The Parsha on Shabbos is Parashas Balak . In the previous Parsha , HaShem Helped the Children Of Israel defeat the Giants Og and Sichon . These giants were the protectors of Moab and with their defeat , Moav seeing Israel approaching , became very worried that seeing as Israel were able to conquer their Giant protectors , Israel would surely do the same to them . In order to try and overcome this problem the Moabites decided to appoint Balak as their King . Balak was not even a Moabite but partly from Midyan . Moav and Midyan were not allies , but these two nations decided to work together to help each other handle the oncoming threat of our Jewish nation advancing towards them . Balak was himself a warrior and he also delved into the negative Tum'a arts of magic and he knew where to curse a person from . Balak in this Parsha is named " Balak ben Tzippor , " ( " ben " meaning " son of Tzippor " ) where his Father too was also into negative magic . Balak had this title " ben Tzippor " , for where a tzippor is a bird , Balak used to catch live birds , skin them and put their tongues into a made up copy of a bird and say certain incantations of negative Tum'a Impurity that would after a few days , cause the bird to speak and tell of future events . It happened on a certain occasion , that this made up bird that Balak had done , flew away and returned to Balak one day with a sudden burst of fire coming at it out of the sky and singing its tail . Balak knew that he would have to get help as the issue that was put to him about Israel being on the way , showed that defeat was inevitable for the Moabites . Balak sent emissaries to Midyan , remembering that he had heard that our leader Moshe had grown up there and Balak hoped to find out his weakness . The emissaries returned , telling him that our power is in our mouths of prayer to HaShem , Who Saves us when we call out to Him , so Balak decided that the answer was to hurt us by mouth , which brought him to the conclusion that we needed cursing by mouth to defeat us . Balak remembered a man called Bilaam who had prophesied that Balak would become King one day and that Bilaam was known as a man for hire to curse enemies and that his curses would come true . Bilaam was the grandson of Lavan , where Lavan was the brother of Rivka and the Father of Rachel , Leah , Bilhah and Zilpah , our Fore - Mothers and so , Lavan put the hatred he had for Yaakov , their husband , into his children and it came down to his grandson and fellow evil magician Bilaam , who also delved into and used the negative powers of Tum'a , being a great friend and counselor of the Egyptian Pharaohs . Bilaam had a deep hatred for the Jewish people . Bilaam was one of Pharaoh's advisors in Egypt as one of the three advisors ,with Iyov Job and Yisro Jethro . It was Bilaam as one of these three , that had wanted and advised Pharaoh to kill little Moshe when Moshe had sat on Pharaoh's throne and put on his crown as a game in Egypt as a child , when Moshe was tested with the hot coal . It was Bilaam who had advised Pharaoh to throw our Jewish boys into the Nile . It was Bilaam , who had advised Pharaoh to bathe in the blood of the Jewish children , when Pharaoh had gotten leprous sores . This was the same Bilaam who the nations were given as a prophet , so that the nations could never say about us that had they ever gotten a prophet like Moshe they too would have become high and holier . It was this same Bilaam that had put an evil spell around Egypt's borders to prevent the Jews from running away from slavery . Thus Bilaam was the negative Tum'a prophet to Moshe's Holy Kedusha Prophet , each choosing their path to travel spiritually . The Haftorah for this Parsha is in Micha 5 : 6 - 6 : 8 , suitable for the Sedra , for it also mentions Bilaam and Balak . Bilaam , had a certain ability and that was to know the exact time to curse someone , relying on HaShem's Anger for a person at that moment . This moment was usually just after midday when the Sun was high in the sky and starting to wane . The reason HaShem Would Get Angry at that time was when the Sun was high in the Sky , it was then that people used to worship it as a deity , thus making HaShem Angry At Idol Worship at that moment . Bilaam would know the time to curse and putting that together with Balak , who knew from where to curse , the two of them would be a formidable enemy .As I mentioned earlier , Bilaam had originally put a curse and border holding spell around Egypt so that the Jews would be prevented from ever leaving and now it was apparent , that this spell was broken . Bilaam knew of HaShem and accounted HaShem as G-D . So when Balak sent emissaries to Bilaam , Bilaam first asked the elders that had been sent , to spend the night there to see what HaShem Would Respond , in the meantime , Bilaam , being a man who was completely impure , hoped to have his way with these men , as he would have with his poor donkey . HaShem Appeared to Bilaam , not in the Clear Way That HaShem Appears to Moshe and warned Bilaam not to go and curse Israel , for By HaShem , we are Blessed . So Bilaam sent the officers back to Balak , who kept sending more emissaries of higher