This parsha breaks from the setting of most of the Torah, which tells the story of Moshe and Bnei Yisrael. The majority of this parsha is an exchange between Balak and Bilam, which takes place seemingly unbeknownst to our main characters. Of course, this is not true – Moshe who is writing the Torah, is being dictated to by Hashem and he therefore must be aware of this entire episode, albeit without his physical presence as tes-timony. What is striking is that much of the Torah contains conflict be-tween Moshe and Bnei Yisrael, as they attempt to oppose the Divine plan (with the ten times they „test‟ the Almighty) and this greatly frustrates Moshe, causing him to go to great lengths to thwart their attempts. However, in our parsha, Moshe does nothing to avert the plans of Bilam and Balak. If he knows that they are attempting to draw down spiritual curse upon the people, why does he not fight that with spiritual blessing?

The Talmud says "By law, Esav hates Yaakov". Thousands of years of anti-Semitism can attest to the fact that there will always by enemies of the Jewish people. We cannot change that. There are those who want to destroy the State of Israel. No amount of propaganda will ever change their minds. It is not worth the effort of having a „war of words‟ with Balak and Bilam, it will not achieve anything. Whose minds can we change? The millions of onlookers

who are watching the struggle. The proverbial "Bnei Yisrael" who are sit-ting on the fence, sometimes unsure what to believe. By presenting the world of fence-sitters with the facts and the truth and doing this with sincerity and integrity, we will win them over. By utilizing gutter tactics like our enemies, we will only be looked upon as untrustworthy prop-agandists.

May we merit peace in the Holy Land and upon all Earth speedily in our days.