Michael Berg's call
in the portion of Balak
This page is a synthesis of Michael Berg's lesson on Balak, a map to help you return to the source. The portion holds a secret the kabbalists asked us to revisit every single day: spiritual life isn't a choice made once, it's a battle, and we can choose to wage it with joy, as soldiers of the Creator's Light.
Balak and Bilaam's curses ended up turning into blessings, and that, in one image, is the soldier's whole work: taking the darkness of this world and transforming it into Light. The portion of Balak isn't about an ancient war; it's about the battle we wage today, the moment we wake up, in every thought and every action.
This week's portion tells the story of two very powerful souls, Balak and Bilaam, who want to destroy the Israelites. Bilaam is a sorcerer whose power lies in speech and consciousness; he tries and tries, and in the end, his curses turn into blessings.
It sounds like just a desert story from thousands of years ago. But the kabbalists say something surprising: the secret of this Shabbat is so unique that we should meditate on it every single day. There's a gift here we need to connect to not just once a year, but every morning.
The text speaks of two kings, Sichon and Og, but they're code words. Sichon is the force that hovers over the mind: it generates every doubt, every fear, every negative thought. Og is the force that produces the problems of the physical world, including health issues (an Aramaic word linked to Og means "arm," the force that causes concrete difficulties).
Four names to hold onto this Shabbat: Balak, Bilaam, Sichon, and Og. Balak and Bilaam are the Archangels of Negativity; Sichon and Og are the forces they operate over your mind and over your world.
Here is the heart of the lesson, and perhaps the most common mistake, even among Centre students: thinking spirituality is a choice you make once. There's an entire collective structure of negativity, with countless sub-forces, whose only function, from the instant we wake up, is to sow doubt, fear, calamity, and darkness.
You can decide to be spiritual today. But tomorrow morning you'll have to fight for it all over again, because Balak, Bilaam, Sichon, and Og aren't waiting. They're ready. And they concentrate their attacks exactly where the soldiers are: on whoever is trying to bring Light into the world.
Leaving Egypt, the Israelites might have imagined they were headed straight for supreme happiness. But Moshe tells them: we're not going to the Land of Israel, where everything runs smoothly. We're going to the desert, the place of snakes and scorpions, of challenges and darkness. We choose to fight. We go to the land of Sichon, the battle of the mind, and the land of Og, the battle of the physical world, to transform them.
Some refused: the Erev Rav (the mixed multitude) said "this isn't our spirituality; this isn't what we signed up for." They wanted easy spirituality, meditating, feeling inspired, a life of nothing but kindness. But the path of the Light, Michael teaches, runs through choosing to be a soldier.
The Midrash tells why this fight is so ancient. Before Adam's fall, the Creator's Light filled the world, no pain, no suffering, no death. With the fall, and with every negative generation that followed, Cain, the generation of Enosh, the flood, the generation of separation, Sodom, the Light kept withdrawing, rising heaven after heaven, until it nearly disappeared.
Against that withdrawal, seven righteous souls brought the Light back, one firmament at a time, each through their own spiritual battle: Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, Levi, Kehat, Amram, and Moshe, the seventh. The revelation at Sinai was the conclusion of these seven generations of struggle. The righteous bring Light into this world; the negative force tries to push it away. That's the battle, and that's the choice we have.
And what if you choose not to fight? Michael is honest: you'd live at the mercy of the world's whims, almost without free will, good and bad things happening according to the energy of the moment. Whoever doesn't fight still reaps from the battle of those who do, but loses the very reason they came.
Why were we awakened to Kabbalah specifically, among so many paths? Because our soul came into this world to wage this battle. Perhaps 22 thousand soldiers are enough, and the battle of those 22 thousand is to bring the Creator's Light to the rest of the world.
Be careful with the word "fight." Choosing to be a soldier doesn't mean unhappiness. This Shabbat's greatest gift comes in three parts: first, understanding that there is a battle; second, choosing, "I will be a soldier in this battle"; and third, asking for the joy: "don't just give me strength to fight, Light of the Creator, give me the joy of the fight."
Michael says he saw the Rav and Karen Berg happy almost always, but never without a battle, a challenge of some kind. The happiest people in the world always have been, and always will be, the soldiers who choose to fight and have the Creator's Light at their side.
This is where the lesson becomes practical. Soldiers, Bilaam says, wake up every morning with the energy of a lion. There's a concept, kabbalat ol malchut Shamayim, accepting the yoke, that fundamentally means accepting the battle and choosing to be a soldier today. Because yesterday's choice doesn't count for tomorrow: tomorrow there's a new Sichon, a new Og, a new battle.
That's why every morning we ask for renewed strength and Light. And there's a recognition that changes everything: when I decide to be a soldier of the Creator's Light, the Creator chooses me again, every day. "I need you in this battle, and I will give you all the power, all the strength, and all the joy so that, in the end, you win today's battle." And Bilaam prophesies: in the end, the soldiers win.
When I choose to be a soldier, the Creator chooses me again, every day. Will I accept today?
About this page: a free synthesis, in Thiago Moshe's voice, of Michael Berg's lesson on the portion of Balak, "Being Soldiers of Light." The teachings on Sichon and Og, on the Light's descent and return across seven generations, and on the morning meditation are presented by the teacher drawing on the Sfat Emet, the Talmud, and the Midrash.
The highlighted lines are paraphrases of the teacher's words, not literal quotations.
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