Bilaam had one job: curse the Jews. And he really wanted to. He wasn’t just passively going along with Balak’s request, he was all in. However, he had a challenge: Bilaam knew that Hashem runs the world. He therefore played a strange game, trying to maneuver around G-d’s will, hoping to find a loophole.
One can’t outmaneuver the truth. In the end, the words that came from his mouth were blessings. Because when Hashem runs the show, even the plots of a would-be prophet-for-hire get flipped upside down.
I’ve been thinking: what’s the antidote to a “Bilaam moment”?
Maybe it is when we don’t want to do something good, yet we pause and ask ourselves:
Should I?
Could I?
And then… we do it anyway.
That’s when we flip the narrative. That’s when blessings show up.
The other day, I got a call around 6 PM. A Jewish couple was stuck in Elkton with their baby, no kosher food and no support. It was not very good timing for me to pick up and go and asked them to reach out to Chabad of Delaware, who was anyways closer and should be honored with the mitzvah.
But they were out of town.
I was an hour away, and honestly? I really didn’t want to go.
After a quick conversation with Fraida, I found myself taking the pan she packed of food and salad and heading out for a 2 HR excursion.
I didn’t see a miracle. I didn’t get a flash of divine reward. But I did feel the quiet joy of being there for another Jew in their time of need.
Not because I wanted to. Because it was the right thing to do.
What’s something good that you need to do but don’t really want to?
Try doing it anyway.
That’s where the blessing is.
Have a blessed shabbos,
Rabbi Kushi Schusterman