In this week’s Parsha Bilaam has his prophesies.  There is a mishna in pirkei avos that talks about people who have bad character traits, and they are called students of the wicked Bilaam.  We see that although Bilaam was such a lowly evil person, HaShem still saw fit to grant him prophesy, and to rest His Presence upon him.  We can learn very important lessons from this.  We can never lose hope of developing a connection to HaShem for we will never sink to be as bad as Bilaam was, and if HaShem was able to tolerate him, certainly we can be allowed into His.  Also we see that HaShem is willing to do things beyond the ordinary in order to save the Nation of Israel.

The para aduma has a special characteristic that it makes those that are pure impure, and impure pure.  We can learn from this to our own lives.  Nearly everything in this world has the same capability.  If we use something properly it can improve us and make us better people, even though it also has the possibility of harming us.  Likewise, something which is inherently good can be skewed and twisted and used in a negative way and can do tremendous damage to our souls.  (our bodies as well, depending on what it is)

In this week’s Parsha there is the saga of the Emorite kings, Sichon and Og.  One of the pesukim describing Sichon’s lands has been explained by the Sages as follows:  “Those who rule over their inclinations say, let us make an accounting, weigh the loss garnered by doing a mitzva versus the reward, and the benefit of a sin versus the punishment for it”.  The first step a person must take in order to have control over themselves is to take a personal accounting. We must be sure that the path we are on is the correct one to achieve the goals that we are attempting.  Then each individual action must be measured and decided whether it will bring one closer to the goal or further.  When we make the effort to do the right thing we are promised assistance from HaShem in actually doing it.

When the Jewish Nation was trapped at the Sea, they were told to be silent and HaShem would fight for them.  On the other hand when Amalek attacked them, they were commanded to go to war, why the difference?  Amalek symbolizes all evil and disbelief in G-d.  When we are confronted with physical challenges, we are to strengthen our trust in HaShem and just hang in there.  However, when our spirituality is threatened we must take action to ensure that it cannot be touched.

HaShem commanded Avraham to give his son a bris (ritual circumcision) we are to do the same to our sons (or ourselves, if it had not been done for us by our parents).  One might ask, if G-d wants us to be circumcised why would He not create us that way?  One answer is that by us needing to perfect our physical bodies through an action of our own, we can realize that in order to perfect our spiritual bodies, our souls, it requires much action.  Let us try to perfect ourselves to the best of our abilities.

In this week’s parsha is Korach’s rebellion against Moshe (and HaShem).  Korach was one of the greatest people of the time.  How is it possible that he could have made such a terrible mistake and challenge Moshe as he did?  There is a posuk that says “bribery will blind the eyes of the wise”.  Korach was blinded by his desire for honor.  He was trying to secure a position for himself in the leadership.  We should all realize that we are not safe from this desire and do all we can to protect ourselves from falling prey to the yetzer horah for honor.  How can we do that?  If we can take to heart that HaShem determines who gets what in this world we will be satisfied with what we have and not want honor that is to another.

There is a section in the Torah discussing a rebellious child (ben sorer u’moreh).  The Sages teach us that this has never occured (there are very specific ways to fit this title) we were given this mitzva only to learn from.  One of the many things we do learn from it is that a person’s habits can shape them.  When a person sins, it is generally rooted in a negative character trait.  Each time that action is repeated it further strengthens the flaw.  This can be far worse than the sin itself and can turn us into “sinners”.  On the flip side when a person does what is right and good it also effects far more than simply that action, it will turn us into better people.  It is worth bearing in mind the next time we are faced with a choice.

There is a mitzva in the Torah to send away the mother bird before you take the eggs or the chicks.  The Torah tells us that of the reward for performing this mitzva is a long and good life.  Rashi comments that this is an easy mitzva to perform.  The mitzva of honoring ones parents the Torah tells us also has a reward of a long good life.  This is one of the most difficult mitzvas to perform properly.  We can see from this that we are not to try to determine what mitzva will get us the greatest reward, and rather to just do all of them.  We do know that as per the effort is the reward, which shows us that the main reward for a mitzva will be in the next world.

When we greet someone it is customary to say “Sholom Alechem” which means “peace unto you”.  The word “aleichem” is the plural form of you, why would this be used?  A person is made up of a physical and spiritual part, the physical part is represented by the yetzer horah (evil inclination) and the spiritual by the yetzer tov (positive inclination).  In order for us to properly fulfil our role in this world both must be used appropriately and in tandem.  We therefore bless each other that our conflicting instincts shall make peace with each other and we should be able to use them properly to reach our goals in this world.

In this week’s parsha the Jews sent spies ahead to investigate the best way to conquer Canaan.  They came back with reports of the giants that lived there and said “we were like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and so we were in their eyes”.  The Midrash says that HaShem said, even if you were like grasshoppers to yourselves, why do you think that they viewed you that way, maybe they saw you as angels”.  When a person sees himself in a lowly fashion he will think that others see him the same way.  This is because people don’t always recognize their worth.  If we were to realize how highly HaShem thinks of us, we would not be able to look down on ourselves and we would appreciate us, and know that others do as well.