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BEGIN WITH A GRIN

A man sits on the light rail next to another passenger, and throughout the entire journey he wipes his nose with the bottom of the jacket of the person sitting beside him…

At some point during the journey, the passenger got fed up with his jacket being used as a handkerchief, and he turned (angrily) to the nose-wiper: “Tell me, don’t you have a handkerchief??”

The nose-wiper replied: “I do have one, but I don’t give it to strangers!”

SECOND-RATE TRUTH?

Parshas Balak is a hidden treasure trove of concealed hints about the coming of Moshiach and the Geula. Bilam’s last prophecy, which begins with: “What this people will do to your people at the End of Days,” contains within it one of the three proofs that the Rambam brings to prove that the coming of Moshiach is indeed explicitly mentioned in the Written Torah.

“Also (af) in the portion of Bilam it is said, and there it prophesies about the two Moshiachs – about the first Moshiach who is Dovid who saved the Jewish people from the hand of their enemies, and about the final Moshiach who descends from Dovid, who will save Israel in the end. And there it says (Balak 24:17) ‘I see him but not now’ etc.” (Hilchos Melachim 11:1)

The words of the poskim are well known regarding the great precision of the Rambam’s language, especially in his sefer Yad HaChazaka (Mishneh Torah). The Rambam’s other sefarim, Pirush HaMishnayos or Moreh Nevuchim, were originally written in Arabic and later translated into Hebrew in various translations, where the content of the Rambam’s words was preserved, but the precision of the language was lost as a result of translation into Hebrew. In contrast, in the Yad, which was written originally in Hebrew by the Rambam himself, it is clear to all how appropriate it is to pay attention to every detail in his golden wording.

In light of the above, the question arises: Why does the Rambam begin bringing the proof for the coming of Moshiach from “the parsha of Bilam” with the word “also” (af)? How is the portion of Bilam different from other parts of the Torah where Moshiach is mentioned? Is Parshas Balak and Bilam “second-rate” compared to other parts of the Torah? Is “the parsha of Bilam” the “underdog” of Sefer Bamidbar, and therefore the Rambam writes about it “also” – sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it?!

In fact, we find in the words of the Gemara and poskim that “the parsha of Bilam” is considered one of the most important parshiyos in the Torah. First of all, about Bilam it is said that he “knows the knowledge of the Most High,” he prophesied with the words “How good are your tents, Yaakov,” and with these words we begin the morning prayers every day. To such an extent that the Gemara (Berachos 12b) says that “they wanted to establish Parshas Balak in the reading of Shema,” together with Shema Yisrael and Baruch Shem!

And if that’s not enough, the Chasam Sofer brings in his responsa (Yoreh Deah 356) that specifically from the parsha of Bilam we know that “the Torah is from Heaven,” and that G-d dictated to Moshe word by word what is written in the Torah.

What is the proof?

Says the Chasam Sofer, that all the rest of the Torah we received from Moshe through Yehoshua bin Nun, but the parsha of Bilam and Balak, “who told us what happened between the king of Moav and Bilam… who came into their counsel… and even Moshe Rabeinu didn’t know, and only from the mouth of the Holy One, blessed be He, were these things written!”

So why does the Rambam express himself about this portion with the word “also” (af)? What’s so terrible about the “af” of (the parsha of) Bilam?

ABSOLUTE TRUTH!

The Rebbe explains this on two levels, one plain and the other spiritual and mystical. The plain explanation is based on the words of the Yerushalmi (Sotah, end of chapter 5): “Moshe wrote five books of the Torah and went back and wrote the portion of Balak and Bilam,” meaning that the portion of Balak and Bilam was written in the Torah as an “addition,” like a kind of completion of what was missing. The custom of the world in writing additions and completions to compositions or books is that the addition comes to say something that was not mentioned at all in the book, something that the author forgot and remembered only afterwards. There is no reason to write an addition or completion and repeat in it what was already said – it’s a waste of ink and a waste of time. If so, why did Moshe go back and write in “the portion of Bilam” about the coming of Moshiach? This matter was already written explicitly in other places in the Torah, as the Rambam himself already wrote in his first proof from verses in Parshas Nitzavim!

