The Weekly Sedra – Parshas Balak

The Rebbe says:

1. This week’s Torah portion tells us how Balaam, an anti-Semitic gentile necromancer and prophet, was commissioned by Balak, King of Moab, to curse the Jewish people. The Torah tells us that despite his attempts to comply with Balak’s wishes, G-d only allowed blessings to emit from his mouth.

2. One of the Blessings to the Jewish people which inadvertently came out of Balaam’s mouth was: “For from its origin I see it rock like, and from hills do I view it”.

Our Sages tells us that when Balaam said, “from its origin”, he was referring to our patriarchs (Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov), and when he said, “and from hills”, he was referring to our matriarchs (Sarah, Rivkah, Rochel and Leah).

3. The Rebbe now discusses the role of a mother and father in a child’s life:

The Alter Rebbe (Rebbe Shneur Zalman of Liadi) explains in Tanya that the detailed formation of all a child’s body parts happens through its mother during pregnancy when it is in its mothers stomach, however the general matter (the body) of a child is from the father.

As a result of this, after a child is born the mother feels closer to the child then the father because for nine months the mother formed the child into what he or she is right now and the father didn’t. We also see this clearly the other way around- a child expresses his love to his mother more then to his father, and he fears his father more than to his mother, because love is an expression of being close- which is the mother in this case- and fear is an expression of being removed from the thing you fear- which is the father in this case.

The same is also true for the patriarchs and matriarchs of every Jew- we are awed by our patriarchs and we feel more closeness to our matriarchs.

4. The Rebbe now discusses how this order of events (that the mother develops the child and is therefore closer to the child and the father created the child and is therefore not as close to the child) came about:

Everything that happens in this physical world is a manifestation of what is happening in the spiritual worlds. (Editor’s Addition: For example, we have ten fingers because they are a manifestation of the ten supernal Sefirot). Therefore, when we say that a father is not as close to the child as the mother is, and this is because the mother developed the child while the father did not, this must be because of what is happening in the spiritual realms; the spiritual source of a father and mother down here interact with their spiritual “children” in a certain way and it manifests down here. To explain:

The Alter Rebbe explains that a father in spiritual terms is the level of Chochmah/Wisdom and a mother is the level of Binah/Understanding. These “parents”, the mind- Wisdom and Understanding, give “birth” to their “children” which are the seven emotive attributes (Chessed, Gevurah, Tiferes, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malchus – Kindness, Strictness, Justice, Vistory, Splendor, Foundation, and Kingship).

To clarify what we mean when we say that the “children” are “born” from the mind we will give an example: When a person thinks and meditates on the awesomeness of Hashem he will give “birth” to a feeling of love and fear for Hashem, thus the mind is the “parents” of the emotions.

Now, as we said, within the mind itself there are two parts- Chochmah/Wisdom and Binah/Understanding. Chochmah/Wisdom is the “flash of lightning” which happens in the mind which includes the seminal point of the entire idea that you will later process and figure out. Binah/Understanding is where this seed of thought is processed and understood with all its intricate details. (For example, the Mishnah and the Gemarah:
The Mishnah is like the level of Chochmah/Wisdom and the Gemarah is like Binah/Understanding– every detail which will later be developed and understood in the Gemarah was already included in the few short words of the Mishnah, we just don’t see it).

The husband, the father, is the level of Chochmah/Wisdom because he is the seed from where it all comes from. The wife, the mother, is the level of Binah/Understanding because the seed is processed and developed in her. And the children are the emotive attributes which are born as a result of all this.

Now we can understand how the relationship between the spiritual source of man, woman, and children, manifest in the relationship between man, woman, and children down here: The husband gives the seed of creation, the wife processes and develops it and gives birth to children. And since the level of Binah/Understanding, which is the wife, is in close contact to the emotions, which is the children, the children feel closer to the mother then to the father.

5. The Rebbe now finishes off by teaching us how a Jewish home should be conducted:

Every Jewish home is its own miniature world and it must lean from the way the world at large runs. Just like Hashem set up in the world that there is a level of Chochmah/Wisdom and a level of Binah/Understanding and then there is their children (the seven emotive attributes), so-too every Jewish home has this full picture:

The father is the Chochmah/Wisdom. He must plant the seeds on which his house must be built. However the wife is the Binah/Understanding and it all depends on her to see to it that the “seeds” are developed. Most of the day the father is not home and the wife is at home taking care of the children and all of the household needs, therefore it is her responsibility and privilege to make sure that the ideals set up by the father are planted in the children. The woman has the privilege and responsibility of making sure that the children grow up with the proper perspective on life- the perspective of Torah and Mitzvos. She must see to it that the children grow up in a house which has guests which are properly taken care of and that the children see Tzedakah (charity) being given regularly.

The strength for parents to be able to fulfill their missions is inherited to them by our patriarchs and our matriarchs. And when they follow the instructions of the Torah and make their house a house of Torah and Mitzvos with the proper education for their children, then Hashem says, “And I will rest in them”,, and where Hashem rests there is only Blessings.

Translated by Shalom Goldberg. Taken from Likutei Sichos Volume four.