BIL'AM ROSE UP IN
THE MORNING, SADDLED HIS ASS AND DEPARTED WITH THE MOABITE DIGNITARIES… WHEN
THE ASS CAUGHT SIGHT OF THE ANGEL OF THE LORD STANDING IN THE WAY, WITH HIS
DRAWN SWORD IN HIS HAND, THE ASS SWERVED FROM THE ROAD AND WENT INTO THE
FIELDS; AND BIL'AM BEAT THE ASS TO TURN HER BACK ONTO THE ROAD… THE ASS,
SEEING THE ANGEL OF THE LORD, PRESSED HERSELF AGAINST THE WALL AND SQUEEZED BIL'AM'S
FOOT AGAINST THE WALL, SO HE BEAT HER AGAIN… WHEN THE ASS NOW SAW THE ANGEL
OF THE LORD, SHE LAY DOWN UNDER BIL'AM, AND BIL'AM WAS FURIOUS AND BEAT THE ASS
WITH HIS STICK. THEN THE LORD OPENED THE ASS'S MOUTH, AND SHE SAID TO BIL'AM,
WHAT HAVE I DONE TO YOU THAT YOU HAVE BEATEN ME THESE THREE TIMES?

On People, Asses, Sorcerers, and the
Will of God

"Then the lord opened the ass's mouth" – to inform us
that the mouth and tongue are under his control; should he wish to curse, his
mouth in under his control.

(B'midbar Rabba Parasha 20)

Ten things were created on the eve of Sabbath at twilight, namely: the
mouth of the earth, the mouth of the well, the mouth of the ass, the
rainbow, the manna, the shamir, the shape of the written characters, the
engraving instrument, and the talents of stone. Some include also the demons,
the grave of Moshe, and the ram of our father Avraham; others include also the
original tongs, for tongs can be made only by means of tongs.

(Mishna, Avoth 5:6)

The eve of the first Shabbat of the six days of creation; not that they
were actually created then, for should you really suppose that if Father
Avraham's ram and Bil'am's ass lived thousands of year, our holy Torah would
have concealed from us this great miracle? But the intention is to tell that He
implanted in His creation the potential to produce the miracle at its
appointed hour.

 (Commentary "Tiferret Yisrael"
on Avoth ibid., ibid.; see also Bavli, Pesahim 54a)

… Now we can certainly comprehend the opinion of those of our
commentators who understand the dialogue between the ass and man the scorn with
the Torah holds these beliefs, contempt for human "wisdom's" conceit
which believes that the sorcerer-magician-augurer has the power to curse,
i.e., to force divine powers to obey him.

 (Nehama
Leibowitz: Studies in B'midbar, p. 298)

OPTICAL VISION AND PROPHETIC
VISION

David Malkiel

Rambam believed that curses have no power to
bodily harm the object of the curse; but he did consider cursing to be a
serious transgression "for in the opinion of the multitude the injury
resulting from curses is greater than that which may befall the body"
(Guide for the Perplexed, III, 41). By his use of the word "multitude",
Rambam is hinting to the fact that the harm of curses is not real, but
imagined, i.e., psychological. Accordingly, Rambam, in the Book of Mitzvoth
(Negative Precept 317), explains the prohibition against cursing a deaf person,
even though the curse cannot hurt the one cursed. On the other hand, the author
of the Sefer Hachinuch opines that a curse can indeed harm the cursed; one's
soul has the power to influence another, and this is true especially with
regard to the righteous "For in proportion to the importance of the soul
and the degree in which the soul of tzaddikim and hassidim cleave to the
higher powers, will their words affect all of which they speak" etc.
(Mitzva 231).

The position of
the author of the Chinuch was accepted by most people in the pre-modern era,
and it definitely reflects the world view of Balak, King of Moab. But whoever
believes in the efficacy of the curse, would also seem to believe in divine
supervision, and therefore Balak's initiative to curse Israel is puzzling:
Considering the history of the Israelites in their confrontations with their
enemies – especially in the recent one with Sichon and Og, how could Balak have
hoped that God would assist him?

