BS'D
The chief protagonists of
our Parsha, Bilom and Bolok, were men who were seemingly unable to take no for
an answer. Bolok tenaciously pursued
Bilom as the man to realize his nefarious scheme and Bilom repeatedly requested
from Hashem consent to become a part of Bolok’s proposal. Bilom, quite open about his limitations,
states that even if he were given a house full of silver and gold “I would not
be able to contravene the word of Hashem”. This in fact seems to mirror a similar
oft said message of our forefathers, a tremendously high level. So how are we to understand this statement
coming from one as evil as Bilom?
It is the innate nature of a
human being to like to get our own way. As we grow and develop, we hopefully learn
that this cannot always be the case, nor is it beneficial that it should be so. There are factors that override our desires
and preferences and mature individuals appreciate that and foster within
themselves an ability to put others first.
As a Torah Jew, the primary priority must be the will of Hashem. Bilom may have insinuated that this was how
it was with him, but the mere fact that he asked again after initially being
told no by Hashem, is a good indication that ultimately he was only interested
in what he wanted and was loath to give up on his own wishes. A person like
that, says the Saba MiKelm, will persist until a way is found to do what he
always wanted and as we know “on whatever path a person wishes to go, on that
path he will be led’. Conversely, the
forefathers were entirely different. When
they said they could never transgress the word of Hashem, they meant it. Their goals were truly put aside to accomplish
what it was Hashem desired of them.
Doing whatever we want can
perhaps feel fairly lovely, yet there is a rather irritating feeling of guilt
that one can experience if this action appears to go against what Hashem wants
from us. ‘Fortunately’ we have a scheme that
is often able to circumvent this problem by finding ways in which we can
seemingly fully comply with Hashem’s instructions and yet still do what we want
to do. The word ‘seemingly’ here is the crucial
one, because finding ways in which we are not actually contravening the Torah
is not necessarily the same as doing what Hashem would like from us. With the
Three Weeks almost upon us, there are those that look to avoid any direct
transgressions of its laws but in doing so fail to appreciate that we are meant
to feel emotions of grief and loss around this time. If this period with our evasions do not
produce this goal, then we are missing out on the whole point. We may not be breaching the Shabbos in the
way we spend it, but are we experiencing the holiness of Shabbos as it is meant
to be? These are but two examples, but
there are many more when what we are doing is ‘okay’ but not actually
accomplishing the intended purpose. If
we want to truly fulfil the will of Hashem, let’s make sure that we are
genuinely doing just that.
*May
we experience Shabbos this week just as Hashem intended*
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