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This week’s reading features two of the most negative people in history: Balak the evil King of Moav and Bilam the master sorcerer.

Both were arch anti-Semites (Bilam was worse) who concentrated all their powers on destroying the Jews.
But ironically the outcome was blessing! Namely the most positive and optimistic predictions in the Torah about Moshiach!

“I see him but not now etc…(24:17-20)

But why did this have to come from two evil men Balak and Bilam?

Moshiach will be a Jew, a descendent of King David, who will educate all mankind, build the Holy Temple, gather the Jews back to Israel, subdue all forces of disease and destruction and bring world peace, and prosperity. (Mimonides, Laws of Kings 11:1) and these two; Balak and Bilam were the opposite.

To understand this, here is a story I heard years ago from Rabbi Yosef Zaltzman about his grandfather Rabbi Avraham Zaltzman.

Once at a Chassidic ‘Farbrengen’ gathering, Rabbi Avraham Zaltzman told a story about his wild youthful exploits in Yeshiva in the town of Lubavitch in the early 19hundreds.

Rabbi Mendel Futerfass, (a well-known Chassid who had been imprisoned many years in Siberia) was also present at the Farbrengen, and often his comments ‘made the evening’ as would be the case here.

Rabbi Zaltzman began his story: When he was only twelve years old, he was such a lively child that it was very difficult for him to sit and learn Torah. So he and two other boys in the Yeshiva with similar natures were given various odd jobs to keep them busy in positive ways.

One of these jobs was to milk a few goats in a nearby farm and supply milk to the pupils. But one terrible day, desperate for action, they added vodka to the goat’s drinking water and then led the intoxicated beast to the large study hall where all the pupils were diligently immersed in Talmudic studies, and pushed it in.

The goat, unaware of the holiness of the place, jumped on tables, knocked over several rabbis and scattered books and papers in all directions. It was hours before the studies could be restored and, of course, it was no secret who was to blame.

The three boys were summoned to the supervisor of the Yeshiva, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, The son of the Rebbe ‘Resha’b’; (Rebbe Shalom Dov Ber, the fifth Rebbe of Chabad and founder of the Yeshiva), and were told to pack up their belongings and leave.

With no other choice they did as they were told and several hours later were waiting in the train station in the nearby city of Rodna, with their suitcases in hand.

But suddenly Avraham turned to his friends and said, “What are we doing?! We can’t leave! We have to go back and plead for mercy! I’m going back!” But the others shook their heads ‘no’.

“It won’t work. Did you see the look on the supervisor’s face? He doesn’t want to see us again. We’re finished!” One answered

The other boy agreed.  “Yeah, we’re out for sure!”

But Avraham didn’t give up and before the train arrived, he succeeded in convincing one of the boys to come back with him and give it a try.

So one boy boarded the train and the other two trudged back to Lubavitch with no real idea what their next step was but Avraham wouldn’t go down without a battle.

They couldn’t go back to the Supervisor; he was too angry. And the Rebbe, the supervisor’s father, also wasn’t the one to approach; he would never override his son’s decision… especially here where they were clearly guilty.

Then it occurred to them to try Rabbinite Rivka the Rebbe’s mother (and the supervisor’s grandmother). She had a wonderful warm heart and was a mother for all the boys in the yeshiva; she cooked, sewed and washed for them as well as being there in times of illness and need. Maybe she could help.

They went to her house, knocked on the door and when she answered Avraham poured out his heart. When he was finished, her answer was to the point.

“I can’t go against the decision of my grandson; he’s the supervisor of the Yeshiva. The only one that might be able to do that is my son, the Rebbe. But I can’t talk to him about this either. I simply can’t mix in.

“But, what I can do is this: every morning at ten my son, The Rebbe sits in his room and drinks a cup of tea. Come tomorrow morning and I’ll show you where the room is … but you will have to do the talking.”

The two boys found some place to sleep that night and the next morning little Avraham reported to Rabbinit Rivka while his friend, who was simply too afraid, waited outside.

She let him in, pointed him to the room where the Rebbe was sitting, whispered ‘good luck’ and watched as he bravely approached the door.

The door was open and when the Rebbe saw him, he looked up, stared at him for a moment and asked him what he wanted.

“I want to learn in Lubavitch.” He was almost crying.
“Lubavitch?” smiled the Rebbe as he motioned him to come closer, “But there are so many other good yeshivas! There is Slovadka, Navordak” and he listed all the other Torah academies, about twenty of them, in the area.

“But I want to learn here, in Lubavitch!” The young boy began to whine. When the Rebbe saw this he began to smile and when Avraham saw the smile he began to cry. This, in turn, caused the Rebbe to laugh, which made Avraham cry even harder.

Suddenly the Rebbe became serious and said, “Good! We will think about it… come back later today.”
Avraham backed out of the office, sniffling and wiping his eyes with his sleeve but suddenly he stopped, took two steps forward, which put him back in entrance of the room, and just stood there looking sheepishly at the ground.

“Nu? What do you want now?” The Rebbe asked.

“I have a friend outside.” Avraham answered. “He’s waiting outside.”

“A friend is it? Well, we will think about him also.” The Rebbe replied. “Come back with your friend in a few hours.”

“Well, the story has a happy ending” Rabbi Avraham concluded to his listeners. “We returned to the Rebbe a few hours later, the Rebbe took us into his son; Yosef Yitzchak’s office, said a few words and left.

“His son imposed a stiff fine on us; we had to learn tens of pages of Talmud and Chassidut by heart. But he accepted us back in! And that’s the story! How my broken heart got me back into yeshiva.”

Rabbi Mendel Futerfass who had been listening with interest was the first to comment.

“Tell me, Reb Avraham, why do you think the Rebbe changed his mind? What made him accept you back into the yeshiva?”

“Like I said,” He replied “That’s the point of the story. Because I wanted so much to learn in Lubavitch that I actually wept! That’s how much a person should want Chassidut; that his heart is breaking!!

“Nope!” Said Reb Mendel. “That’s not the reason.”

“The reason was because you said ‘I have a friend outside’. You worried for your friend! That’s why he took you back!!”
This answers our question about why the Torah deals with evil people.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe said repeatedly that ours is the first generation of Moshiach and the end of exile. That’s right! Ours is the generation that we Jews will bring blessing and meaning to the world and all humanity will worship only the Creator in peace and joy.

And Evil Bilam showed us how it’s possible!!

The cause of this exile, beginning with the destruction of the First Temple well over two thousand years ago, was and still is; unwarranted hatred.

And its cure will be love; unwarranted love. And this is what our weekly portion is hinting at:

The classic examples of pure hatred were Bilam and Balak but even they transformed to become the catalyst and vessel for Moshiach and blessing.

Now is the time to, like Rav Avraham in our story; think of our friend ‘outside.
Namely to bring blessing to others. That will transform the hatred and curses of Bilam (and the ‘Bilam’ within each of us) to love and blessings.

And, as the Rebbe said repeatedly; this should happen at any moment.
We are standing on the merits of thousands of years of Jewish service, hopes, prayers and suffering. It all depends on us! Just one more good deed, word or even good thought, can bring …….

Moshiach NOW!!

Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad, Israel

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