According to the Midrash, Balak "foresaw
the misfortune due to befall Israel in the future" (Tanhuma, Balak, 2) and
he hoped that the present time would be propitious for this misfortune. Another
Midrash explains similarly that astrologers revealed to Balak that "Israel
will fall in his hands" (B'midbar Rabba, 20, 7)

I should like to develop the idea shared
by these two midrashim in a new direction, to suggest that Balak hoped that his
request would be answered by means of a new technique of prophecy.

We read that on the morrow of Bil'am's
arrival at Kiryath-huzoth, on the boundary with Moav: "In the morning,
Balak took Bil'am up to Bamoth-baal. From there he could see a portion of the
people." (B'midbar 22:41)

The intent was that Bil'am should curse the
Israelite nation there. Why there? Because from that point the prophet
(the "seer") could see "a portion of the people". The
attempt failed, perhaps because Bil'am was not faithful to the method. Bil'am
commanded Balak to build seven altars and to offer sacrifices, but then he
deviated from the plan. Bil'am said to Balak: "Stand here by your
offerings while I am gone" (23:3); he ordered Bil'am to remain in the
alter area, but he himself left the place with its unique perspective.

This scenario repeats itself in the second
attempt. Balak invites Bil'am to go with him to a different location, one from
which "you can see them – you will see only a portion of them; you will
not see all of them" (23:13), that is to say, the same kind of
observation point. Again Bil'am instructs Balak: "Stay here beside your
offerings, while I seek a manifestation yonder". Again, Bil'am does
not remain with Balak at the observation point; again the attempt is doomed to
failure.

Only now does Balak forgo his approach, i.e.,
the plan that Bil'am view only a small part of Israel. Out of despair and
fatalistic curiosity, he takes Bil'am to "the peak of Peor, which
overlooks the wasteland", and after the offering of sacrifices, Bil'am
"turned his face toward the wilderness." From there, Bil'am
sees "Israel encamped tribe by tribe," the nation in its
entirety – and the result is well-known.

The central principle of the prophetic method
which Balak suggested was the need to limit the field of vision, to view
only part of the people. What can be the underlying assumption of this
technique? May I suggest that Balak thought that there was a connection between
optical vision and prophetic vision. This can be seem from the third
vision, the richest and most far-reaching of the vision, which flowed directly
from the fact that this time Bil'am climbed to the point from which he could
have unlimited view of the entire congregation. It is clear that Balak assumed
that a wide perspective would foil his plan, and that Bil'am could damn Israel
only if his field of vision was very narrow.

This concept is comprehensible if it is based
on the assumption that the prophet's chronological vision grows in proportion
to the openness and breadth of his optical vision. If Balak strove to limit Bil'am's
field of vision, it was probably because he understood that eventually his
nation must fall in the hands of Israel, "as an ox licks up the grass
of the field." His hope was for a short-range solutioin, to overcome
Israel in the impending struggle. Therefore he sought to limit Bil'am's field of
vision and evoke a curse.

This approach explains how Balak, who
believed in the Lord, in prophecy and the election of Israel, can hope that Bil'am
receive consent of the Lord to curse Israel. We also understand the sense of
confidence which Balak exhibits, in contrast to the lack of enthusiasm on the
part of Bil'am, who, it seems, did not recognize Balak's method and perhaps did
not understand it. This suggested approach also explains the technical steps of
the three attempts, with the ascent to a certain type of observation post –
ostensibly strange – and the three failed attempts.

