Balak 5769 – Gilayon #608


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Parshat Balak

How goodly are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel!

(Bamidbar 24:5)

 

Your dwelling places [mishkenotekha]:

even when they are desolate, for they are held

as a pledge [mashkon] for you, and their desolate state atones for your

souls, as it says, The Lord has spent His fury (Lamentations 4:11).

How did He spend it? He has kindled a fire in Zion.

(Rashi

Bamidbar 24:5, Judaica Press translation)

 

It is written, A psalm of Assaf. O God, the heathen are come into your

inheritance (Psalms

79:1) The text should have used a phrase like, Weeping of Assaf, Lament of Assaf,

Dirge of Assaf; why does it say, A psalm of

Assaf? It may be likened to a king who erected a

bridal-chamber for his son which he plastered,

cemented, and decorated; but his son entered upon an evil course of living. The

king forthwith ascended to the chamber, tore the curtains and broke the rods;

the [the son's] tutor took a piece of rod which he used as a flute and played

upon it. People said to him, "The king has overthrown his son's chamber

and you sit playing a tune!" He replied to them, "I play a tune

because the king overturned his son's chamber but did not pour out his anger

upon his son." Similarly, people said to Assaf,

"The Holy One, blessed be He, has caused Temple and Sanctuary to be destroyed, and you

sit singing a Psalm!" He replied to them, "I sing a Psalm because the

Holy One, blessed be He, poured out His wrath upon wood and stone and not upon Israel."

That is what is written, and He has kindled a fire in Zion, which has devoured the foundations

thereof.

(Eikhah Rabbah 4:14, Cohen

translation)

 

Balaam and Jonah – Between

Israel

and the Nations

David Grossman

The unique character of Parashat Balak that

distinguishes it from most of the Torah's other parshiyot is readily observable

in the list of topics it treats:

a) The existence of a prophet from the

nations of the world whose actions prove his hostility towards the chosen

people. If bribed, he is even prepared to curse them.

b) This strange "prophet" refuses

to disobey his God's command, but he also believes he can change His mind.

c) The Creator of the world emphatically

demands that "His prophet" bless rather than curse the Israelites,

even placing an obstacle in the "prophet's" path to guaranty

compliance.

d) The "prophet's" ass sees the

obstacle, while the prophet cannot.

e) The ass is not only graced with

exceptional visual ability – she can also speak.

f) Her rider remains unaware of her

supernatural abilities until an angel of the Lord appears standing before him.

g) "The "prophet" believes

that the Creator's mind can be changed if he changes his location.

h) He employs another method to persuade the

Creator – the bringing of many gifts (seven bulls and seven rams adding

up to 42 animals and 21 altars to be used only once).

Many commentators have tried to explain this

odd parasha, but they found it quite difficult to produce a convincing

interpretation. One solution cites Joshua 13:22, which states that the the kosem

[wizard] Balaam ben Beor was killed by the sword

by the Israelites. Verse 22:7 from our parasha also supports this

interpretation; it states that the elders of Moab and Midian came to Balaam with

ksamim [magic charms] in their hands (however, there is no

evidence that Balaam had need for those charms). According to this reading, it

seems that the wizards used various instruments – perhaps oracular devices – to

trick people. Some exegetes (such as Or HaHayyim on this verse) hold

that Balaam also used astrology to fool people; in any event it is reasonable

to assume that the wizards used some sorts of magical devices. The Torah, of

course, prohibits consultations with wizards. In any case, this line of

interpretation fails to address many of the issues listed above.

Our parasha depicts Balaam as a prophet with

whom the Lord speaks. True, Scripture uses the term Elohim (which does

not necessarily refer to the Lord, God of Israel) at least three times while

describing Balaam's nocturnal revelation (22:9-10,12),

but later verses use the Tetragrammaton, and Balaam is clearly referring to the

Lord when he speaks of the Lord my God (22:18).

There may be some significance to the use of El and Shaddai

instead of the Tetragrammaton. In any event, Balaam's deeds prove that he views

himself as an emissary of the Lord and not as an emissary of other gods. His

blessings offer incontrovertible evidence that he was not thought of as just

another wizard. Indeed, HaRav Kook holds that despite Balaam's wickedness he

was a prophet of the Lord. In this connection HaRav Kook cites a dictum from

Sifrei stating that the verse and no other prophet like Moses arose in Israel refers only to Israel and not to the nations of

the world. According to the Sages, Balaam was one of the prophets who rose up

for the gentiles.1

RaMBaM understood the story of Balaam and his

ass as having been a "prophetic vision" produced by wind working as

an angel: "For even the elements [i.e., wind and fire] are called

angels" (Guide of the Perplexed II:2,

based upon Psalms 100:4). Elsewhere (Guide

II:45), RaMBaM explains that Balaam belonged to the second to the lowest

category of prophets, but God's revelation to him in a dream was a kind of

proto-prophecy above which are found the eleven degrees of prophecy. All these

eleven involve revelation in a dream or vision, except for the highest level

which is reserved only for Moses, who "knew the Lord face to face" (II: 41,42). This explanation gives Balaam a

