Daily Chumash Thursday Balak – Balaam’s second attempt to curse turns into blessings

Chamishi

1. Balaam’s second attempt to curse turns into blessings:
   • Balak took Balaam to a second area from which only part of the Jewish people could be seen, to try to curse the Jewish people from there.
   • The sacrifices: They built seven altars and offered a cow and ram as a sacrifice on the altar. Balaam told Balak to stand guard by the altar while Balaam goes to meet with Hashem to see if he can curse the Jewish people. Hashem places the following words in the mouth of Balaam and instructed him to relate the message to Balak:
   • The blessing: Balaam returned to Balak and the Moavite dignitaries and was asked by Balak as to what Hashem told him. Balaam told Balak to stand while he relays the prophesy:
   • “Hashem is not a man who speaks lies and that regrets what He says. If He says something, He will fulfill it. Hashem blessed the Jewish people, and He will not retract it”
   • “He does not see sin in Yaakov, or iniquity in Israel”
   • “He took them out of Egypt”
   • “There is no sorcery in Yaakov or Yisrael, and He tells them what they need to know”
   • “They are a nation that wake up like a lioness, and do not sleep until they eat their spoils and drink the blood of the slain.”
   • Balak’s response: Balak admonished Balaam for blessing the Jewish people instead of cursing them and tells him that if he can’t curse them then at the very least he should not bless them. Balaam replied that he already forewarned Balak that he must say what Hashem tells him.