Ramban approximates this explanation in his
commentary to the passage "Balak took Bil'am up to Bamoth-baal; from
there he could see a portion of the people." Ramban was alert to the
connection between optical and prophetic vision: "He took him to a place
from where he could see them in order that he concentrate on them in his curse
and his soul not detach itself from them, for these are part of the powers of
the soul, to cleave during the seeing" etc. Regarding the second attempt,
writes Ramban: "But curse them for me from there if you can, for there I
have no place to curse all of them from there." According to Ramban, the
limitation of perspective was fortuitous, but not desirable from Balak's point
of view. I, on the contrary, suggest that the very opposite is correct: Balak
considered the restricted field of optical vision the key to limitation of the
prophetic field of vision, and hoped that this technique would enable Bil'am to
prophesy a disaster for Israel in the immediate future.

 David Malkiel teaches in the Department of Jewish History in
Bar-Ilan Univ.

Israel's Great Can Also Err in Identification of the Maschiach

"A star rises from Yaakov" – Because the Messiah
will gather the dispersed of Israel from the ends of the earth, he compared him
to a star rising in the firmament from the ends of the earth.

 (Ramban,
B'midbar 24:17)

Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai taught: Rabbi Akiva would expound "A
star has risen from Yaakov" – Kozba [Bar Cochba] has risen from Yaakov".
When Rabbi Akiva would see bar Kozba, he would say: This is the anointed King –
the Messiah. Said to him Rabbi Yochanan ben Tortah: Akiva, grass will sprout
from your cheeks and still the Messiah will not arrive.

 (Yerushalmi,
Taanit 4:5)

Don't imagine that the Anointed King [Mashiach] must perform signs and
miracles and create new things in the world or resurrect the dead, etc. Such is
not the case, for we see that Rabbi Akiva was a great sage among the sages
of the Mishna, and he was the ‘arms bearer' of King Ben Kozibah, and he said of
him that he is the Messiah, and he and all the sages of generation thought that
he was the Messiah. When he was killed because of his sins they realized he
was not. The sages did not ask him to show a sign or a miracle. The main
principle is as follows: This Torah, its precepts and rulings are eternal, not
to be added to nor detracted from.

(Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings 11:3)

"Why Have You
Beaten Your Ass?" – The Torah Desires Development of Moral Sensitivity
Towards All Creatures

"And the angel of the Lord said to him, Why have you beaten your
ass?" – The angel came to protest the insult to the ass, and he said:
If I have been commanded to demand redress for this insult to the ass – who has
neither [patriarchal] merit, nor a covenant with the Patriarchs – how much more
so for an entire nation which you seek to eradicate?!

(Tanhuma, Balak, 10)

It is set down with a view to perfecting us so that we should not
acquire habits of cruelty and should not inflict pain gratuitously without any
utility, but that we should intend to be kind and merciful even with a chance
animal individual, except in case of need – "Because your soul desires
to eat flesh" – for we must not kill out of cruelty or for sport.

 (Rambam,
Guide for the Perplexed III, 17)

"There Is No Augury in Yaakov, No
Divining in Israel"

All of these matters
[necromancy, soothsaying] are all lies and falsehood, and with them the
idolaters of old deceived the ignorant into following them, and it is not
fitting for Israel – who are the wisest of the wise – to follow this nonsense;
they should not imagine that there is any utility in them.

(Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Idolatry 11:16)

The Connection between the Jewish Nation
and World Peace

Rashi wrote: "These three times" – you wish to uproot a
nation which celebrates three times." From this it derives that those
three signs mentioned refer to the three pilgrim festivals, beginning with
Sukkot, which occurs in the month of Tishrei, the beginning of the year, about
we it is said "When you gather in the results of your work from the
field (Shemot 23:16). In connection with this is it written "The
ass swerved from the road and went into the field" – you wish
to uproot a nation which celebrates the Harvest Festival which is dependent upon
the field, and during which Israel offers 70 bulls on behalf of the
70 nations? If so, their destruction will lead to the destruction of all
the nations.

 (Kli
Yakar, B'midbar 22:23)

Editorial Board: Pinchas Leiser (Editor),
Miriam Fine (Coordinator), Itzhak Frankenthal and Dr. Menachem Klein

Translation: Kadish Goldberg

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