Healing Well of Miriam

Three years ago, in 2022, I got married and moved to Killeen, Texas.  My new husband had told me that he had wanted to legally change his name to one he had been told years before—B’Ohr.  Just wondering recently, I asked him about the date when that name change had become legal, because he could see this as his new “birthday,” when his soul had taken on a new perspective.  The date was July 13, 2022 / 14 Tamuz 5782, and the parsha reading was Balak.

 Until now, neither of us had thought about what that parsha reading happened to be at the time.  Balaam Ben B’Ohr was the powerful sorcerer that Balak, King of Moab, called to curse Israel.  Chazal say Balaam was a prophet among the nations, on a par with Moshe Rabbenu.  The first king of Edom, mentioned in Genesis, was son of B’Ohr, as well.  Both Torah references to the name B’Ohr are spelled in Hebrew with an ayin, which literally means:  “in the skin.”  When my husband first heard this name in the middle of one night, he also saw to spell it with an aleph.  This gives it a completely different meaning:  “in the light.”  Thinking of how Adam and Eve were creatures of light until they were clothed in skin, we realize that skin was concretized light.  The aleph of “light” was transformed into the ayin of “skin.”  In reference to parshat Balak, this can be seen as a redemption of Balaam, bringing him from the klipah (skin) into light. 

As part of his legal name change, my new husband also chose to take my last name—Ben-Yaacov—which I had come to realize over the years described my own spiritual journey when I began researching the healing vibration of Hebrew words.  Another very interesting note is Balaam was an incarnation of Laban, who opposed Jacob and his children through the art of black magic.  This is like an inherited occupation for Balaam, which he advanced and polished.  This research has made us very aware of the various forms of Laban’s black magic in our own time and ways to counteract them. 

Realizing the timing of the legal name change corresponded with Parshat Balak confirmed for us both that we are journeying a path set for our souls.  Each time this anniversary comes back around, we are reminded, with a new level of realization from Heaven. 

July 4, 2025 / 8 Tamuz 5785