Wage War With Love (but first know who you love)

Wage War With Love (but first know who you love)

This sicha can be found in Likkutei Sichos, Cheilek Beis, p. 338

I. Bil’om and Amoleik

It says in sforim(1), that there is a connection between Bil’om and Amoleik. The remez: If we write the names Bil’om and Amoleik on two lines, one above the other, the right half of the two words read (from the top down), “Bil’om”: the “beis-lammed” from Bil’om, and “ayin-mem” from Amoleik. The left side of the words read (from the top down: the “ayin-mem” from Bil’om and the “lammed-kuf” from Amoleik) read “Amoleik.”

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The “trick” to free oneself from the klippa, evil schtick, of these two characters, Bil’om and Amoleik, is ahava (love of G-d) and yir’ah (fear of breaking the relationship with G-d). Ahava and yir’a fit together the same way: when one writes the word “yir’a” on one line and “ahava” on the second, the right half (from the top down) reads, “yir’a,” and the second half (from the top down) reads, “ahava.”

II. Amoleik and Bil’om

The reason Amoleik was able to wage war with the Yidden is because he came from Esov’s lineage. Naturally, Amoleik claimed that he too is a great-grandson of Yitzchok and Avrohom’s great-great-grandson and therefore he too has a say in Torah and holy matters. When Amoleik was allowed to enter just a little, “He knew his master and chose to rebel,” and what Amoleik did to us happened.

The same is true of Bil’om: the gemora in Sanhedrin(2) says that Bil’om came from Lovon’s lineage. Lovon claimed to Yaakov(3), “The [grand]sons are mine, the [daughters and grand]daughters are mine; all that you see is mine.” He too had a connection to the Yidden because from his daughter began the Jewish people.

III. The Life Lesson

This is the eternal lesson we can learn:

If anyone comes and says anything which isn’t in line with Torah, even if he may bring a certificate to prove his pedigree—that he is Yitzchok’s great-grandson or Avrohom’s great-grandson and from him stems the entire Jewish people—we tell him, “We have only our Father in Heaven.” The only defining factor we have, is Torah(4), not yichus (lineage) or anything else. If it fits with Torah, good: if not, whether it’s Bil’om or Amoleik, it isn’t relevant to us.

So how do we know if something fits with torah or not? Listen to your heart.

When a person approaches an idea with self-absorbedness, vanity, and egotism, it’s impossible to accept it properly: whether it’s because of his ego or because it is contrary to Torah.

Therefore one needs yir’a and ahava—in that order (the way it is in the diagram), because yir’a is the root and source of avoda, service of G-d (5). Naturally, when we are afraid to become separated from Hashem, this feeling will safeguard the feeling of love one has.

However if a person approaches an idea with the proper preparations beforehand, of cultivating emotions of love and fear to hashem, then one won’t be perturbed by Amoleik, descendant of Yitzchok nor Bil’om descendant of Avrohom. The Alter Rebbe explains “love” and “fear” in Chinuch Kotton of Tanya. Even if a person will lose their intellectualism, their soundness of mind, or not have it to begin with, a child, a person can be educated how to have an emotional attachment to G-d.

Even the simplest of Jews, if he approaches life with fear of being separated from Hashem and love for Hashem—in that order, he has nothing to worry about from any proverbial “Amoleik” or “Bil’om” that may come his way.

(From a sicha of 12, Tammuz, 5716/1956)


1. See Likkutei Shoshanim, (Maharash Mastropoli) in his explanation of the Ariza”l’s teachings.

2.  p. 105a

3. Bereishis 31:43

4. The Rebbe said a story of the Frierdiker Rebbe in a sicha. When the Frierdiker Rebbe was first arrested, he was put in a cell with an animal which he couldn’t see. The animal made noises and grunted in the cold, dark cell. The Frierdiker Rebbe remembered what his father (the Rebbe Rashab) had taught him, that the greatness of a person over an animal is the Torah, so he recited mishnayos by heart. From the Living Torah, the week of Chukas, 5775.

5. Chapter 41 of Tanya

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