Bilaam.

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We may even know who we're talking about without saying Bilaam.

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When did he arise?

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It was in the morning.

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Baboker, that seems to be necessary.

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Vayakavosh.

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And what else did he do?

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He girded his she-donkey.

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It was a donkey he was taking with all of the exact definitions, details, descriptions of his journey.

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What's it for?

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Why do we need it?

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There must be a lesson.

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We scroll down to the bottom of the screen towards Rashi and Rashi tells us to understand this Pesach, you must be informed by a certain Medrash in Tanchum, and the Medrash says as follows zakt.

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That just means, says in Yiddish, rashi.

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When the Torah tells us that Bilaam saddled, he girded his she donkey.

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From here we see that hatred, enmity, it makes a person do some weird things.

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Because, bilaam, he saddled the donkey by himself.

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See, normally the way it works, it would seem, is that a high-end authority, a president of a company, a quasi-prophet like Billum would just call his chauffeur to be taken somewhere, call a serf, an attendant to saddle the donkey, but here we find Billum doing it himself.

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The takeaway, the idea, is that hatred clearly makes people do weird things.

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Because Balaam was so enthusiastic, so fired up about cursing the Jews that he woke up early in the morning and he called the chauffeur, opened the door for himself and sat on the donkey ready to go.

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And then things level up in the Rashi, amar HaKadosh, baruch Hu and Hashem told Bilaam Rasha, wicked one, kivar Kadomcha, avraham Aviham, someone's already beat you to it the Jew's father, avraham, he already beat you to the spot.

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Shedem avayashkim, avroam b'aboker, v'yachavosh es chamoro.

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Avroam arose early in the morning.

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He did it before you and he saddled his donkey before you.

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We know that story from the binding of Isaac the Akedah.

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Seems to be an idea that Balaam was trying to accomplish something, maybe find grace in the eyes of God.

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But Avram did it first.

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He saddled the donkey first.

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And Rav Moshe tries to make sense of this Rashi.

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Really, the question is already jutting, is jutting out.

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What exactly did Avram beat him to?

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They have two totally different goals, two totally different objectives.

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Avram Avinu beat Bilaam towards waking up early.

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Is it an early morning wake-up contest?

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A bull riding who can saddle their donkey or ride it more fashionably?

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It's hardly the idea.

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So what is it that Hashem was addressing to Balaam?

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That you should know that someone did this before you.

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What's the no say?

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What's the need, don't.

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What's the duggish.

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What's the intent?

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What's the idea?

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What are we to do to make sense of this?

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Rashi says, or zucked, rav Moshe, feinstein the great, gain Gadol and Posey Kadar, the halachic decider of the generation, that there's an idea that a Kaddish, baruch Hu, he asks of a nation of his people that they should do Torah and mitzvot, and they should do it with a certain amount of realness, a certain amount of genuineness.

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How should you search after Torah and mitzvot, says Rav Moshe?

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Well, like money, like you would search after anything else that you had any interest in.

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How would you search after your parnasa?

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However, it is that you would search for your regular bodily needs.

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You should at least give that effort towards your Torah and mitzvos, sezer Avmosha, someone already says this very clearly, a prophet.

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That effort towards your Torah and mitzvos, says the Rev Moshe.

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Someone already says this very clearly, a prophet, in fact, the wisest man of all time tells us you know how we should search after Torah and mitzvos Like money, like cash, like bank, like ice, diamonds, financial matters.

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Yes, search after Torah like money.

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You know where Shlomo HaMelech, the wisest of all men, said this.

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It's in Mishle, in Proverbs, in chapter two, verse four Im tevak shenok hakeseth, if thou shall search after it like money surely you're aware and like treasure, you will seek to discover it, to unearth it.

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Then, and only then, after that mindset, will you understand fear of God.

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And normally we understand this as a muscle, an allegory, a metaphor.

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You should be excited about Torah-like money, rav Moshe says.

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You read it quite literally, and surely you're aware of our approach here, of learning at the motivation congregation is to take things in the most kindergarten-like way, to read the words for exactly what they say and not add any additional meaning, but at a very face level.

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A kindergarten-like way of understanding.

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It is really.

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If you search after Torah like money, then you will understand God.

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So the effort that we put forth to our learning and davening should be the same amount of effort, concurrent with the effort that we would put into our parinassa making.

