{"id":6628,"date":"2024-07-14T18:05:43","date_gmt":"2024-07-14T23:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/?p=6628"},"modified":"2024-07-14T18:05:59","modified_gmt":"2024-07-14T23:05:59","slug":"parashat-balak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/parashat-balak\/","title":{"rendered":"Parashat Balak (podcast)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4560 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/balak2.gif?resize=143%2C182&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"143\" height=\"182\" \/>Our Torah portion for this week (i.e., <a href=\"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/Scripture\/Parashah\/Summaries\/Balak\/balak.html\">parashat Balak<\/a>) is named after a fretful Moabite king (\u05d1\u05bc\u05b8\u05dc\u05b8\u05e7) who sought to curse the Jewish people by hiring the services of a wicked Midianite \u201cprophet\u201d named <em>Balaam<\/em> (i.e., bil\u2019am: \u05d1\u05bc\u05b4\u05dc\u05b0\u05e2\u05b8\u05dd). King Balak\u2019s plan was to employ Balaam\u2019s sorcery (i.e., <em>kashafut<\/em>: \u05db\u05bc\u05b7\u05e9\u05c1\u05b8\u05e4\u05d5\u05bc\u05ea) against the Israelites to prevent them from entering the Promised Land. Similar to the delicious irony that befell the villain Haman in the Book of Esther, however, King Balak\u2019s scheme was upended, and the curse he sought to put on the Jewish people was repeatedly pronounced as a blessing by Balaam instead. After several foiled attempts, Balak fretfully dismissed the prophet, but before departing from the dejected king, Balaam ironically prophesied the destruction of the Moabites and the victorious establishment of Israel.<\/p>\n<p>The shameful story of Balaam reveals that &#8220;there is no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel&#8221; (Num. 23:23). <em>Ein od milvado<\/em> (\u05d0\u05b5\u05d9\u05df \u05e2\u05d5\u05b9\u05d3 \u05de\u05b4\u05dc\u05b0\u05d1\u05b7\u05d3\u05bc\u05d5) &#8211; no weapon or scheme devised against God will ever prosper (Isa. 54:15-17).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Balak Podcast:<\/h2>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-6628-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/shavuah-tov-Balak.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/shavuah-tov-Balak.mp3\">https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/shavuah-tov-Balak.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4562\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/balak.jpg?resize=980%2C735&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"980\" height=\"735\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/balak.jpg?w=1000&amp;ssl=1 1000w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/balak.jpg?resize=300%2C225&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/balak.jpg?resize=768%2C576&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/balak.jpg?resize=210%2C158&amp;ssl=1 210w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 980px) 100vw, 980px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our Torah portion for this week (i.e., parashat Balak) is named after a fretful Moabite king (\u05d1\u05bc\u05b8\u05dc\u05b8\u05e7) who sought to curse the Jewish people by hiring the services of a wicked Midianite \u201cprophet\u201d named Balaam (i.e., bil\u2019am: \u05d1\u05bc\u05b4\u05dc\u05b0\u05e2\u05b8\u05dd). King Balak\u2019s plan was to employ Balaam\u2019s sorcery (i.e., kashafut: \u05db\u05bc\u05b7\u05e9\u05c1\u05b8\u05e4\u05d5\u05bc\u05ea) against the Israelites to prevent them [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-h4c-podcast","category-torah"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6628"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6630,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6628\/revisions\/6630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}