Overcoming hatred with love

The Sefer HaChinuch tells us that in this Parasha, the Torah does not command any precepts, yet it is full of wonderful teachings. And although we already know that we can always find much to learn, since with each letter, the Torah can teach us important lessons for our lives...

Bilam assumed that the Creator would agree to curse the Jewish people if he “reminded” them how early and frequently they had rebelled against Him during their forty years in the desert.

Balaam hated the Creator and His emissaries, the Jewish people, with a passion. Early in the morning, he sought to carry out his evil mission: he went to the Creator to "remind" Him how quickly the Jews had rebelled against Him.

To this, the Eternal One replied that such swiftness had been preceded by that of the patriarch Abraham: Abraham had risen early in the morning to fulfill with love and devotion the order He had given him to sacrifice his son Isaac. The merit of Abraham's love for the Creator counterbalanced Balaam's hatred. The Jewish people inherited Abraham's love; their rebellions in the desert were merely temporary raptures in their inherent and eternal devotion to the Blessed Creator.

Similarly, whenever we try to repair the damage we may have caused by deliberately disregarding the Creator's will, the surest way to compensate for such sins is by strengthening our love for Him!

This love will, in turn, transform past sins into motivation for good deeds. Just as the Creator transformed Balaam's curses into blessings, we too can always transform "curses" into blessings.

“An angel of HaShem appeared on the road to lead him astray.”
(22:22)
Rabbi Aharon Zakay Shlita in his book “Torat Haperashá” takes the
words of the Midrash and explains that this was the angel of mercy who intended to save Bilam from sinning. Here we can learn how great Hashem's mercy is, that He sent an angel especially to protect him from sin, giving him the opportunity to desist from doing evil deeds. Even though Bilam was not a simple man who sinned unintentionally, but rather he was someone very great and knew perfectly well the evil he was about to commit, Hashem still had mercy on him and gave him an opportunity to avoid falling into sin.

If it was like this with Bilam, how much more so for each one of us, that is why when the person feels that the evil inclination tries to overcome him and lead him to evil, he has to strengthen himself, trusting in Emuna, then surely Heaven will help him to
be able to win!