Engaging our children in the parsha
The following are some suggestions of ideas for conversations with our children by the Shabbos meals. The key here is to get the children involved through debate and stimulation.
Who was Bilom?
Have you ever seen or read about a witch and magician? What about a soothsayer? Do you know what they can do? See the future or even change the future! Bilom was a magician but his main power lay in something that was unique to him. He knew the exact moment every day when Hashem got angry and whatever he cursed then would work! This was so powerful and (almost) foolproof that he had people coming to pay him money to curse their enemy to lose in battle.
Where do we see this in action? By the battle of the giant Sichon with Moav. Despite his great strength, the giant Sichon, was unable to defeat Moav until he hired Bilom to curse them. (Rashi, 21:27) This is the background and introduction to our parsha that is called Sefer Bilom (Gemora Bava Basra 14b). This is wht Bolok, the king of Moav that had experienced first hand the power of Bilom’s curse, now turned to Bilom for help. Besides for this, Bilom knew magic. This is seen that when the Jews went to attack Bilom and the kings of Midyon, he made them all fly in the air with magic until Pinchos chased them in the air and showed them the Tzitz with Hashem’s Name that stopped their magic and they fell down onto the Jew’s swords. (Rashi, 31:6).
Pi Ho’osoin – the mouth of the donkey:
Have you ever been to the zoo or farm? Ever heard the different noises made by different animals? Ever understood what they are saying? King Shlomo, the wisest of man, was given the special ability of understanding the animal language. However, when Bilom’s donkey spoke, it was different. Instead of Bilom understanding donkey language, the donkey spoke human language that Bilom understood!
Imagine this would happen to us. What would our reaction be? We most properly would run away scared! The very least we would stop and be amazed. Yet, what do you think was Bilom’s reaction? He just continued talking like before in a gruff way not showing any sign that anything unusual had happened! What is going on here?
The Ramban explains that Bilom wanting to use his power of speech to curse the Jews. To show him that the power of speech lies with Hashem, the donkey opened it’s mouth to speak to him. However, Bilom refuses to take this message on board. We can learn from here a message in life. Everything that happens to us is talking to us. However, very often we do not necessarily know their interpretation. However, when something totally out of the ordinary does happen to us, we better take the message on board and not ignore it like Bilom did!
The danger of cursing:
Very often when children are angry with others, depending on what they have been exposed to, they will react with swearing or even cursing. From Parshas Bolok we have an understanding of the workings and power of cursing. Bilom wanted to use cursing to endanger the Jews. What happens by a curse? A curse is where you make the other person in a position of being judged Above. The judgement is about if the person is good and therefore there is no place for the curse to work. Or, if the person has sins and now these sins need dealing with and the curse makes these punishments go into action.
The importance of privacy:
From Parshas Bolok we learn from Bilom’s words the greatness of the Jews and how they are different from the other nations. One of the things is the subject of privacy. How you ever taken a walk down the road. As you are going along the front doors are open or the lights are on and you can see straight into their house. This is a natural inquisitive reaction – “i wonder what it looks like in someone else’s house”. However, we see from Bilom’s words of Ma Toyvu, etc. that the Jews specially arranged their doors of their tents to not face each other. This was to prevent other people looking inside. What can looking inside do already? Here we come onto the subject of Ayin Hora, an evil eye, that causes judgement to a person to be reassessed if they deserve it (similar to how we described above about “the danger of cursing”).
It is said about Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld zt”l that he would not walk on the pavements, only on the streets so that he would not come to stare inside people’s houses! We learn from here the power of tzniyos, privacy. With it, there comes the Shechina that protects a person from evil eyes of others.