BAIS HAVAAD'S PARSHA PERSPECTIVES Parshas Balak:Did Bilaam Deserve to Get Paid? By: Rabbi Tzvi Price

L'ilui Nishmat גיל-עד מיכאל בן אופיר, יעקב נפתלי בן אברהם ואייל בן אוריאל And a zechus for those in Eretz Yisrael under rocket fire What would you say in the following case? A developer buys a tract of land near a mountain ridge. His plan is to build luxury summer homes on the site. He calls a construction company to come down to give an estimate on the cost to excavate the site for twelve houses. The owner of the company and his chief engineer come out to look at the site and the engineer realizes very quickly that he might not be able to do the job with the company’s equipment because that particular area around the mountain ridge is known to contain huge underground boulders. “We hit one of those and we’re out of luck,” says the engineer. “My equipment can’t handle a boulder that’s more than ten feet in diameter. After that, you’re going to have to call in a whole different kind of excavator who has much bigger equipment.” “What are the chances of that happening?” asks the developer. “Oh, about 50/50,” answers the engineer. “What do you think? Should we try it?”