We must say that the reason Moshe repeated the topic of the coming of Moshiach in the parsha of Bilam is because the topic of the coming of Moshiach is a central matter in the Torah, an important matter that is repeated time after time, and even when writing a completion or addition, one doesn’t forget about the main thing which is – bringing the Geula!

This explanation highlights the importance of belief in the coming of Moshiach and the important place it occupies in Judaism. But this plain explanation is lacking, because if so, the Rambam could have started this halacha with the words “gam (also) in the portion of Bilam,” why did the Rambam specifically choose the language: “af (also/even) in the portion of Bilam,” what does the Rambam have with the “af” of Bilam?

The Chassidic explanation for this is based on the words of the Alter Rebbe in his sefer Likutei Torah (our parsha 89d). He explains that the word “af” (in the verse “for My honor I created him, I formed him, af (also/even) I made him”) means nose, anger and wrath, and it symbolizes the forces of the “sitra achra” that we must refine in this world, called the world of action (af asisiv; “I made him”) as opposed to the higher worlds – creation and formation (berasiv yetzartiv; “I created it, I formed it”) which belong more to the worlds of holiness, and therefore they don’t need the same degree of refinement.

That is, the hint in the Rambam’s language “af in the parsha of Bilam” comes to teach us about the need to refine the “af” – the anger and wrath that comes as a result of the matters and deeds of Bilam the Rasha, a complete and absolute refinement to such an extent that it becomes part of “parshas Bilam,” part of the holy Torah, part of Moshiach and Geula. In fact, this hint of the Rambam teaches us about the work required of us in bringing the Geula, the work of transformation (is’hapcha). To completely transform and refine the undesirable events that we encounter in daily life and turn them into a lighthouse, a tower of light, an addition of light and holiness, in a life full of Torah and mitzvos.

THE REBBE CONCLUDES WITH A STORY

But from where do we draw the strength for this? Regarding this, the Rebbe told, in installments, about the imprisonment of the Rebbe Rayatz, whose Yom Tov of Geula we celebrated in the past week.

The Rebbe Rayatz wrote in his prison notes that on the night of the imprisonment they sat him in a corridor for several hours, and then thoughts of depression fell upon him. He immediately “caught himself” that he must not continue to think such thoughts, but on the contrary, he must stand with strength and fortitude. He contemplated that in this place usually sit coarse and lowly criminals, and this place has been waiting for many years for a Jew to come there and say verses of Torah, verses of Tehillim, and this very thought gave him strength.

And then he remembered an event that happened to him as a small child, when he was five or six years old, together with his father, the Rebbe Rashab. That year he traveled together with his father and mother to Yalta, in the Crimean mountains, and on the way, his father turned to daven Mincha, and since one doesn’t daven in open terrain, in an open place, he entered a small valley between two rocks, and davened Mincha.

Afterwards his father showed him a certain place at the height of the mountain, which from a distance looked like a large hole in the rock standing at the top of the mountain, and told him that in the year 5644 (1884), during his journey with his brother, they stopped to rest at this place, and went to daven Shacharis at the top of the mountain, and when they came there, they saw that it was not just a hole, but it was a long and hollow cave, and there small rocks were placed, a good place to sit, so that they could daven Shacharis properly – not in an open place, but in a cave.

And the Rebbe Rayatz concluded: “Then he explained to me that Hashem created the world in such a way that every Jew can fulfill G-d’s mitzvos, and it would be that if a person travels on the road and the time for prayer arrives, and it is forbidden to daven in the field in an open place, for this G-d created such hollow rocks, which are like houses, so that they can pray there.”

That is, even though 5644 years had passed since the world was created, throughout all this time this hollow cave waited until the Rebbe Rashab and his brother would pass by and daven there!

And the memory of this event strengthened in him the idea regarding his waiting in this corridor, that it’s possible that this is the ultimate purpose of this building – that they would bring him there, and he would think or say words of Torah, verses of Tehillim, there.

Everything that happens to us by Divine providence constitutes instruction and empowerment to change and transform the world for good and holiness.

Good Shabbos!

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