Devar/5768/Matot
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…for I know that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed (Num 22:6)
So says Balak son of Tsippor to Bilam son of Beor, when he sends off to request he come and curse the Children of Israel. It appears that Bilam had a good name as a professional curse-giver. But we see the first time he attempts to curse our forefathers: How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? And how shall I execrate, whom the LORD hath not execrated? (Num 23:8)
God, may His name be blessed -- did not only not permit Bilam to curse them, but he converted his attempt to curse them into a blessing! It wasn't enough for Him that they should not be cursed, but rather they should be blessed with the ultimate blessing. All of Bilam's words, which were supposed to be a curse, turned into words of blessing. And among his words, God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: when He hath said, will He not do it? or when He hath spoken, will He not make it good? (Num 23:19).
Bilam tells us, that the good things God says will come true, as the Rambam rules: That every good thing God decrees, even conditionally -- He does not retract (Laws of the Fundamentals of Torah 10:9). And this is the secret of the story in the Talmud (just after the destruction of the Second Temple): Another time, they ascended to Jerusalem. Once they reached Har HaTsofim, they tore their garments. When they reached the Temple Mount, they saw a fox leaving the Holy of Holies and they started crying, and Rabbi Akiva started laughing. They said to him, why are you laughing? He told them, why are you crying? They said to him, the place about which it says (Num 1) and the foreigner who approaches shall be put to death, and now foxes wander in it, should we not cry? He said to them, therefore I laugh, as it is written (Isaiah 8) I shall bring faithful witnesses, Uriah the Kohen and Zechariah the son of Yevarechiahu. And what does Uriah have to do with Zechariah? Uriah was in the First Temple, and Zechariah in the Second Temple! Rather, the Holy writ made Zechariah's prophecy depend on Uriah's. Regarding Uriah's it says, (Michah 3) Therefore because of you, Zion will become a plowed field (etc.). And regarding Zechariah it says (Zechariah 8), There shall yet old men and old women sit in the broad places of Jerusalem. Until Uriah's prophecy was fulfilled, I would have been afraid that Zechariah's would not be fulfilled. But now that Uriah's prophecy has been fulfilled, certainly Zechariah's prophecy will be fulfilled, in this very manner! They said to him, Akiva you have comforted us. Akiva, you have comforted us. (Bavli Makkot 24b)
May it be His will that we see with our own eyes the completion of Zechariah's prophecy, speedily and in our days!
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