Accountability and Excuses: Lessons from Bilam's Failure
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Together, we’ll dissect Bilam’s futile attempts to curse the Jews, showcasing his tendency to shift blame rather than accept the simple truth that some things are beyond human control. Through his story, you’ll learn the critical importance of taking responsibility and why it’s essential to acknowledge and embrace your role in achieving your goals. This episode will challenge you to scrutinize your own actions, avoid the pitfalls of excuse-making, and strive for genuine improvement in all your endeavors. Tune in and transform your approach to success!
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0:01 excuses sound best to the one that's making them up. To everybody else they just hear a rather feeble and unimpressive argument to not have to take care of business. Down in the south, where I'm from, we have another way of making fun of excuses that would come up empty on a certain assignment. My dad would say, son, it is the Indian, not the arrow, as if to say don't blame the equipment, don't make excuses. Results are dependent upon one's ability to execute and hopefully Hashem blessing your execution and we can point to this point to the Indian, not the Arab or the lack thereof.
0:57 To be Bilaam in our parashahs, one of the many big mistakes In his great debacle in which he tried to curse the Jews. He tried to proclaim parables that would lead towards the Israelites' downfall, but after going up on high on a mountain overlooking the Jews standing with Balak at his side, after making many karbonos to try to gain favor in the eyes of Hashem and then opening his mouth to try to curse the Jews for failing miserably and preaching beautiful poetry and deep, meaningful psukim about Klal Yisrael, he just takes a step back, unsure of why everything went awry, and says it wasn't my fault, balak.
1:54 I tried. It must be the place it must be that we're giving over these curses in the wrong makom. We got to try to curse the Israelites on a different mountain. He blames the arrow, he blames the mountain. He blames the mountain. He blames his tennis shoes or his tennis racket, as opposed to just seeing the dead obvious truth that it's quite impossible to ever do anything that Hashem doesn't want. Hashem doesn't want you to curse the Jews. He tries again and again, before going up to different mountains, checking different animals, offering different sacrifices and trying to proclaim different curse filled parables, but each and every time that he fails, he fails to blame the indian and he instead he blames the arab.
2:40 He makes up excuses. He didn't see the truth. The lesson among the many that we can take from Parshas Balak is that excuses sound best to those, to the one that's making them up. And don't blame the arrow, blame the Indian. Take accountability, don't be like Billum, and then choose to act better in the future to get the job done.