Balak, בָּלָק  "Balak" Numbers 22:2-25:9

With The Sword Of Moshe

Poetic notes on parashat Balak 5782*

Balak the King of Moab 

feared Moshe more than he feared death

Bilaam did not even fear truth

He was well known as a spiritual hitman

Bilaam loved money even more than life

Balak knew that Bilaam was the perfect hire,

a notorious prophet with a flaming tongue

Balak hired Bilaam to set Israel on unholy fire

Deeply grieved with Bilaam

Hashem allowed him to try his best

Go ahead, He said, Be my guest

Try to earn the fee of a harlot’s mystery

Try to curse the people

who are God’s blessing for the world

Try to erase the people that Balak fears

Your curses will be their blessings

Their blessings will be your tears

To the top of Bilaam’s mind rose curse after curse

But off of Bilaam’s tongue rolled blessing upon blessing

God turned the world of Bilaam

inside out and upside down

Bilaam thought of raising up the kings of Edom

to rule over Israel

But from Bilaam’s tongue God brought them low

and raised up King David as a blessing from Bilaam’s lips

When Bilaam thought of making the Roman Caesar 

to be the world’s final emperor

Hashem pulled a prophecy of Mashich

like teeth from Bilaam’s mouth

Then Bilaam, the one eyed pirate, saw

that the genius of evil

could never beat the glory

of the king of eternal Jerusalem

Hashem had sworn an oath to Abraham

that his descendants would seize the gate of every foe

The promise Hashem made to Abraham

Had at first been private, 

like an engagement between a groom and bride

Then Hashem announced His espousal openly to the world,

Giving openly his gift to Israel,

announcing with the gift of His Torah,

“I shall be their God and they shall be my people!”

And the children of Israel called Hashem their only One

Therefore the genius of evil could not understand them

The greedy tongue of evil could not curse them

Bilaam’s tongue therefore twisted and said,

“If the nations cannot defeat them spiritually,

then let the the nations join together with them

and become one with them carnally,"

Turn the fire of your tongue into water,

Bilaam said to Moab,

and give Israel to drink 

If my curses are turned to blessings,

then let my blessings be turned to curses 

Why do the nations rage

And the peoples dream up empty dreams?

The nations rage 

when their pride turns into fear, 

and with empty dreams they make empty plans

to erase the whole world if need be,

to protect their possessive tribal love

People, people, tribal builders of nations,

god-like builders of empires,

architects of a global civilization,

you build yourself up

against your existential doubt

Each of you is human,

but your community is not

When time grows old,

your community will be nothing but a robot

Daughters of Moab,

you covent Israel’s inheritance

Daughters of Midian,

your lust and worship is for a fallen god

The nations divided their house in two

The king of the south said,

We will seduce and trap the Jews in the jaws of death

The king of the north said, No,

I want you to trap them to steal their inheritance

Together, the daughters of Moab and Midian 

approached the children of Israel, 

They said to the sons of Jacob,

“Establish a tent for us to be alone with Hashem among you

Our seed will be your children

and our gods will be children of your God

And we will circumcise for you all families 

to the very ends of the earth!”

But Pinchas came

and plunged the sword of Moshe

through Bilaam’s scheme

By this sword,

the illness of Midian was surgically removed

Then King David also came

and pitched the tent of the Oath of Truth

over the corners of the field of Moab

There Moab will be contained

until the time the Son of David comes

And with the sword of Moshe

he will pierce the dream of the mystery harlot

A mound of mammon

is built on the ground of Bilaam’s grave

Only the sword of Moshe in the hand of Mashiach

can surgically remove that tumor

Then the soul of Balak will be freed from ignorant fear

And the soul of Bilaam will weep without repentance with Amalek

The soul of Jacob will be strong 

And Jerusalem will rule

through the covenant of her God

The Torah of peace 

shall be a light that shines

from Jacob’s anointed heart

The Land of Israel will receive as one 

all her Sabbath days,

all her Sabbatical weeks and Jubilee years

Jerusalem’s face will be radiant! 

She will conquer death

through her mitzvot and her faith

The Lord will be satisfied by seeing her

The joy of her nuptials will be forever