Musings On Parshat Balak

”Ma Tovu Ohalecha Yaakov Mishenosecha Yisrael”

“Ma paal Kayl”— “What G-d has wrought”

Overview

King Balak  of Moab  sends for Balaam the diviner, who resides in Mesopotamia, to curse  the Jews; in a dream, Balaam is told by Hashem not to go; Balaam persists; in a second dream Balaam is given free choice to go, but with certain restrictions; talking donkey incident; powerful and poetic prophecies and blessings instead of planned curses as Balaam morphs from a heathen seer to a true prophet (according to Don Isaac Abrabanel, 1437-1508); Jews worship pagan Baal-Peor (major Canaanite deity of thunder and fertility)  with its licentious ritual; Pinchas, grandson of Aaron, lances Zimri of the tribe of Reuven together with a Midianite woman (Cozbi) In flagrante delicto, as they publicly flaunt their behavior; twenty four thousand people die by plague.

Themes

·        We are given free choice in our behavior

·        A collection of “Reversals”, according to Professor Everett Foxx: a donkey becomes a kind of  prophet;  a prophet turns  into a fool; and curses turn  into blessings

·        Linkage  of  Israel’s  blessings with military successes (in last week’s Parsha); and Israel’s  behavior at Baal Peor with Balaam’s evil intents

Balaam’s behavior triggers Divine wrath

Balak, King of Moab, sends emissaries to  Balaam to  hire him to curse the Jews. Balaam tells the nobles to wait overnight. In a dream, Hashem tells him unequivocally not to go because the Jews are blessed. King Balak, reasoning that Balaam is holding out for a larger fee, sends more prominent nobles offering more money. Balaam tells them to  again wait again overnight in the hopes he will again hear from Hashem. He does and Hashem says “Since it is to call you that the men have come, go with them”.

Balaam rises at daybreak the next morning to saddle his donkey. Despite his exalted position as Prophet, he does it himself—hasinha mekakkeles es hashura—Hatred distorts proper behavior. But Hashem becomes enraged when he sees Balaam going with King Balak’s emissaries.

Some maintain that Hashem’s anger is kindled “Ki holech who”(because Balaam went)— the use of the present form (holech means going) hints at Balaam’s  (on)going, constant single-minded desire to do fulfill  Balak’s request to curse the Jews.

Rabbi B.S. Jacobson in his Meditations on the Torah, provides an overview :

Rabbi Isaac Erama(1420-1494)  notes Balaam’s tenacious repetition to Hashem of  the same request  to go when he should have categorically refused Balak’s invitation. Instead, he stalled and  his baser instincts got the  better of him

Ramban (1194-1270) and Seforno(1475-1550) interpret “Em likro lecha…”  to mean “if the intent was  to be only a consultant or advisor, then go with them”. Instead, Balaam chose to be  part of the plot.

Hakkatav V’hakkabala by Rav J.T. Meklenburg (1785-1865) observes that when Hashem tells  Balaam he can go He uses the phrase “lech  etam” meaning  just walk along with them, separate from them and  not to go  with the purpose of filling Balak’s request upon arrival. Similarly, the Vilna Gaon (1720-1797) explains that the phrase  “lech etam” means to go but not to do exactly what they want. Instead, Balaam gets up early, saddles his donkey by himself , “Vayelech em…”  (“…and  he went with”).The Torah’s use of  the word em (instead of etam)  means  that Balaam went  being of one mind with them to be the one to curse the Jewish nation.

Franz Rosensweig (1886-1929) and Martin Buber (1878-1965) teach us the importance of  recurring phrases in communicating  the Torah’s  moral message. Here the recurring  root word  is YSF, to resume, starting anew. The Torah highlights for us the duplicity/arrogance of  Balaam first in his dealings with King Balak (who resumes sending more honorable messengers after Balaam rebuffs the first delegation) and then in telling Balak’s delegates to bide their time until Hashem  resumes the dialogue—hoping He would change His mind.

After he is granted permission to go along and bless Israel, the Torah describes the incident of the talking donkey in which Balaam resumes striking the donkey and in which  the unseen Angel of Hashem resumes passing, standing in a narrow place.

How to Understand the Incident of a Talking Donkey 

·        Nothing is impossible for Hashem.

·        Perkei Avos teaches us that the talking donkey  was made on day 6 of Creation, before Shabbos. This is one of the miracles of Nature that was provided for in advance as part of the cosmic plan

·        Rambam (1135-1204) and Saddya Gaon (882-942), noting Balaam’s seeming  lack of surprise at a talking animal, opine that  the incident  was a dream or a night vision

·        Shadal (Shmuel David Luzzatto,1800-1865) points out that the text does not say the donkey spoke human words. What it does  say is Hashem opened the mouth of the donkey. This incident of a braying donkey and an at-first-invisible Angel  is an example of (in modern psychological parlance) projective identification. Namely, Balaam at some level (unconscious) was projecting his own internal struggle over whether or not to go and curse the Jews

·        Torah mockery of those believing in magic as Balaam with all his alleged sorcerer’s  power is reduced to arguing with talking donkey

Is Balaam  good or bad?

On the one hand, he appears to be a learned, well-known non-Jewish follower and legitimate prophet of Hashem, and a person admired by some Jewish commentaries. Others see him as Balaam the Wicked with his haughtiness,  his  greed, and his attempt to “wait Hashem out” to grant him permission to go to Balak.

Do curses work?

Clearly, the ancients believed in the real power of blessings and curses. Rabbi Dr. J. H. Hertz notes that the Babylonian religion was filled with demonology. Certain individuals had the power to  change the will of the Deities  and  to secure prosperity or bring on calamity via their spells and incantations. A magician/sorcerer/wizard could predict the future, discover secrets and either bless or bring ruin.

But the Torah discredits superstition and belief in magic .If so, asks Nechama Leibowitz, why did Hashem try to stop Balaam or even  care about Balaam’s curses?

A number of commentaries  think that  stopping Balaam ‘s purpose  was to teach him a lesson. Joseph Ibn Kaspi (1279-1340) notes the psychological (rather than actual) damage to the object of a curse. Abrabanel opines that  cursing the Israelites would have catalyzed  the surrounding nations  to do battle with Israel on the strength of these curses. In Shadal’s view Balaam’s curses would have prompted Moab and its King Balak to boast of their success in warding off the Israelites. Furthermore, says Anselm  Astruc (?-1391) in  Midreshei Torah, the inhabitants of the land  (and the Jews themselves) would  (incorrectly) attribute any of the Jews’ sufferings to Balaam’s curse .

Rabbi H. L. Berenholz