ranks with silver and gold to persuade Bilaam to change his mind . Bilaam responded that even if Balak gave his houseful of riches ( thus hinting that Balak should offer more than just his household full of riches ) , that Bilaam could not transgress The Word Of HaShem , even though Bilaam would have wanted to . Again Bilaam had them stay there the night also hoping to have his way with them and hoping to still be able to go and curse us , But Again HaShem Warned him and Told him that he may only go if and only if he speaks As HaShem Commands . The next morning , Bilaam saddled his own she- donkey ( unusual as he usually had his servants do that ) , showing his eagerness to go and curse us , yet our Fore-Father Avraham also saddled his donkey himself when he was on the way to the Akeidah with his son , showed how Avraham was holy and opposite to Bilaam and so , Avraham's Actions then stood as a shining Action and so HaShem Allowed Avraham's action to go toward covering us for this incident of Bilaam . In Bilaam's heart , he still hoped to curse the Jews and so , HaShem's Anger flared up because he was going for that reason . So HaShem Sent an Angel to impede him . This Angel Of HaShem was none other then Satan , who is not what people think , but an Angel who comes to sometimes impede and put an opposition in our paths , to make sure we deserve the Good That HaShem Lavishes On us . The she - donkey saw the Angel Of HaShem , even though Bilaam did not and she turned away from the road and went into the field . Bilaam hit his she-donkey to turn it back onto the road . Again the Angel of HaShem stood in the path . The she - donkey saw the Angel Of HaShem and pressed against a wall , thus pressing and injuring Bilaam's leg against the wall . This wall place was actually a reminder to Bilaam for it was the very mound that his grandfather Lavan and our Forefather Yaakov had set up , so as never to go against each other and here was Lavan's descendant Bilaam going against that agreement . Bilaam ignored the place and this agreement and again hit his she - donkey . The Angel Of HaShem went again further up and stood in a narrow place where no movement could take place either right or left and now the she-donkey lay down and did not move . Bilaam again hit her . HaShem Performed A Miracle , one that was Created At The Beginning Of Creation , this talking she donkey ( as Pirkei Avos teaches us ) and the she-donkey spoke up against Bilaam in front of and to the embarrassment of Bilaam's servants and all that were around him . No matter how Bilaam tried to talk her down , she showed wisdom beyond his attempted lies . The she-donkey acknowledged how Bilaam would use her for other purposes , to the embarrassment of Bilaam and showed how close they were , for the she-donkey was forced to submit to such a vile man doing such vile things . It was Bilaam who was the first in history , to open up gambling houses and places of paid prostitution . These three occassions that the donkey veered or disobeyed Bilaam , our Rabbis say , was also due to the Holiness of our Holy Three Fore-Fathers Avraham Yitzchak and Yaakov . HaShem Then Uncovered Bilaam's eyes and he saw the Angel Of HaShem . The Angel spoke to Bilaam and even referred to the fact that he , the Angel , had to kill the she- donkey or else it would have become an object to be wrongly sadly worshiped . Again the Angel instructs Bilaam to go and say only As HaShem Commands . When Bilaam finally met Balak , Balak had set up a fake city scene to show lots of people , to try and get sympathy from Bilaam of how many people would suffer if Israel would attack . Bilaam expected a bigger welcome , but Balak sent him only a measly portion to eat and kept the best for himself so Bilaam decided that he would have Balak set up repeated altars with lots of offerings , so Balak would have to use what Balak did not want to spare on Bilaam for a welcome meal . Bilaam again reiterated that only What HaShem Says , can he say and cannot transgress HaShem's Wish . We notice that each time they went to a separate place , Bilaam has Balak set up seven altars with seven bulls and seven rams three times . Bilaam chose this number specifically , for he wanted to try and bribe HaShem , by offering seven false intentioned gifts to try and counteract seven holy men from our people - Moshe , Aharon , Avraham , Yitzchak , Yaakov , Yosef and Adam . HaShem Is All Wise and so , Bilaam's attempts were turned on his own head . We notice how it says That HaShem " Happened on Bilaam ," - " Vayikar ," where HaShem Did Not Actually Want to Communicate with Bilaam , But Did So out of necessity , unlike with Moshe , which has the same word " Vayikra , " but with an Alef at the end , in the book of Vayikra , made smaller in a Torah Scroll , showing How HaShem Wants To Communicate with the righteous Moshe Rabbeinu . Moshe was so humble that he did not feel that he deserved the same word as was spoken to Bilaam and so Moshe wanted to leave out the Alef all together from this word , So HaShem , To Show Moshe's beautiful humility for all time , Compromised With Moshe And Allowed Moshe to write the Alef smaller . Bilaam , instead of