This week I had the pleasure of spending some time in Jacksonville and heard an interesting thought between Mincha and Ma’ariv one night that I would like to share with you this week.

Balak has a dilemma. He sees that the Jewish nation is blessed and that his nation is not. He has two options, he can either try to raise his nation to a higher level or he can try to knock down the Jews. He figures that if he raises his nation to a higher level then both his nation and the Jews will be blessed. On the other hand, if he knocks down the Jews, then they are out of the picture and although his nation will still not be blessed, they will win by default. As we know, he decides to try the second plan and he hires Bilaam to curse the Jews. In the end, we know that his plan does not work out, but the question still remains why did he not just ask Bilaam to bless him?

One of the members of the shul I visited in Jacksonville said that since the beginning of time, man has always preferred knocking the other person down instead of raising himself up. It all began with the story of Kayin and Hevel (Cain and Abel). Kayin brought an offering and Hashem did not accept it. Hevel brought an offering and it was accepted by Hashem. Kayin had a choice: he could either make himself better so his offering would be accepted or get rid of the competition. Unfortunately, he chose the later.

Unfortunately, people many times choose the easy way out and try to destroy their enemy instead of making themselves better. We all have a choice. We can follow in this footpath or we can follow the correct way and try to make ourselves better people.

Good Shabbos!
-yes
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