This week's Torah portion is called Balak. It is the name of Balak ben Zippor, the king of Moab, who, seeing that the Jewish people had defeated the powerful kings Og and Sihon (in the previous portion), decides to go out and fight against them. To this end, he summons Balaam, a non-Jewish prophet, famous for his power to curse.<\/p>\n
The entire section unfolds as an attempt to curse the Jewish people from various quarters, and each time Balaam tried, blessings came out of his mouth instead of curses. As we have mentioned many times, the Torah is not merely a book of stories, but primarily a book of teachings for daily life.<\/p>\n
La Tor\u00e1 nos cuenta que Balak mand\u00f3 a llamar a Bil\u00e1m, ofreci\u00e9ndole una gran fortuna para maldecir al pueblo jud\u00edo. Bil\u00e1m le explica a los enviados de Balak que \u00e9l solamente puede hacer aquello que Di-s le permita. A\u00fan as\u00ed, con la esperanza de que Di-s \u00abse enoje\u00bb con Su pueblo y le permita maldecirlos, Bil\u00e1m decide ir con los enviados de Balak.<\/p>\n
Entonces, temprano a la ma\u00f1ana, Bil\u00e1m ensilla su muela para ir hacia Balak (Bamidbar 22:21). Nuestros sabios se detienen en el hecho de que una persona \u00abtan importante\u00bb como Bil\u00e1m, seguramente tendr\u00eda sirvientes que hagan para \u00e9l los trabajos m\u00e1s b\u00e1sicos, como, por ejemplo, ensillar su muela. Sin embargo, aqu\u00ed Bil\u00e1m mismo lo hace. Esto muestra, concluyen nuestros sabios, que hay un sentimiento particular en el coraz\u00f3n de Bil\u00e1m que lo llev\u00f3 a dejar de lado su propio honor (cosa poco inteligente y menos frente a los ministros de Balak) para realizar \u00e9l mismo un trabajo de menor importancia.<\/p>\n
La filosof\u00eda jas\u00eddica explica que es el intelecto el que debe gobernar por sobre los impulsos. Esto no significa ser insensible, o fr\u00edo y calculador, sino que significa saber orientar y guiar las diferentes emociones de acuerdo a lo adecuado en un momento y lugar determinados. Por supuesto, tambi\u00e9n significa saber qu\u00e9 emociones deben ser desarrolladas y cu\u00e1les reprimidas, en el mejor sentido de la palabra. De hecho, se cuenta una historia sobre el Baal Shem Tov, que, estando en la sinagoga, se suscit\u00f3 una discusi\u00f3n entre dos personas. Una le dijo a la otra, con mucha bronca, \u00ab\u00a1Te voy a cortar como un pescado!\u00bb. Entonces, el Baal Shem Tov form\u00f3 una ronda con sus alumnos, se tomaron las manos y, de repente, vieron c\u00f3mo el enojado \u00a1estaba cortando como un pescado a su adversario!. Es decir, cada expresi\u00f3n verbal y emocional, tiene una contraparte espiritual que se hace realidad a\u00fan si lo que se dijo o sinti\u00f3 o pens\u00f3 nunca fue llevado a la acci\u00f3n pr\u00e1ctica.<\/p>\n
Now, what was Balaam's feeling that led him to saddle his own mule? Hatred toward the Jewish people. We learn from this brief episode that hatred, in particular, and other feelings in general, when not controlled and analyzed by a sound intellect, lead a person to senseless actions and, sometimes, even to ruin, God forbid (since, at the end of the story, Balaam dies at the hands of Moses). It is vitally important to know how to analyze our own feelings, to sift them through the sieve of the Torah, so that we can improve ourselves and our fellow human beings.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"La parash\u00e1 de esta semana se llama Balak. Se trata del nombre del rey de Moav, Balak ben Tzipor quien, viendo que el pueblo jud\u00edo hab\u00eda superado a los poderosos reyes Og y Sij\u00f3n (en la parash\u00e1 anterior) decide salir a luchar contra ellos. Para esto, manda a llamar a Bil\u00e1m, un profeta no jud\u00edo,… Read More \u00bbIntellect vs. Feelings<\/span><\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[77,9],"tags":[950,954,970,1019,969,942],"series":[],"class_list":["post-2133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-balak","category-editoriales","tag-di-s","tag-judio","tag-libro","tag-moshe","tag-parasha-2","tag-tora"],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/tuviaserber.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Mente-y-coraz\u00f3n.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/tuviaserber.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/avatar1400.jpeg","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"light","subscribeUrls":{"castbox":{"key":"castbox","url":"","label":"CastBox","class":"castbox","icon":"castbox.png"},"rss":{"key":"rss","url":"","label":"RSS","class":"rss","icon":"rss.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/tuviaserber.com\/en\/feed\/podcast\/rabino-tuvia-serber","embedCode":"Intelecto vs. Sentimientos<\/a><\/blockquote>