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But if, god forbid, continues Rav Moshe, if it should seem that the nation is more hurried, more alacritous to make bank, to make cash in this world, to get to the office on time and to close their sidurim and their chumashim, but to be more Hamatmonim, hamatmonim, tachpasena, much more money searching than the Torah and the Mitzvos, well then things are out of whack and it can, god forbid, lead towards the downfall and the calamity, the tragedy of the Jewish people, says Rav Moshe.

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That's what Balaam was trying to accomplish.

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He was rising early in the morning, this Chachem B'lam, harosha Shevakech, katroigim al Yisrael.

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He wanted to show Hashem that he was working harder than the Israelites Le'ezvazos.

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He was degrading himself for his cause, ve'lachavosh ba'atzmo.

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He was literally saddling the donkey by himself, like a mensch flying in coach, because he's trying to go make a buck at the city fair.

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He was arising early in the morning at that 5 am wake-up call, way before everyone attends.

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Dafyomi or Davin's.

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Vosikin Bila was trying to make a bad look, some sort of curse to befall the Israelites because he was working harder to curse, to do things in this world than the Jews were to accomplish Torah and mitzvahs.

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But Baruch Hashem.

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But thank the Almighty.

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Rashi continues, but we were protected.

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Why, oh why, were we protected?

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Because, as Rashi told us, kevar, already someone has beat you to it Kevar, kadom, b'cho, avrom, aviyem, avrom, their father.

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He already gave his all, he already instilled into the very foundation and the bones, the structure and the exoskeleton of these people that they are hard-working, blue-collar folk for the Almighty, as it says, avram Avinu.

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In the ultimate moment of truth, he set his alarm and became a part of that 5 am club and he flew, coach, to go across the world to do Torah mitzvot, to slaughter his son, because the Almighty told him to.

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So that ain't going to work, balaam, that little trick.

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So that ain't going to work.

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Billum, that little trick.

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Because just like a crazy, wild, small forward powering his way down the court to try to make a bucket, but instead the defense steps in front of him and is ready to take the charge to draw the offensive foul.

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Hopefully you get the metaphor.

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Hopefully I've given over the clear picture.

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So too you, billum.

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You're trying to score a bucket, but you're banging into someone who's already set himself up to take the charge and therefore it's an offensive foul Failure.

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Do not pass go, do not collect $200.

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Avram Avinu protected us this time, but the chidish, the takeaway, the idea, the mindset that makes understanding God possible is im tevak sheno kakasaf, that there is this tenay, this little bit of a kitrog, a little bit of a decree that could come out onto the Jews if they work harder, or someone is working harder for something that isn't Torah and mitzvos Working harder than the Jews Sleeping in and just working the nine to 5 for the Torah and mitzvot.

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This is actually the advice, this piece from Rav Moshe.

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It was the advice that I had gotten, that I received as soon as I was going into Kolo.

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I was flabbergasted about the advice that I received from my Rosh Yeshiva, but he told me the same thing.

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Now, son, you should know he said student.

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You should know, michal, you should know that as you are entering into the married life and going to kolel, full-time Torah study, to begin your matrimony, you should know that you are going to work.

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It is a nine-to-five, it's a job.

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You're a lawyer and you're studying the Talmud and Tavak Shanak HaKesav.

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Work like Avram, wake up early in the morning and learn like you're going to work to make cash.

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I thought, rabbi, holy Rosh Yeshiva, what are you saying?

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How could this be?

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But over and over his words, they've saved me, because I'll advise that we should treat Torah like we treat money, and I'll advise that we should treat our Torah study like a nine to five.

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And I'll advise that every Rashi and every Ramban and every Kisois and every Nesivas and every Nesivas Shalom and every Das Torah and every Michtam Eliyahu should be seen as another blue crisp, benjamin Franklin-faced $100 bill.

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Im Tevak Shenaka Kesef.

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In the most basic way, when a person wakes up late at his office, he's a doctor.

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There are no excuses.

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Oh, I missed my alarm.

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No, you see him in his scrubs, running through the New York turnstiles and the subways to get to his job on time and to clock in on time.

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With that same mindset that should be taken towards Torah study, the same realness, the same searching to uncover and unearth buried treasure.

