Chevre, this week’s parsha is בָּלָּק (Balak). We have the story of Bilaam hiring Balak to curse the Israelites. Every time he goes to curse them he blesses them. What I really find intriguing about this parsha is that from the outside, Balak essentially is singing the praises of the Bnei Israel as forced into the mouth of Balak. But on the inside, the Israelites are actually not followinng the rules and are doing some aweful things with sexual immorality. There are commentaries that state that the attempted curses affected the Jews and that they were doing the “bad” things because of this outside influence. In Amazon the PR rules are very strict. What public speakers say, how they say it and who they reference are strictly controlled. The desire is to control the external narrative. Internally, if things are going well or poorly is not seen from the outside. (I for one generally am super impressed by how things are run internally). As the adage says, don’t judge a book by it’s cover, we never really know what’s going on internally until you’re there. What I find gratifying is that we, as Amazon, are willing to be misunderstood for a long time and that in the end, others will see and understand how well things are going inside. Shabbat Shalom.