This week’s Parsha is Parshas Balak. The question arised, what did Balak do to deserve a whole Parsha to be named after him? In the whole Torah there is no Parsha named after Moshe Rebbeinu, and we all know how much Moshe accomplished for Jewish people.  

        The reason Balak was given the honor that this week’s Parsha was named after him, was because of the merit of the sacrifices he sincerely brought to G-d, although his intention was to curse the Jews. Another big merit was that important descendents came out of his family, such as Ruth the Moabite and eventually King David. Either or these merits served him well.

        Balak realized that one has to fight the Jews spiritually by cursing them and the other nations just fought the Jews with weapons, wars, and force.

        Balak saw the fear of his people and their distrust of their kings, and he felt he had to act. So he took advice from the elders of Midian, who had known Moses in his youth. "His power is in his mouth," (meaning spirituality) they informed him. Balak proclaimed: "In that case we must fight fire with fire and find someone spiritual to do battle with him."

        Bilaam had become famous in a previous war between Moab and giant King Sichon, in which the "curse of Bilaam" had won the war for Sichon. Upon learning of this, Balak sent Bilaam a message: "I know that whom you bless is blessed and whom you curse is cursed. Please curse this nation (the Jews) and get them to leave the Mideast region." (Sound familiar?)