Parasha Thoughts
By Rabbi Yosef Shemtov
In this week’s Torah portion, the king of Moav hires wicked Bilham – who was supposed to be a prophet to the nations- to curse Beni Israel. He knew that he could not overpower the Jews by military force because the power of the Jews is in their mouths (through prayer and Torah learning etc…). This idea is demonstrated by Yitzhak Avinu who said, “Kol kol Yaakov and yadaim yedey Esav,†meaning the power of voice belongs to the descendants of Yaakov and the power of the hands belongs to the descendants of Esav. Therefore, he chooses Bilham whose power was in his mouth to curse Beni Israel.
However, God loves Beni Israel and didn’t allow Bilham’s curse to take effect. The Gemara mentions that there is positive and negative power in speech. A person can pray, learn Torah, and encourage and empower others through his speech and in return he will be blessed. Alternatively, he can curse and gossip and this will bring harm to himself. We should always be wary of being cursed because it can come true and we should never curse either because many times the curse goes back to the person who uttered it.
When a person curses, it is like he is telling Hashem to punish someone. Then his own file opens up and he himself will be judged. Let’s learn to use the ability speech in a good way to bring blessings to ourselves.