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
The Torah tells us that Balak summoned Balaam, offering him a great fortune to curse the Jewish people. Balaam explained to Balak's messengers that he could only do what God permitted. Even so, hoping that God would be angry with His people and allow him to curse them, Balaam decided to go with Balak's messengers.<\/p>\n
So, early in the morning, Balaam saddled his grinder to go to Balak (Numbers 22:21). Our sages point out that a person "as important" as Balaam would surely have servants to perform even the most basic tasks for him, such as saddle his grinder. Yet here, Balaam does it himself. This shows, our sages conclude, that there was a particular feeling in Balaam's heart that led him to set aside his own honor (a rather unwise thing to do, especially in front of Balak's ministers) to perform a less important task himself.<\/p>\n
Hasidic philosophy explains that the intellect should govern over impulses. This doesn't mean being insensitive, cold, or calculating, but rather knowing how to direct and guide different emotions according to what is appropriate in a given time and place. Of course, it also means knowing which emotions should be cultivated and which repressed, in the best sense of the word. In fact, there is a story about the Baal Shem Tov who, while in the synagogue, witnessed an argument between two people. One said to the other angrily, "I'm going to cut you up like a fish!" The Baal Shem Tov then formed a circle with his students, they held hands, and suddenly, they saw the angry man cutting up his adversary like a fish! In other words, every verbal and emotional expression has a spiritual counterpart that manifests itself even if what was said, felt, or thought was never put into practical action.<\/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>