[Avodah] Ba'al Peor and Balfour

[Prof. L. Levine]

Bamidbar 25:3  וַיִּצָּ֥מֶד יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל לְבַ֣עַל פְּע֑וֹר

3Israel became attached to Baal Peor, and the anger of the Lord flared against Israel.

The following is from Rav Schwab on Chumash page 468

In the margin of Rav Schwab's Chumash Devarim, on this pasuk, the
Rav wrote as follows:

Ba'al Pear is related to the matter of  the restriction against
adding mitzvos, because the very desire to denigrate idolatry and to
shame it in a way that has not been commanded by the Torah brings
to avodah zarah and this was the sin of Ba'al Pear. People inherently
possess a yetzer hara to invent new mitzvos that are contrary to the
Torah. Moshe Rabbeinu was buried on Har Neva, opposite the Pear
idol, to atone for this sin of Klal Yisrael's, which was an expression of
this yetzer hara. The "yetzer hara for mitzvos" can destroy the whole
Torah. Such a yetzer hara is the force behind every mashiach sheker,
false messiah. The ma'apilim of the Torah, who wished to force their
way into Eretz Yisrael, held that the mitzvah of settling Eretz Yisrael was
greater than that of listening to Hashem and their Torah teachers.
The Balfour Declaration of 191 7 established the right of Jews to return
to the Holy Land. Some Zionists took this as an impetus to create new
mitzvos, i.e., the settling of Eretz Yisrael above all other mitzvos. This
they did despite Chaza/'s warning of -Don't rebel against
the nations of the world (Kesubos 111 a), trying to force the hand of
Mashiach.

And the Rav mused: "Is there any lesson to be learned from the
similarity of the words Ba' al Pear and Balfour?"

I am sure that many will have comments on the last sentence above.

Yitzchok Levine
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