Balak: Anger

 This  daf Yomi   (Taahith 20A)  references the parsha. :

... Better is the curse which Ahijah the Shilonite pronounced on Israel than the blessings
with which Balaam the wicked blessed them. Ahijah the Shilonite cursed them by comparing them
with the ‘reed’; he said to Israel, For the Lord will smite Israel as a reed is shaken in water. [Israel
are as the reed], as the reed grows by the water and its stock grows new shoots19 and its roots are
many, and even though all the winds of the universe come and blow at it they cannot move it from
its place for it sways with the winds and as soon as they have dropped the reed resumes its upright
position. But Balaam the wicked blessed them by comparing them with the ‘cedar’, as it is said, As
cedars beside the waters;20 the cedar does not grow by the waterside and its stock does not grow new shoots and its roots are not many, and even though all the winds of the universe blow at it they
cannot move it from its place;21 if however the south wind blows at it, it uproots it and turns it
upside down. Moreover, [because of its yielding nature] the reed merited that of it should be made a
pen for the writing of the Law, the Prophets and Hagiographa.

Parshath BAlak is permeated with anger.  Gd is angry with Bilam, Bilam is angry with his donkey,  Balak is angry with Bilam. Eventually, Gd is angry with Israel.

 Anger is the stiffest of emotions.Anger is a focus that blinds . It allows for actions that are otherwise inconceivable ( occasionally with a positive result).

Anger comes from misunderstanding, from globalization, from envy, from anger.

These are angry days. The teenage deaths in Israel stir in our community. May they not be a south wind  to our cedar.