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If you've ever seen those interesting looking fellows walking on the beach with that metal detector circling it around, normally they have an odd-looking child next to them, for whatever reason, but they're walking and I guess they find things because they're rather popular.

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I see them everywhere for my frequent beach visits.

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But they're uncovering things and as soon as they get a hit, they start to dig more.

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Dig, dig, dig.

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That's how we should be when we learn the Talmud, when we learn the Gemara.

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When something doesn't add up, you've hit something.

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Beep, beep, beep, beep.

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Something doesn't add up.

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What does Rava hold?

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What does Abaye hold?

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How could this be?

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Doesn't Rashi know that Toswas has cited a blatant contradiction to this Gemara in the way that he understands it?

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You've struck gold.

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You begin to dig.

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You begin to look for the Ritva.

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You pop open the Kovitz, you begin to check the Rajba.

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What does Reb Aaron Cutler say on the topic?

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What does Maimonides say?

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Oh, we gotta open up Reb Shach to figure out in Aviezri how to make sense of why the Rambam doesn't see the Gemara the same way.

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You dig, you dig, you dig Lest there be gold or buried treasure on the beach.

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That's what it means to search after it like gold.

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Only then, with this mindset, do you understand God.

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People get very unfriendly in business.

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They become leopard-like and with a very stoic face after they've made a shrewd but permitted business deal.

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A smart deal, but it was shrewd, it was brazen, maybe bold.

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They said don't worry about it, no hard feelings, it's just business.

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You've heard that before.

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It's just business and I'm not here to tell you if it's right or if it's wrong.

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But I'd love just once for somebody to say it's just Torah, because it's so real to them that my pshat, the way I understand it is so real, it is so bold, it is so brazen that no, I'm davening here and I know that you want to distract me.

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I know that you're trying to get me to say Lashon Hara, but I'm sorry, I will not listen to Lashon Hara.

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You'll make a bold deal with honesty and integrity, make a shrewd deal of that.

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I'm sorry there will be no Lashon Hara at this table.

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Maybe then and we're as bold as a leopard, like we're supposed to be, like Rabbi Yehuda Ben-Tema told us For Torah and not just for business.

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Then I was talking to you, Hashem, because we're searching after it like money.

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You hear people all the time traveling across the world for business, overnighters without family going to purchasing shows.

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For business, overnighters without family Going to purchasing shows.

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What about searching for the Rebbe, for the Sefer, for the Mitzvah?

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Traveling with that same thirst, because you know that that next mitzvah is another crisp $100 bill, or maybe it's even a multifamily property that has a 12% return.

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And this last piece, the idea of flying different places, that's not just popping out of my belly.

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This is from the holy pen of the Vilna Gaon and his comment on this, pesach and Mishle, says the money, the coin and the treasure is referring to Torah and mitzvot.

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You need to search after it like money, the leileich me'ir le'ir.

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You need to go to town to town.

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You heard that there's a Rebbe in the next town over who gives the most incredible Gemara Shir.

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Well then, uber over there.

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Let it be real to you that if there was a business deal, you'd make time for it.

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Let the Torah, let the davening, let the mitzvah land on you.

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In the same way, when you search after it like cash and search after it like treasure Oz, tovin, yiras, hashem Then you will understand, god.

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It was this area that Balaam tried to get us To wake up early and to saddle his donkey by himself To show more enthusiasm, more drive, more of a work ethic.

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And to saddle his donkey by himself to show more enthusiasm, more drive, more of a work ethic for his cause than the Jews were for their cause.

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That was to be part of the curse, part of the way that this curse would land manifest itself.

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But thank God for Avram Avinu, the model student, the teacher's honor roll student, avram Avinu.

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He already beat Balaam to the spot and showed that work F thick for Torah.

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Our job is to mimic Avram, to mimic our grandfather, to saddle the donkey early in the morning morning and to saddle it by ourselves, to search after Torah like we search after money and it's not a bazillion to the Torah.

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These are the words of Shlomo Amellach.

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With this mindset, with this new approach, a very real, honest attitude about the reality of Torah and mitzvos and how real they are to us, it can be, and emirat Hashem should be the first step towards understanding HaKadosh Baruch Hu.

Parshas Balak: The Zeal of Avraham vs. the Passion of Bilam

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