Torah Reading: Parshat Balak

Next read on 20 July 2024

Summary

Portion:   Balak = King of Moab בָּלָק       (Hebrew)
Book:   Bamidbar = Numbers Section:       22:2-25:9
Balak is the 4th book of the 5 books of the Torah.

Balak, the king of the Moabites, known as son of Zippor, sees the Israelites in the wilderness as a threat .

He hires Balaam, a heathen soothsayer, to cast a spell and curse them.

Balak's hope is to weaken the Israelites so that he can defeat them in battle.

But God commands Balaam to listen to Him, not Balak, and the soothsayer finds he has no choice but to bless the Israelites, instead of cursing them.

Balaam's blessing: " How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob ! " became the sentence which Jews have recited for thousands of years on entering a synagogue, and in beginning the morning prayers.

Read More about this Portion

See what Israeli Songs and Dances originate from this week's Torah Portion

TORAH READING DATES

This Torah portion - Parshat Balak - will next be read on 20 July 2024
Read on these dates in following years: 12 July 2025   -   27 June 2026   -   17 July 2027
8 July 2028   -   30 June 2029   -   13 July 2030
5 July 2031   -   26 June 2032   -   9 July 2033
1 July 2034   -   14 July 2035   -   12 July 2036
27 June 2037   -   10 July 2038

ABOUT THE TORAH READINGS:

The Torah - the Five Books of Moses - is read publicly in synagogues every Sabbath on an annual cycle.
The cycle begins each year with Bereishit (Genesis), which is read on the Sabbath following the Simchat Torah festival.

Each of these weekly readings is known as a Parsha, or portion.
The Torah is also read in shorter segments of the Parsha on Mondays and Thursdays, and in selected sections on festivals.

To see the next Parsha after this one, click here

About Copyright

Jewish World Life.com commissioned these Parsha summaries specifically for our readers.

If you would like to share this page, the address is:
https://www.jewishaustralia.com/parsha.asp?PN=Balak

JewishWorldLife.com copyright 2024. All rights reserved.
Content is not to be reproduced in any form without explicit written permission from the Publisher

To the BIBLE PAGE of Jewish Australia / Jewish World Life

Back to the BIBLE SONGS PAGE of Hebrew Songs.com


TOP