"I am the Lord who dwells among the children of Israel" (35:34) (Complete Faith – Parashat Balak)
In the book 48 Ways to Wisdom by the great Gaon Rabbi Noah Weinberg zt"l, there is a story that illustrates that we Jews, the chosen people, are soldiers in the king's army, and we must not forget this. We must impose the mind on the heart,
Rabbi Weinberg relates: "A Jew told me, once when I was a child I took a book from the library to read, and suddenly my father came home earlier than usual, and I was very nervous. I didn't know exactly what my father's views were on foreign books, but I realized that he shouldn't see what I was reading now. I was ashamed. I was thinking about what to do, and I didn't know how to save myself. Where will I hide the book? But he was already standing nearby, took the book, glanced at it, and stormed it into the corner of the room. 'A piece of meat confuses Yiddishe Ingala (a Jewish child)!!' He screamed in pain. I want to tell you a story from one of the greatest servants of G-d in the past generation, his name was Rabbi Mendel, my father said to me in a deep voice, 'Rabbi Mendel was in Siberia, he worked there, in the terrible cold, under heavy guard. In all places, the Natshalniks were on guard. They stood alert, with a murderous look in their eyes. Besides them, there was also a pack of guard dogs. They were not small, friendly dogs. They were huge dogs! Dangerous!
One prisoner was brave. He was tired of the work! And he decided to escape... Do you know what it means to escape from the labor camp? My father was furious in a loud voice. "You don't know." He decided to look for an escape route, and he found it! He found it possible to evade the prying eyes of the guards while they were eating. Because when these guards eat, they forget about the whole world. But what will he do with the dogs? That's what bribery is for. Yes, you can buy dogs with bribes, too! So what do you give dogs? Meat. Our prisoner agars fat chunks of meat. And save them for the great day: the day of escape.
The day came, our prisoner managed to escape the guards. They didn't see him. But... The dogs immediately felt it. The prisoner heard the first bark, and immediately threw the pieces of meat out of his pocket. The dogs were confused. They started wagging their tails and didn't know what to do. Would they continue to chase, or would they savor the fine meal that fell by them? The guards heard the echoes of barking and saw the confused dogs. They arrived armed. The prisoner was no longer there, but the shots were aimed at the wondering dogs. There was a great panic in the camp. A rumor spread among the prisoners: 'The Jew fled, they killed the dogs.' "Why did you kill the dogs?" one prisoner dared to ask the guards. They answered him confidently: 'If a few pieces of meat confuse them in the middle of work, they don't deserve to live here. They don't deserve to be guard dogs.'
"And that's what you need to know, Ingala!" my father shouted in deep pain. His hoarse words still shake my memory to this day. "Don't be confused when you see a piece of fatty meat! Anyone who gets confused when he smells good meat is not worthy of being a soldier in a king's army! A Jew must remember the role. We must not forget the main thing, when you smell a piece of meat ...!" "I am the Lord who dwells among the children of Israel"...
