Hukkat Balak 5783
B"H Recently some very harrowing incidents have occurred in Erets Yisrael. A terrorist attack left four martyrs, Hashem yikom damim. While families and friends buried these martyrs, Arab mobs gathered to harass the burials. They shouted pejoratives and threats at the Jews present. Some Jews reacted violently and vandalized some Arab villages. The result has been reciprocating fighting with some Jews being arrested for the fighting and some rabbanim, including Rabbi Yaakov Medan, insisting that Jews must refrain from these violent actions. While the media attention has been imbalanced and hostile, for Jews to allow ourselves to be dragged into such reactions over verbal instigation is beneath the dignity befitting a Jew and infringes on the prohibition of hillul Hashem. In Parashat Hukkat Balak we see Balak hire Bilaam to curse Am Yisrael. This fails, as Am Yisrael is upright, so Bilaam is forced to bless Am Yisrael. Balak learns that...