place in the scheme of prophecy "when was he was good" (II:45).2

RaMBaM's stand on God's revelation to Balaam

in a dream at night is not surprising. God already speaks to Adam and Eve in

the second chapter of Bereishit. In that context, God's speech to the snake is

reminiscent in its lack of naturalness to the story of the ass; revelation to

gentiles who are not prophets is less anomalous. RaMBaM mentions, among other

examples, King Pharaoh of Egypt,

the King of Gerar, Laban the Aramean, and Hagar as some of the many gentiles

who received divine revelation in their dreams. In most such cases God's

intervention was aimed at saving our fathers and their children from serious

harm. That is why RaMBaM considers divine revelation on the model of "and

God came to so-and-so in a dream of the night," whether God appears

personally or is represented by an angel, to be outside the compass of prophecy

(Guide II:41).

The "Great Eagle's" genius is

clearly at play in his answers to the difficult questions posed above;

nevertheless, it is hard to accept them as delivering the plain meaning of

Scripture.

Balaam's story is similar to that of Jonah. Here

are the points of similarity:

a) A prophet's failed attempt to disobey

God's word.

b) The unnatural behavior of animals.

c) God's intention to keep prophets from

realizing their hopes to harm human beings.

Jonah, who is explicitly depicted as being a

prophet who believes in the Lord, is punished more seriously than Balaam, and

his fate is even more blatantly supernatural than the story of the ass; he

survives in the fish's belly for three days and nights and is eventually spat

out live onto the beach. In any case, the Book of Jonah presents an insight

completely at odds with that of Balaam's tale; the idolaters are spared death

while Jonah – who fears the Lord Who made the sea and the dry land – is

cast into the sea. The story's continuation in Nineveh

reflects an even more radical value; that even those who exiled Israel

from its land can repent.

Balaam's character differs from that of the

Prophet Jonah. He is described as avaricious and indifferent to human

suffering. While his plan was negative, he enjoys great admiration, perhaps

thanks to his rhetorical skills. Despite Balaam's personal tendencies, it

should be said in his favor that he performed his Creator's will and was the

instrument through which God's own blessings were bestowed upon Israel. For

many generations the blessings formulated by Balaam served to explain Israel's

being chosen to be a kingdom of priests and a holy people. Parts of the

blessings even found their place in the Jewish prayer-book. They also had a

great positive influence upon our national culture and literature.

To my mind the most important message of both

parashat Balak and the Book of Jonah is that all people are created in the

Divine image and that the Creator of humanity is concerned also with the lives

and well being of those nations whose forefathers did not stand at Mount Sinai.

Many rabbis, most saliently in recent generations, Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak

HaKohen Kook, dealt extensively with pan-human ethics. One example of this can

be found in HaRav Kook's letter to Dr. Moshe Zeidel (Igrot HaRaAYaH, I: 92-101), where, among other things,

we find written: "The ways of rectitude… of Torah, which include… morality:

theoretical and ethical; individual and collective; social and political"

(op cit I: 94). Later in the letter he even proclaims that "all nations

which hold to decent laws… are considered to be resident aliens [gerim

toshavim] regarding all duties towards persons (ibid,

pg. 99).

These few quotations from the writings of

HaRav Kook represent the value known as "humanism," which is indeed

the value common to human society as a whole (ibid

I: 99). The Torah mentions this principle many times in connection with

"love of the stranger." What is the meaning of this "love"?

Everyday we recite the verse and you shall love the Lord your God

and we agree with Hillel the Elder that and you shall love your neighbor as

yourself is the central principle of the Torah. However, most of us ignore

the commandment to love the stranger and some followers of Torah even

claim that humanism is a sin.

Our attitude towards the nations of the

world, which comprise at least 99.8% of the earth's human population, finds

expression in laws referred to as mipnei darkei shalom – "because

of the ways of peace." The events of the past few months demonstrate that straying

from that path does not work in our favor. It is perhaps important to emphasize

that the value of humanism is not merely pragmatic; rather, it is a commandment

that obligates every Jew.

1. HaRav Avraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook, Igrot HaRA'aYaH

(Mossad HaRav Kook, Jerusalem:

5745) volume 2, pg. 34. See also Bava Batra 15b.

2. I thank my friend Prof. Mordechai Akiva Friedman for

helping me locate and explicate these sources.

David Grossman is a professor emeritus in

the Department of Geography, Bar Ilan University,

Ramat Gan.

 

And no other prophet like Moses arose in Israel – but amongst the

nations one did arise. Who? It is Balaam ben Beor.

(Sifrei VeZot HaBerakha,

357)

 

The bestowal of the gift of prophecy on all human creatures was designed

to impress upon the world that the choice of Israel

was no arbitrary one, but the reward for Israel's readiness and willingness

to accept the Torah. R. Yohanan's famous words (Avodah

Zarah 2b) to the effect that God offered the Torah first to all the

nations, one by one, but all refused, only Israel accepting, is explained in

the Gemara as the rejoinder to the arguments of the nations: Did you ever offer

us the Torah that we refused it? In this way, later sources motivate the gift

of prophecy to the Gentiles.

