God Doesn't Change - Parashat Balak

0:01And the Mishnah in Masechet Avot says that any relationship that's based on something, like that you're going to get some type of interest, is not going to last. It's not going to last. Even your relationship with HaKadosh Baruch Hu. If you're keeping mitzvot only because you want Hashem to give you money, a spouse, kids, health, whatever it is, that relationship is temporary. Okay, I'll ask. I'll ask God, making it seem as if he's this righteous person that is gonna ask God what to do. Hashem tells him, "Lo telech imahem, lo ta'or et ha'am, ki baruch hu" — "You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the nation, for it is blessed." Simple answer is no. Not only no, don't go with them, but no because the nation you want to curse is blessed. And What does Bil'am say to the people? He wakes up in the morning and he says to the officers of Balak, "Go back to your land, for there is no desire before Hashem to allow me to go with you. Hashem doesn't want me to go." Is that complete? No. Why not? Because it's not that Hashem doesn't want you to go and that's it. He gave you a reason.

1:24I don't want you to go because the nation you want to curse is blessed. You can't curse them. What's the point of going? You're not allowed to curse them. I will not allow it. But he didn't tell this to the officers. Why? He wanted to leave the door open. If I tell them, listen, God said I can't curse them. He said, they're blessed people. Then they would just leave and never come back. But if I tell them, no, God doesn't desire for me to go, then it sounds like the door is still kind of open, implying that maybe He doesn't desire for me to go today, but if you come back next week, maybe He'll change His mind. So Balak sent officers again, even higher-ranking officers, and they come to Bilam. not the will of God. He doesn't desire for me to go. Then it sounds like, "Oh, the door is still kind of open." Why? Implying that maybe He doesn't desire for me to go today, but if you come back next week, maybe He'll change His mind. So Balak sent officers again, even higher-ranking officers, and they come to Bilaam. and says to him, "Don't refrain now from coming to me. I will give you great honor." So what does Bilaam respond to him? Bilaam says, "Balak, you could give me a house full of silver and gold, but I would not be permitted to transgress the decree of the word of Hashem, my God, to do anything small or great." This sounds like Bilaam is a tzaddik. It sounds like he's a tzaddik. Listen, Bilaam, Balak, you're sending me people a second time, but you have to understand, I can't do anything that will go against God. So it sounds like, oh...

2:35Balak would give me a house full of silver and gold; I would not be permitted to transgress the decree of the word of Hashem, my God, to do anything small or great. This sounds like Bilaam is a tzaddik, sounds like he's a tzaddik. Listen, Bilaam, Balak, you're sending me people a second time, but you have to understand I can't do anything. I can't do anything that will go against God. So it sounds like, oh... the problem, he sounds like a righteous person. What's the reality here? In essence, what he's telling him is, "I can't, I can't come, but yet I didn't give you the reason. Now you came back; I'm telling you that I can't do anything that Hashem doesn't decree in the world." who knows what He decreed, yeah, but He told you last week, yeah, but that was last week. Maybe God is going to change His mind. Stay here, he tells him. Stay the night here. Now, you too, please sit in this place tonight, and I'll know what Hashem will additionally speak with me, meaning maybe Hashem changed His mind.

4:05Maybe Hashem changed His mind, but Hashem doesn't change His mind. And even later in the Torah, He says, oh yeah, one of the things that Bilam learned from this is that Hashem doesn't change His mind. He's not a man. But at this point, Bilam thinks that maybe, you know, even though Hashem said, you can't go because they're blessed, now that they came back, there has to be a reason for it. What's the reason? Chizkuni says Bilam was such a rasha... he's in essence telling them, "Listen, last week you came, I told you no because that's not the will of God. He doesn't allow me to go. Now you came back, I had enough time to think about it. Let me go talk to Him again because now that I think about it, why did He say you can't curse them? Because they're a blessed people and told me not to go." If I can't curse them, why is he even bothering to tell me not to go? Ah, God knows that my curse will work despite it being against His will. And that's why He tells me not to go. In essence, God is scared of me. That's how much of a Rasha Bilam was. He thinks that God is scared of him. So let me talk to Him and compromise with Him. We'll come up with a compromise.

5:32That's how deluded a person can be. Hashem can give them gifts, and instead of that person recognizing the gifts, they spit on the gift. They ignore the gift. They say, no, it was me. Oh yeah, so you're telling me that you are the one that decided you're gonna be really rich? Yeah, what do you mean? I started the product. I got the customers. Oh, you're the one that won the lawsuit that was not winnable? Yeah, sure. What do you mean? I had a good lawyer. I paid $100,000, $200,000 in lawyers. Oh, so the same lawyers that told you you cannot win the case, they actually won the case and you think that's from the lawyers? You don't think that's from HaShem? Well, yeah, well, what's wrong with that? Well, what did you do to win the case? What did you do? They told you you can't win the case. They told you that the case is lost. The best-case scenario is maybe there's going to be a compromise. In reality, what ended up happening is you won every single thing. You won it in different states. You won it in different countries. You ended up getting a bigger win than your lawyers even imagined.

6:36What did you do? Oh, well, you know, when I thought I was gonna lose, I did as many mitzvot as possible to help as many people do teshuva. I learned as much Torah as I could. Oh, so that's what you did. It's not that the lawyers got better. It's not that the law changed. It's that you did mitzvot that Hashem likes. And what are you doing now that you won the case? Oh, now I'm, you know, now I'm going on vacation. Oh, so after HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave you what you wanted in a miraculous way, what are you doing? You're not doing the same exact thing that earned you what you got in the first place. Why? Because you forgot that He gave it to you. You figure, listen, we won. Good. I did what I did. Hashem did what He did. And, you know, we're doing business. Oh, so you think that's how it works? You think that you could do business with Hashem, that you do mitzvot, and He gives you the money right now. Which rabbi told you that? Because a lot of people out there call themselves rabbis and they sell Judaism. Don't listen. If you keep Shabbat, you're gonna have money. You protect this, you'll have money. You give that, you'll have money. You do this, you'll get married. You do this, you'll get...

