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One of the clear messages from this weeks portion is that Balak does not respect Balaam. Balaam justifies everything that Balak says & does but Balak sees Balaam as a useful idiot. Balaam does not realize that once Balak gets what he wants then he is no longer useful.

Many people say that they cannot believe in God after the Holocaust. Rene Slatkin was a Mengele Twin. He was sent to Auschwitz at the age of 6. When asked about that his reply was how can you not.

In this week’s portion we get the answer to why is there antisemitism. They do not hate us because of what we do in business or for the money that we seem to have. It is not jealousy. It is because we had a conversation with God who gave us a moral code. They do not want to live according to that code so they hate us as its representatives.

While Moses’s frustration with the continuing complaints from the people and his mourning his sister’s death on top of it is understandable, he should have kept his feelings inside and not strike the rock.

When Miriam dies the people did not mourn her but that the well that was giving water to the Jews in the wilderness dried up. This was a major flaw in that they did not realize that the reason for the well was the righteousness of Miriam.

The Commandment of the Red Heifer is one of the hardest to understand. One of the lessons from it is that sometimes there is no good decision. That we have to make a choice between a bad decision and a worse one.

The 3 Torah Portions that we are in the middle of tell of the dangers that we face as a people and to our mission. They are there as a warning to the enemies, both within & without, that we will face.

One of the prime differences between Moses and Korach was that Moses did not care if it was his job or not. He would do it because it had to get done. Korach would say “It’s not my job.”

The major difference between Moses and Korach was that Moses really didn’t want the job. His greatness was his humility.

The Torah guarantees equal opportunity but not equal outcome. The outcome is up to the individual, God gives us the tools, it is up to use them properly.