(E.E. Aurbach, as quoted by Nehama

Leibowitz in her Studies in Bamidbar, pg. 325, Aryeh Newman

translator)

 

An important lesson can

be learnt from this. Man's natural qualities do not determine his spiritual

status, nor do the talents bestowed on him from Above. Even the supreme gift of

prophecy cannot turn him into a saint against his will or without his own endeavors.

Man's own will is the sole factor determining whether he will use his

qualities, talents and even the gift of prophecy bestowed on him for good, or,

God forbid, misuse them for evil. It depends solely upon his own freewill to

aspire to the sainthood of a Moses or descend to the villainy of a Balaam.

(Nehama Leibowitz Studies in

Bamidbar, pg. 326, Aryeh Newman translator)

 

Another place:

Are Blessings and Curses Tied to Certain Places?

The meaning of another

place is like another god, and other gods, and the sitra ahra – "the

other (evil) side." For aher [another] is the opposite of ehad

[one], the unique One of the world.

(Rabbi Zadok HaKohen MiLublin, Likkutei Ma'amarim,

s.v. vehinei Mordekhai)

 

Go forth:

for your benefit and for your good, and there I

will make you into a great nation, but here, you will not merit to have

children. Moreover, I will make your character known in the world.

(Rashi

Bereishit 12:1, Judaica Press translation)

 

Here Rashi explains, "but here, you will

not merit to have children." This is in accordance with what our Rabbis

said: "Three things cancel the decree: change of place… "

(Hizkuni

Bereishit ad loc)

 

And it will be,

when the Lord, your God, will bring you to the land to which you come, to

possess it, that you shall place the blessing upon Mount

Gerizim, and those cursing upon Mount Ebal.

(Devarim

11:29)

 

You shall

place the blessing: As the Targum

[Onkelos] renders it: "those who bless."

upon Mount Gerizim:

[The Levites] turned their faces toward Mount Gerizim

(Sotah 37).

(Rashi Devarim 11:29)

 

This is why he

[Onkelos] translated it "those who bless," because [the phrase] that

you shall place… upon Mount

Gerizim is not applicable

to the blessing itself. The blessing itself should not be granted upon a limited

place – that is why it must be understood as referring to [the location of]

those who bless and not of the blessing itself, for when the Levites standing

the middle turned towards Mount Gerizim and gave the blessing, the blessing was

not addressed to Mount Gerizim, for the blessing has no substance and physical

demarcation is irrelevant to it.

(MaHaRaL, Gur Aryeh Devarim pg. 56)

 

Five things befell

our fathers on the seventeenth of Tammuz and five on the ninth of Av. On the

seventeenth of Tammuz the Tablets were broken, and the daily offering was cancelled,

and the city was breached, and Apistomos burned the Torah and set up an idol in

the Sanctuary.

(Mishnah Taanit 4:6)

 

When Moses saw how they had sinned by making

the calf, he said: How can I give them the tablets? I will be obligating them

to observe serious commandments and I will be condemning them to death by

divine power [when they transgress those commandments], for it is inscribed

upon them, You shall have no other gods before Me. He turned to go back.

Seventy elders saw him, and ran after him; he held the top of the tablet, and

they held the top of the tablet. Moses was stronger than all of them, as is

written (Devarim 34): And in all the

strong hand and in all the great, awe-inspiring acts that Moses did before the

eyes of all Israel.

(Avot

DeRabbi Natan 2:3)

 

All of the types of holiness, [that of] the Land of Israel,

Jerusalem and the Temple, they are but details and branches of

the Torah, and they are sanctified through the Torah's holiness… Do not

imagine, God forbid, that the Temple

and the Tabernacle are intrinsically holy objects! God dwells among His sons in

order for them to worship Him, and if they, to a man, have transgressed the

Covenant (Hosea 6:7), all holiness is

removed from them [the Temple,

etc.], and they become like profane vessels "intruders came and desecrated

it." Titus entered the Holy of Holies with a prostitute and was not harmed

(Gittin 56b) because its holiness had

been removed. More than that – the Tablets – the writing of God – are not

holy in themselves, but only for your sake when you observe that which is

written in them… no created thing is holy in itself, but only in that Israel

observes the Torah… None of the holy places are founded in religion… [As

for] Mount Sinai, the place of religion, as soon as the Divine Presence left it

– the sheep and cattle climbed up it (Shemot

19:13)!

 (Meshekh

Hokhmah Shemot 32:19;12: 21)

 

Our Rabbi Moses exemplified this when he

broke the tablets as soon as he saw the people transgress the commandment make

no idol or image for yourself. We must understand that the expression idol

or any image applies not only to the golden calf made by Israel, but to

every natural existent: Nation, land, homeland, flag, army, idea, a

personality, and so forth, whenever they are treated as being holy.

(Y.

Leibowitz: Sheva Shanim shel Sihot al Parashiyot HaShavu'a, pg. 401)

 

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