And Elochim said to Bilaam, “Do not go with them, do not curse the nation (Israel) because he is blessed.” (Bamidbar 22:12)

Bilaam is cautioned by not other than the HaKadosh Baruch Hu Himself  not to curse the people of Israel because they are blessed. Can you have a more- clear warning than that?! Yet, foolishly he went! He is not the only person to ignore explicit instructions and open signals that it is not advisable to curse the Jewish People.

Wherever I go here, now, in your Jerusalem, I’m reminded of a joke that a young man told me recently, “What is the national bird of Israel?  Answer: The crane!”  There is building and building going on everywhere.  And wherever the Jewish people go things tend to improve and grow.  Whichever neighborhood, and whichever city, and any country that we have visited in our long history, all the boats in the harbor predictably go up as our blessing travels with us.  And so it is that from whichever the place we were chased, our absence is is felt.

This is an observable phenomenon. When I was a kid the two states that a presidential candidate needed to secure the electoral college were New York and California. They were the most populous and prosperous states and the also where the majority of American Jews lived. The two super- powers during that Cold War era were Russia and the United States. Those were again the two major centers of Jewish population. Later, when Jews began to exit from Russia it became a weakened and feeble version of its former self. Now, Israel is seen as a super-power and a dominant force militarily and economically in spite of its relative petite size, because a majority of the Jewish people reside here in Israel. Our blessedness is recognizable in location after location, large and small.

Maybe some people remember that during the Yom Kippur war in 1973, there was an oil embargo, oil prices sky-rocketed and bumper stickers began to appear reading, “We don’t want Jews! We want oil!”. A gentile named William Ikon wrote a letter to the editor of the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph that was subsequently published in 250 dailies throughout America. He wrote the following:

“Jews go home, G-d forbid that you should think that these remarks made by a few sick people expresses the opinion of all the people of America and you would pack your belongings and go. Jews go home. We do not want Jews. We want oil. But before you leave, could you do us a favor?! Could you leave behind the vaccine formula of Dr. Jonas Salk before you go?! You would not want our children to be paralyzed by polio. Will you leave behind the capability you have shown government, in politics, your influential prowess, your good literature and your tasty food.

Please have pity on us. Remember it was from you that we learned the secret of how to develop great men as Einstein and Steinmetz and many others who are of great help to us. We owe you a lot for the atomic bomb, research satellites and perhaps we owe you our very existence. Instead of observing from the depths of our graves how Hitler old but glad passes through our streets relaxed in one of our Cadillacs if he would have succeeded to reach the A-bomb and not us.

On your way out Jews, could you do me one more favor? Could you pass by my house and take me with you? I’m not sure I could live a secure life in a land in which you are not found. If at any time you will have to leave, love will leave with you. Democracy will leave with you and essentially everything will leave with you. G-d will leave with you. If you pass by my house, please slow down and honk, because I’m going with you.”

Bilaam was not the first to fail to heed to this Divine warning and neither was he the last. We know all to well. To anyone with clear eyes the words delivered to Bilaam resonate even still, as the blessedness continues.