Miracles or Mirages?!

by | Jun 23, 2021

Simon Jackson Legal Adviser to Torah MiTzion Click Here for the PDF version   Did Bilam’s donkey really speak to Bilam? It could have done; Hashem, after all, is capable of doing anything (Shadal). But it may have taken place in a prophetic vision, “on the...

Who and What is the Real Antidote to Bil’am?

by | Jul 1, 2020

For the PDF Version: פרשתבלק5780אנגלית In our Parashah we read about the gentile prophet Bil’am, who was asked to use his special spiritual powers in order to curse Am Yisrael. In the Gemara (Brachot 7a) we are told that Bil’am was the only one to know the...

Bilaam and the War of Narratives 5779

by | Jul 11, 2019

Bilaam and the War of Narratives Parashat Balak By Rabbi Baruch Winetraub Former Sgan Rosh Bet Medrash in Toronto (2011-2014) Currently Community Rabbi in Tel Mond and  Ram in Yeshivat Har Etzion  The story of Balak and Bilaam is unique among the stories in the Torah....

The Power of Balaam’s Curse

by | Jul 4, 2018

Shira Sohn Bat Sherut 5776 A student of Mechanical Engineering at Tel Aviv University   The Power of Balaam’s Curse    The place of “dark forces” and magic in the Torah is a complicated one. In Parshat Balak, we encounter a story in which...

To Believe in Myself – 5776

by | Jul 14, 2016

Rav Hillel Van-Leeuwen Educational Director, Mizrachi World Movement   To Believe in Myself At the end of his first blessing, Bilaam says: “Who can count the dust of Jacob, or count the dwellings of Israel; May my soul die an honest death and may my end be...