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Parshas Vaera - Bo - Were the Jews Affected by the Plagues?
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Parshas Shemos/Vaera - The Birth of a New Religion and the Age of Miracles
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In Parshas Mattos, Moshe briefly mentions the "matter of Bilaam" when indicting the nation of Midian. But while there are commentaries that discuss when the sorcerer might have advised King Balak of his scheme, we need not look for offstage moments when it was there right before us.
On the surface Bilaam appears to be pious and devout. A man who repeatedly insists that he cannot say anything that G-d does not place in his lips. But what appears to be a profession of integrity is actually a message. It is a message akin to "we are being listened to and I cannot speak freely." Balak, vulgar and arrogant, is slow to understand the message even though Bilaam lays it out for him in the first blessing.
Bilaam understands what Balak does not, that cursing the Jews will not work and tells him what will by cleverly inverting a curse into a blessing.
"How can I curse whom G-d has not cursed, and how can I invoke wrath if the Lord has not been angered?" he asks, conveying that the way forward is to have the Jews anger G-d.
No amount of cursing the Jews will work. The Jews themselves must be seduced into angering G-d.
"It is a nation that will dwell alone, and will not be reckoned among the nations," he goes on, indicating in the inverse that the way to bring down the Jews is to reach out to them and integrate them.
The next reference to seed and offspring hints at the way forward.
The next time around, Bilaam once again warns that "I have received to bless, and He has blessed, and I cannot retract it."
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