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Parshah Balak - Numbers 22:2-25:9


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Torah Portion: Balak

From our Sages on the Parshah
And [Balak] sent to Balaam... "Curse me this people, for he is mightier than me" (Numbers 22:5-6)

The Hebrew phrase, atzum hu mimeni also translates, "he is mightier from me." For in truth, the might of the people of Israel is Moshiach, who is descendent of Balak (Ruth, the anscestress of King David, was a Moabite princess).

(Shaloh)

And she crushed Balaam's foot against the wall (22:27)

This was the very heap of stones which Laban and Jacob had erected as a testament that "I will not pass over this heap to you, and that you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, for harm"
(Genesis 31:52). Balaam, who is Laban, was now violating this covenant by crossing the heap to come curse Jacob's descendents. Therefore the wall was punishing him, as it is written (Deuteronomy 17:7): "The hand of the witnesses should be first in [punishing] him."

(Midrash Tanchuma)


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