7:51Now, although HaKadosh Baruch Hu does promise salvation to those that do His will, that's not the way Judaism is supposed to be. You're not supposed to serve Hashem that way. In fact, when you serve Hashem in that way, where you think that if you do this you'll get something back, that leads to a lot of problems. First and foremost, it leads to the problem we just said, which is as soon as the person gets what they want, They win the trial. They get the job. They find a spouse. They get the kid. Guess what? They stop doing those very same good things that Hashem wants them to do, that earned them that good thing. They stop. Why? Because they figure, listen, that was the transaction. I kept Shabbat. I gave tzedakah. I helped people do teshuva. I got what I want. I'm finished. No, that's not the will of Hashem. Hashem, in essence, gave you a tool. The reason why He gave you what you wanted is not to stop you from doing what you're doing. It's to encourage you to keep going because there's more that's going to come.

8:54But instead of doing what you did to keep it working, to keep it growing, you went elsewhere. You did something else. You're going further from Hashem. And then what happens? Tragedy. All of a sudden, something is discovered. All of a sudden, they don't need you at the company anymore. All of a sudden, the biggest client leaves. All of a sudden, the spouse doesn't want to be married anymore. All of a sudden, there's sickness. All of a sudden, there's problems. And the person says, well, what happened? What? I kept Shabbat. I did everything. Why is Hashem doing this to me? No, no, you did this to yourself. You were doing good and doing the will of Hashem. Hashem was giving you good stuff to give you encouragement to keep growing because it's like, lehavdil, a donkey with a carrot leading it to go in the right direction. He gave you what you wanted for now because it was temporary encouragement, not a payment, encouragement to keep going in the right direction and you've already failed the second you got what you want. You stopped doing what HaKadosh Baruch Hu commanded you. He commanded you to do those things. He commanded you to give tzedakah, He commanded you to keep Shabbat, He commanded you to keep the Torah and the mitzvot. It’s not a suggestion, and it's not even because you're going to get what you want. He just gave you what you wanted. you've already failed the second you got what you want. You stop doing what HaKadosh Baruch Hu commanded you. He commanded you to do those things. He commanded you to give tzedakah. He commanded you to keep Shabbat. He commanded you to keep the Torah and the mitzvot. It's not a suggestion, and it's not even because you're going to get what you're going to get. He just gave you what you wanted.

10:14in order to entice you to keep going. But you were taught Judaism in an upside-down fashion. You were taught that if I do this, He's going to give me this, and then I'm finished. As if Hashem is doing business with you. No, no. Hashem commanded you to do it even if you get nothing. And that's the problem with selling Judaism. When you sell Judaism, you're in essence telling people that their relationship with Hashem is temporary. It's based on something. And the Mishnah in Masechet Avot says any relationship that's based on something, like that you're going to get something of interest, is not going to last. It's not going to last. Even your relationship with HaKadosh Baruch Hu. If you're keeping mitzvot only because you want Hashem to give you money, a spouse, kids, health, whatever it is, that relationship is temporary. You're, in essence, telling people that their relationship with Hashem is temporary. It's based on something. And the Mishnah in Masechet Avot says any relationship that's based on something, like that you're gonna get something of interest, is not going to last. It's not going to last. Even your relationship with HaKadosh Baruch Hu. If you're keeping mitzvot only because you want Hashem to give you money, a spouse, kids, health, whatever it is, that relationship is temporary. A relationship that's permanent is when you do it because Hashem commanded you to do it. It's an obligation to do it. And guess what? When you start that way, eventually you'll fall in love with Hashem and you'll want to do it. While also always reminding yourself that even if you have a bad day and you don't want to do it anymore, you're still obligated to do it.

11:30Not because you're going to get a reward. All of those different things that you get along the way, that's just HaKadosh Baruch Hu showing you, I'm watching you, I'm trying to help you out, get more, get this way, get that way. So Bilam, Bilam HaRasha, instead of seeing the relationship that he had with HaKadosh Baruch Hu as a gift, he saw it as he is higher, even than his own Creator in a certain aspect. where he hasn't changed his mind. He has his mind targeted; he wants to kill Am Yisrael. Hashem says, "You can't curse them." Bilaam says, "Maybe Hashem changed His mind." Why would He change His mind? Because technically, if I couldn't curse them, why did He tell me not to go? Why did He tell me not to go?" He rationalized things. He rationalized things, just like the heretics rationalized things. They rationalized that Adam and Eve sinned because Hashem wanted them to sin, because that's what brought people to the world. As if Hashem couldn't bring people to the world without the sin. Or that God needs you because He created you, as if He couldn't create you and wouldn't create you if He had no need.

12:48all types of other mumbo jumbo that people have, or he won't punish you. Why? Because he's the one that gave you the desire; if he didn't want you to do it, he wouldn't give you the desire. These are the rationalizations of the philosophers that are anti-G-d, while pretending to be religious and even pretending to be a prophet, a holy one. I bless the rabbis, Rabbi Yaron and Rabbi Efraim Kahlon, who, with the help of G-d, went to Ponevezh, who ascended to the top of the mountain and gave blessings and berachot. May G-d bless them and fill their hearts with tov and berachot. May all those who enter remember and succeed. Remember to do this and that. May G-d bless you. Amen and Amen.