This is a paradigm of the sad tale of history, notes Horav Moshe Swiftz, zl. The gentiles acknowledge only that which the Jews have done to the Emorites. Did Balak also notice the violence which the Emorites perpetrated upon us? The gentiles see the Jew through their unique spectacles. They stand ready to condemn any Jewish action committed rightly or wrongly, without consideration and without empathy. Their eyes are closed; their senses are numbed with indifference to the plight of the Jew.
Balak said, “Behold, a people has come out of Egypt. See, they cover the face of the earth.” The gentile vision was distorted. The face that they saw, this handful of broken desert-worn ex-slaves as rulers who dominated the face of the earth, was reflective of selfish aims! The vast world provides space for everyone, but the Jew covers the earth. There is no room to move, no place to live, because the world is inundated with Jews! This is gentile hypocrisy, an anti-Semitic view of reality. We have lived with this superficially innocuous — but realistically vicious — diatribe throughout our sojourn in exile. If we reflect upon the source of these statements, we will be able to give them their due recognition: total disregard!
