Balak (parashah)

Coastal Landscape with Balaam and the Ass (1636 painting by Bartholomeus Breenbergh)

Balak (בָּלָק‎—Hebrew for "Balak," a name, the second word, and the first distinctive word, in the parashah) is the 40th weekly Torah portion (פָּרָשָׁה‎, parashah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the seventh in the Book of Numbers. In the parashah, Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, tries to hire Balaam to curse Israel,[1] Balaam's donkey speaks to Balaam,[2] and Balaam blesses Israel instead. The parashah constitutes Numbers 22:2–25:9. The parashah is made up of 5,357 Hebrew letters, 1,455 Hebrew words, 104 verses, and 178 lines in a Torah Scroll (סֵפֶר תּוֹרָה‎, Sefer Torah).[3]

Jews generally read it in late June or July. In most years (for example, 2024, 2025, and 2028), parashah Balak is read separately. In some years (for example, 2026 and 2027) when the second day of Shavuot falls on a Sabbath in the Diaspora (where observant Jews observe Shavuot for two days), parashah Balak is combined with the previous parashah, Chukat, in the Diaspora to synchronize readings thereafter with those in Israel (where Jews observe Shavuot for one day).[4]

The name "Balak" means "devastator",[5] "empty",[6] or "wasting".[7] The name apparently derives from the rarely used Hebrew verb (balak), "waste or lay waste."[8]

  1. ^ Numbers 22:1–5.
  2. ^ Numbers 22:21–35.
  3. ^ "Torah Stats—Bemidbar". Akhlah Inc. Retrieved June 19, 2023.
  4. ^ "Parashat Balak". Hebcal. Retrieved July 11, 2015.
  5. ^ Francis Brown, S.R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, The New Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew and English Lexicon (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1979), pages 118–19.
  6. ^ New Open Bible Study Bible Name List.
  7. ^ Alfred Jones, Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names (Kregel Academic and Professional, 1990).
  8. ^ See Francis Brown, S.R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, New Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew and English Lexicon, page 118 (Isaiah 24:1–3; Jeremiah 51:2).