Balak (בָּלָק — Hebrew for “Balak,” a name, the second word, and the first distinctive word, in the parshah) is the 40th weekly Torah portion (parshah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the seventh in the book of Numbers. It constitutes Numbers 22:2–25:9. Jews in the Diaspora generally read it in late June or July.

The lunisolar Hebrew calendar contains up to 55 weeks, the exact number varying among years. In most years (for example, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 ), parshah Balak is read separately. In some years (for example, 2009, when the second day of Shavuot fell on a Sabbath in the Diaspora), parshah Balak is combined with the previous parshah, Chukat, to help achieve the appropriate number of weekly readings.

Balak was king of Moab around 1200 BC. According to Book of Numbers 22:2, and the Book of Joshua 24:9, Zippor was the father of Balak.

Book of Revelation 2:12 - 2:14 says about Balak: 12 `And to the messenger of the assembly in Pergamos write: These things saith he who is having the sharp two-edged sword: 13 I have known thy works, and where thou dost dwell—where the throne of the Adversary [is] -- and thou dost hold fast my name, and thou didst not deny my faith, even in the days in which Antipas [was] my faithful witness, who was put to death beside you, where the Adversary doth dwell. 14 `But I have against thee a few things: That thou hast there those holding the teaching of Balaam, who did teach Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the sons of Israel, to eat idol-sacrifices, and to commit whoredom; (Young's Literal Translation)[1]

Other sources detailing the story of Balak.

Balak died when Joshua began his conquest of Canaan.

Balak is also the name of the weekly parshah or portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading that tells the story of Balak in the Book of Numbers.

Yitzchak Ginzburg (born 14 November 1944) is an American born Israeli rabbi. He is a follower of the Chabad Lubavich movement and currently Rosh Yeshivah of the Od Yosef Chai Yeshivah in the Settlement Yitzhar in the West Bank, and the leader of the kabbalistic Gal Einai organization. He has published numerous books. A charge of incitement to racism was dropped after he made a clarification statement.

Ginsburgh was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1944. His father held a PhD in education and consulted for various Jewish organizations.

While living in Philadelphia, he met a descendant of the Nadvorna Chassidic dynasty and at the age of 14 became a baal teshuva. He attended the University of Chicago majoring in mathematics and philosophy. He then completed a Masters in Mathematics at the Belfer Graduate School of Yeshiva University. At the age of 22, he decided to devote himself entirely to Torah study.

In 1965 he went to Israel and studied at the Yeshivah of Kamenitz in Jerusalem. He spent 1966 through 1967 at the Slonim shul in Tiberias. After the Six Day War, Ginsburgh went to Jerusalem, and was one of the first to move into the old Jewish quarter. He started to study the Chabad school of Chassidus in depth. That year he visited the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, and remained in Crown Heights, Brooklyn for several months. When he returned to Israel he married, and began to teach Talmud, Shulchan Aruch, and Chassidut to a group of students in Jerusalem.

Shlomo Riskin (born May 28, 1940) is the founding rabbi of Lincoln Square Synagogue on the Upper West Side of New York City, which he led for 12 years; founding chief rabbi of the Israeli settlement of Efrat in the West Bank; dean of Manhattan Day School in New York City; and founder and dean of the Ohr Torah Stone Institutions, a network of high schools, colleges, and graduate Programs in the United States and Israel. He belongs to the Modern Orthodox stream of Judaism.

Shlomo Riskin was born on May 28, 1940 in Brooklyn, New York. He attended the Yeshiva of Brooklyn, and graduated valedictorian, summa cum laude from Yeshiva University in 1960, where he received rabbinic ordination under the guidance of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik. In 1963, Riskin received his Masters Degree in Jewish history, and he completed a Ph.D from New York University in 1982. From 1963 until 1977, he lectured and served as an Associate Professor of Tanakh and Talmud at Yeshiva University in New York City.

At the age of 23, Riskin became the founding rabbi of Lincoln Square Synagogue in New York City and served in that position until 1983. With the full backing of his mentor, Rabbi JB Soloveitchik, Rabbi Riskin transformed a fledgling Conservative minyan into one of New York's most innovative and dynamic Orthodox communities. The synagogue became particularly well known for its pioneering outreach programs which inspired many secular people to become religiously observant Orthodox Jews.