27 Jun PARASHAT BALAK: OUR GENERATION’S STRUGGLE

Three times Bilam
attempted to curse Beneh
Yisrael, and all three
times, Hashem forced
him to pronounce
beautiful blessings,
instead.

When he made his third and final attempt, he
introduced his prophecy by saying, “These are
the words of the man with a shut eye.” The
Rabbis explained that before giving this third
blessing, Bilam became blind in one eye.
Why did this happen? Why specifically now
did Bilam lose vision in one eye?
The answer lies in a change in Bilam’s
strategy.
The first time he tried to curse Beneh Yisrael,
he looked to their ancestors, pointing to the
fact that Avraham Avinu’s parents worshipped
idols. Bilam was telling Hashem that Beneh
Yisrael weren’t anything special, because they
descended from idolaters. In truth, of course,
Avraham broke from his past, and charted a
whole new course, and so Beneh Yisrael did,
in fact, have very strong spiritual foundations.
Next, Bilam turned to Beneh Yisrael’s current

generation, the sins they committed in the
desert, specifically, the golden calf. Certainly,
he said, they shouldn’t deserve any special
status if they did something so terrible. But in
truth, only a small portion of the nation
instigated the sin of the golden calf, and the
rest were, indeed, deserving of Hashem’s
special blessing.
The third time, Bilam tried a whole different
approach. Rashi writes that Bilam tried to
place an Ayin Hara (“evil eye”) on Beneh
Yisrael. Instead of trying to find something
bad to say about them, he decided to do just
the opposite – to talk about how great they are,
how much they achieved, how much they had,
and how much they were blessed. Hashem
therefore made Bilam blind in one eye –
representing the loss of the power of Ayin
Hara, that he would be unable to place an “evil
eye” on Beneh Yisrael.
The story of the Jews’ experience in the United
States can be divided into three stages, three
basic challenges that we encountered – which,
to a large extent, correspond to the three
attempts to curse Beneh Yisrael.
The first challenge was the challenge of basic
survival, both physical and spiritual. The
Jewish immigrants’ primary struggle was the

struggle to earn a livelihood without losing
their Jewishness. Many immigrants lost this
struggle and ended up working on Shabbat,
but many others heroically persisted, without
flinching, remaining committed to Torah
despite the hardship. These heroes laid the
foundation of Torah life in this country – much
like Avraham Avinu laid the firm foundation
for the entire future of the Jewish Nation.
The next struggle was the children. The first
generation persevered, but many of the
children were lost – just as many among Beneh
Yisrael sinned in the desert. Many others,
however, remained committed to Torah
despite the lures of American society.
The third struggle is the one we are facing now
in our times. This is challenge of the Ayin
Hara– the challenge of having
everything. Jewish life has become very
comfortable. It’s no longer a challenge to earn
a living while observing Shabbat. We have so
many outstanding shuls, schools, yeshivot,
institutions and organizations. There are so
many opportunities to learn Torah Kosher
food is available in abundance. Our
generation’s struggle is like Bilam’s third
attempt to curse Beneh Yisrael – the struggle
of having everything, of being too comfortable.

Our challenge is the opposite challenge of our
predecessors, who had to struggle to put food
on the table, to maintain their Jewishness, and
to provide their children with a religious
upbringing. We have it easy – and this
becomes a struggle unto itself, as we can
become complacent, distracted, and led astray
by all the comforts and luxuries that modern
life affords us.
Our nation’s success throughout its history is
owed to our resilience. We’re not afraid of
challenges. When we get knocked down, we
get back up. Yes, it’s very difficult to raise a
religious household in today’s day and
age. But this was no less difficult – and, in
some ways, it was far more difficult – in earlier
generations. Our predecessors persevered and
met their challenges – and we, too, are fully
capable of persevering and meeting our
challenges.