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ב"ה

Chukat-Balak 5762 - June 21, 2002

Waters of Strife

A common denominator in all the explanations of the “Waters of Strife” incident is the implication that whatever the problem was, that wasn’t really the problem. Basically, G‑d is getting Moses on a technicality.
Parshah
Chukat-Balak in a Nutshell
Ashes and water; death, anger and war; a talking ass, curses transformed into blessings, and prophecies of the end of days; a noxious idol, promiscuous prince and a zealot; and what has been said about them all by sages and mystics through the ages
Chukat-Balak in a Nutshell
Ashes and water; death, anger and war; a talking ass, curses transformed into blessings, and prophecies of the end of days; a noxious idol, promiscuous prince and a zealot; and what has been said about them all by sages and mystics through the ages
Story
Waiting

Could others see the countless tiny strands of their separate anxieties silently knitting them together? Did anyone notice how, though they sat on separate chairs not touching, they sat as close as two people could without touching?
Parenting
A Crazy Idea

In a successful business, the management does not say: "It was good enough five years ago, so it should be good enough now." Shouldn't we be at least as enterprising as parents?
Not only myself did G-d redeem on this day... but also every one who goes by the name "Israel"
— The sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, in a letter written for the first anniversary of his release from Soviet imprisonment in 1927
Print Magazine

It’s G-d’s world. Everything He gives is good, the sweetest good.

But it is often a good far too great for us to understand. We imagine it is not good, because that’s the only way to make sense of it with our small minds.

Yet the truth is, He gives us all the good we can handle. If we could take more, He would g...