page_title: Balak (parsha)
section_title: Connection between the haftarah and the parashah
hierarchical_section_title: Balak (parsha) / Haftarah / Connection between the haftarah and the parashah
caption_attribution_description: Micah the prophet, Russian icon from first quarter of 18th cen.
context_page_description: Balak is the 40th weekly Torah portion 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, Balaam's donkey speaks to Balaam, 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.
  Jews generally read it in late June or July. In most years, parashah Balak is read separately. In some years when the second day of Shavuot falls on a Sabbath in the Diaspora, parashah Balak is combined with the previous parashah, Chukat, in the Diaspora to synchronize readings thereafter with those in Israel.
  The name "Balak" means "devastator", "empty", or "wasting". The name apparently derives from the sparsely used Hebrew verb, "waste or lay waste." There are no derivations of this verb besides this name.
context_section_description: In the haftarah in Micah 6:5, Micah quotes God's admonition to the Israelites to recall the events of the parashah, to "remember now what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him."  The verb that the haftarah uses for "answer" (עָנָה, ‘anah) in Micah 6:5 is a variation of the same verb that the parashah uses to describe Balaam's "answer" (וַיַּעַן, vaya‘an) to Balaak in the parashah in Numbers 22:18 and 23:12.  And the first words of Balaam's blessing of Israel in Numbers 24:5, "how goodly" (מַה-טֹּבוּ, ma tovu), are echoed in the haftarah's admonition in Micah 6:8 of "what is good" (מַה-טּוֹב, ma tov) in God's sight, namely "to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God."
caption: Micah (18th century Russian Orthodox icon in the Kizhi monastery, in Karelia, Russia)
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