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such a person. He channeled the tendency to shed blood in order to fight 15 bamidbar
Hashem’s wars and in offering sacrifices. Similarly, Yitzchak asked Eisav
to use this trait to slaughter for him an animal according to halachah.
Bilaam the arrogant could very well have pulled together his pride and
directed it in ways of Avodat Hashem, in the manner of “His heart was
elevated in the ways of Hashem.”
Bilaam was aware of the exact moment when Hashem becomes angry at
His people. But Hashem, in His infinite mercy, prevented him from
carrying out his evil intentions to curse the Jews. How could Bnei Yisrael
display such ingratitude toward Hashem by sinning with the daughters of
Moav? Moreover, the esteemed Nasi of Shevet Yehudah had relations
with a gentile woman and caused the deaths of many people in a terrible
plague.
“So now – please come and curse this people for Seventeen is the gematria of the word (good). On the seventeenth of
me, for it is too powerful for me; perhaps I will Tammuz, Bnei Yisrael breached the walls of Torah, the ultimate good, by
be able to strike it and drive it away from the sinning with the Golden Calf. This led to the breach in the walls of
land. For I know that whomever you bless is Yerushalayim. How did Bnei Yisrael fall so low as to sin with the Golden
blessed and whomever you curse is accursed” Calf?
A person feels inclined to test his level of endurance. He believes that
(Bamidbar 22:6)
where others failed, he will succeed. Bnei Yisrael were smug in their
spiritual stature and were sure they would never sin with the daughters of
Moav. Likewise, after waiting for Moshe’s return after forty days, Bnei
Yisrael considered whether or not they were able to survive without a
leader. As soon as they removed their thoughts from Moshe Rabbeinu and
the Torah, they sinned with the Golden Calf.
A person should never place himself in a situation of nisayon. Who knows
if he will manage to withstand temptation? Every day, in our Morning
Prayer, we ask to be spared nisayon, so that we should never come to a
humiliating situation.
Mashiach will come “today, if you but heed His call.” The day our nation
obeys Hashem’s commandments, they will merit redemption. The word
(day) can be split in two. The letters are numerically equal to
seventeen, adding one for the unit, and the letter is equal to forty. On

