The note Obama placed in HaKotel, 2008
Just last night I was watching this video on Chabad about Baalam and Balak. The rabbi explained that these two knew how to analyze, discover and exploit personality traits, seeking to align the times of God's anger with the times where Israel wasn't "looking so good".
He gave as an example a false friend who would first study the target person's interests/hobbies/personality and then feign commonality in order to gain trust so the victim would fall for the relationship. He even mentioned Carter having a huge dossier on Begin, that was studied in order to exploit every weakness so as to manipulate and seduce Begin.
Well I suppose you'd have to watch the video to see how this Obama quote (esp. the part in bold) fits right in with that. Balak and Balaam were all about discovering/psychoanalyzing God and the people of Israel, in order to manipulate circumstances through craft in order to curse Israel.
When I posted the above image in a post several days ago, I had not yet seen the video [that I linked above], but the words of Obama's note had this really hinky "Balaam" vibe to them, especially the last sentence. I couldn't articulate it and would have had to go off on a tangent anyway, but I had been thinking about the connection ever since. The video in concert with this quote from the article put the pieces together with the note.
Thanks again, Phinneous, for linking to a different video by this rabbi on another topic. In reviewing my own post from the other day that included this image (writing on the wall), I see a whole lot that inadvertantly relates to the Balaam’s “Believe It or Not” lesson.