cursing us blesses us Thanks To HaShem . By Bilaam's words in each of the four times he speaks , one can see what he really wanted to say things as a negative wish , But HaShem Turned everything he wanted to say to a Positive Blessing . Bilaam ends up blessing us and angering Balak . Balak decides to go to another place to find a vantage point to hopefully find iniquity in us from there , But Again HaShem Turns it into a Blessing and Bilaam speaks his second words of blessing to us . Bilaam realized our Tznius and family purity and how not a single tent's opening or window of ours faced a neighboring husband and wife's tent , for pure modesty , so no evil eye could be put on us . Bilaam hoped to catch HaShem's Moment of Anger , but for our sakes , HaShem Chose Not To Sit in Judgement that day . By the end of the second words of Bilaam , Balak was so angry with Bilaam that he hit Bilaam in the eye, making him lose an eye and that is why Bilaam then refers to himself as the one with the open ' eye ' ( singular ) . The third time Bilaam speaks , he talks of future prophecies of what we will do to different enemies in the future , like Amalek and the Kittim . Bilaam even speaks of the End Of Days and Mashiach in his prophecies and reminds the World That HaShem Is Not A Man ( Numbers 23 : 19 ) . Again Balak gets angry and hits him . Bilaam reminds Balak that he cannot go against HaShem's Wish . Automatically , Bilaam suddenly goes into his fourth prophecy and tells Balak what we will do to his people at the End of Days , thus reminding him that we Israel have no intention at that time to attack Moav in that day and generation , but only in the far distant future . Bilaam then leaves but not before he helps to set up a trap for Israel that may bring on HaShem's Wrath upon us on purpose , seeing that he could not find another way to get HaShem to be upset with us . At times in our history , Bilaam's intended negativity against us has carried and hit us at times , like the 42 aggressive youths killed in Elisha the Prophet's time , when they came out at Elisha , for Bilaam offered in this Sedra 42 animals as offerings . We need to thus ensure that we remain close to HaShem's Laws and keep family purity and modesty and always be of a holy pure Physical and Spiritual character for Tznius purity keeps negativity away . A market got set up on the border near the Israelite camp , with wares to sell and inside each tent was a young lady set to trap the young men of our people . Even Bilaam's daughter was set up to try and entice Moshe and with her , Balak's daughter too , also to try and catch Moshe , yet she ( Balak's daughter named Cozbi bas Tzur , where Tzur was a name some gave Balak before Midyan asked for his help as ' Tzur ' has the same letters as the Hebrew word ' Tzureir , ' which means 'foe or enemy , ' as Balak was thought of by his own Midyanim before they needed his help and called him ) Cozbi ended up with Zimri , leader of the Tribe of Simeon . The place they chose for this was Shittim , a place known at the time for an air of immorality . HaShem Already had , prior to this , Taken into account the sin that would be committed there And Had Already Prepared something that would help us atone for this sin , and that was the wood used in the construction of the Holy Place in the Wilderness , wood from Shittim . Once the Israelite men would be browsing in the market , they would be tricked into going and looking inside the tents of the markets , where the young girls ( a mixture of Moabites and Midianites ) were waiting to ply them with drink and apparent friendliness ( at that time , the prohibition of drinking foreign wine was not yet in force ) . The result was that these women got some of them to drink and eat with them and then end up paying homage to the idol by relieving themselves in front of it , which was the way that they worshiped their idol . HaShem's Anger Flared And HaShem Instructed Moshe to kill them , those who had done this . Moshe asked HaShem how to know who was guilty And HaShem Revealed the guilty ones , By Removing from above them the Clouds Of Glory and so the sun shone brightly on the guilty ones ( Thus Does HaShem Instruct That they be hanged against the sun ) . The leader of the Tribe of Simeon Zimri ben Salu managed to persuade Cozbi ( daughter of Balak ) who was meant to entice Moshe , to come with Zimri into his tent , in the direct view of Moshe . Moshe was so stunned that he could not even respond . Sitting near him was Aharon's relative Pinchas , who could not take this affront to HaShem and his Rebbe Moshe and asked Moshe what he should do , for a child of Israel who cohabits with a gentile woman , especially one who is an idol worshiper , the punishment is that he will be killed by zealots . Moshe responded that ' what he states , may he go and fulfill it . ' Pinchas picked up Moshe's spear and followed Zimri to the tent and pierced them both , causing to halt , the plague HaShem Had Sent . 24 000 people fell that day , the same amount of our people that died as Rabbi Akiva's students later on in history . Pinchas was now covered and protected By HaShem for his action in saving The Honor Of HaShem and his Rebbe Moshe . It is here where the Parsha ends . In this Parsha , evil Balak calls evil Bilaam to come and put an ' Ayin Horah ' - ' An Evil Eye , ' on innocent nation Israel . But instead of Bilaam cursing us , HaShem Sees to it that we get Blessed instead . Just As HaShem Turned the wicked plot of these two evil men Balak and Bilaam against them on their own heads , Turning the curses into Blessings , So Did HaShem Turn haman's evil schemes against him , Making his plan come back down on his own evil head . How Beautiful And Caring And Faithful Is HaShem And His Love For His People Israel . We notice that in referring to the ' Ayin Horah , ' - ' Evil Eye , ' we note that only one eye is mentioned . Don't people usually have two eyes . So why only mention a single eye as an Evil Eye ? The answer to this is that those who curse and wish harm on others , are only looking at part of the picture and that makes them jealous . They are not looking clearly , as if with both their eyes open . They are thus viewing a distorted view of reality , seeing only the things that they want to see and not the full picture about the person whom they covet , who may also have their problems too as we all have . This is why Bilaam ended up with one eye , as punishment for his self - chosen distorted view of his own jealous reality , which is certainly not a reality at all . Only HaShem Sees All , Viewing All Facets of a situation , as if with many eyes and thus can never do Negative or Evil Things , For HaShem Never Just Looks With one covetous eye , for all things Belong To HaShem And He Does Not Need to Covet what is already His , By Him Being The Creator Of All . We say that one eye looks to the Physical while the other eye looks higher to the Spiritual . Thus to look with one eye is to only see the Physical and the wants and desires of the flesh . This is the error of the ones who curse others for bad , due to their own negativity within themselves . To see the full picture , we need to open up both our eyes , the Physical and the Spiritual that is within us and look On High . Look always toward G-D . Look beyond what we think we see . We see so little with our limited human capabilities . Only G-D Can See All . Only G-D Can Truly Judge . Only G-D Sees Creation as it truly is . All those of the nations who see the Jews in the antisemitic ugly ways that they choose to , are only looking with a ' Single - Eye , view . ' They are not able to see the depths and Spiritual reaches of the Jew . They are not able to see beyond their own physicalities and so , they call for our harm and destruction Chas Ve Shalom , as did Bilaam and in a similar way Haman , as well as all the others throughout History who so badly wanted and still want our extermination , Chas Ve Shalom . But it will never happen , as they cannot see with anything more than a single limited view , the view of the one that looks with only the one open eye , like Bilaam . At the End of Days , the nations will open up both their eyes and realize how wrong they were all along and that all false beliefs and deified men and false physical deities that they see with only the one open physical eye, were actually never of any use . The Only True Path Is The Path Of HaShem , The Only Path With An Open View Of The Wide Deep And Holy Truth . So What HaShem Did , Was To Open Both Bilaam's Eyes to Show the True Truth and so , did Bilaam utter The True Prophecy From HaShem . The now open eye that Bilaam referred to , was the one he never made an effort to open so he could see a fuller picture . HaShem Thus Opened his view and so he was able to see the Truth and Speak it . No wonder he suffered with not full vision , for he was unholy and thus unable to stand the view of the Tinge And Glimpse Of The True Light Of HaShem's Prophecy . After these prophecies , Bilaam never again prophesied and his life thereafter got the result he had wanted for us , for he ended up being slain by the sword , just like Haman got the death he had wanted for Mordechai and so will be the case with all our enemies . We are also about to start tomorrow , from the 17th of Tammuz till Tisha B'Av , the Three Weeks of Mourning , where the 17th of Tammuz was the day when sadly the Luchos Tablets were broken after the incident of the Chait Ha ' Eigel , the golden calf . This is really a time for us to all open up both our eyes , the one that sees Physicality and the one that sees far ranging Spirituality within and work toward fixing ourselves from within , to see beyond our own limited physicality , opening both our eyes , so that we can work away our Aveirahs and give HaShem Most Of All and others , the benefit of the doubt , for we see so little of the total picture And Only HaShem Sees All . May we all Truly Serve HaShem in Spiritual and Total Love Always And Forever . I Love You HaShem . I wish HaShem With So Very Much Eternal And Sweetest Love , A Very Sweet And Beautiful Shabbos Kodesh With Forever Love and to all of my fellow Jews , A Very Special And Beautiful Shabbos Kodesh with love and a Meaningful Fast . Shabbat Shalom to all of HaShem's Creation . May The Eternal Shabbos Kodesh Come Soon In our days .