IN THE MORNING BALAK TOOK BALAAM UP TO BAMOT-BAAL. FROM THERE HE COULD SEE A PORTION OF THE PEOPLE.

(Bamidbar 22:41)

 

What You See from Here, You Cannot See from There

...and Scripture tells us that he did not see the entire camp, since they were encamped by four flags [posted] at the four directions of the winds. On the second attempt Balak told him you will see only a portion of them, you will not see all of them (Bamidbar 23:13), so as to say, "This time you will not see all of them, if that is what is keeping you from cursing them. Rather, curse them for me from there if you can, because they cannot all be seen from there." Balak thought that there might be a flag on one of the sides whose people were good and righteous and God did not want to destroy them.

(RaMBaN loc cit)

 

And the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed of the ketzeh [portion or margin] of the camp - of the thorns [kotzim] of the camp.

(Bamidbar Rabbah 15:24)

 

And Moses saw ketzeh of the people - Because the margins are the most prone to injury, as it said regarding the complainers and consumed of the ketzeh of the people.

Either from the first portion - ketzinei [the officers] of the people,

Or from the last portion - ha'muktzim [the outcasts of the people].

The outcasts really deserved to be cursed, and the important officers were easily susceptible to the evil eye, due to their high status. Such was they method chosen by Balaam - if he could find no excuse to curse them, he would give them the evil eye.

(Keli Yakar 22:41)

 

 

And the Lord Uncovered Balaam's eyes - a Lesson Taught by the Ass and Balaam

Ruti Lazare

A balance of terror, demonization, cultural and existential danger; all of these constitute the background to the forthcoming encounter between Israel and Moav. The suspicions are based upon frightening rumors, on estrangement and alienation. An unknown wandering tribe has disturbed the arrangements of power which have gained the agreement of the local peoples.

Indeed, such tensions and suspicions are not generated only by an encounter that is expected to be belligerent. Such emotions can also arise from a positive and desired encounter. That may happen because closeness itself can threaten the autonomy of the individual; it can endanger his uniqueness, and breach the boundaries he has set up. It appears that the blessing of a people that shall dwell alone touches upon this particular fear, lest each side might have to erase something in order to allow unification; one may mix with the other unto the blurring of its own essence. This, of course, can also occur in a positive encounter that has been planned by both sides; all the more so in an encounter accompanied by enmity and estrangement.

Several biblical stories relate the drama of a meeting between mutually suspicious parties. In most instances we readers identify with the weaker and more anxious side; we feel that "our" hero is in danger. Our parasha is unusual in that here the enemy is the one who is worried. The narrator stands entirely in the viewpoint of Moav; its people, king, and prophet.

Of course, we know of biblical stories in which Israel looks at itself as if through the eyes of other nations, as in the case of the Song of the Sea, which magnifies praise for God by describing the fear and trembling of the nations. However, these are literary descriptions in which the exaggerated and awesome fear that overtook the peoples of Canaan serves to emphasize the wonder inspired by God's miracle. Elsewhere in Scripture we find references to world public opinion in arguments for lenient punishment of the sinning Israelites: Why should the nations say...? However, the story of Balak and Balaam is a complete literary unit whose characters and main speakers belong to the enemy camp.

The opportunity to see ourselves from someone else's perspective places reality in a new light - a reality so well known to us that we are unaware of its full significance. Balaam is given permission to speak and we get to hear Israel's praises from a singularly unbiased observer. We are doubly pleased because the stranger's testimony secures our own self-image; it greatly strengthens our view of ourselves as being better than others.

Let us, then, describe the opening positions of the dramatis personae:

Balak is a king who until recently was confident of his military strength. Recognition of a new phenomenon has subverted his confidence; he realizes that he is not in need of a strategist or general, but rather of someone who can remove the magic spell, who can prove to him that the threat is not so bad, that he has the strength to overcome it. It is clear to him who the "bad guy" is, and what he does.

In his distress, he turns to a psychological warfare consultant. This form of warfare does not alter reality; it does not fill ammunition depots, intensify training, create new combat units or call up the reserves. The expert in psychological warfare studies the enemy in depth, not just his military capabilities, but his culture and way of life as well.

Balaam is the expert for hire. He essentially stands on the seam-line that divides the two opposing sides. He is a kind of cultural and national double-agent. His job as an envoy allows him to identify with those who send him while preserving his own neutrality and independence. This status allows him to discover the unexpected. He is sent to uncover points of weakness, but instead he finds points of strength.

The Israelite nation, a wandering people in search of respite and a place to call its own, simply wants to get "home" in peace. However, its innocent desire upsets the tranquility of the entire region, whose peoples fear that nothing will remain as it had been. The Israelites see themselves as a weak nation of slaves, lacking consolidation and inexperienced in warfare, but armed with faith in the justice of its course and in its natural and moral right to a place of its own.

We, who identify with our fellow Jews, read the story in its entirety as a victory of the forces of good - with the help of God's miraculous intervention - over the forces of evil. As spectators we cheer repeatedly as curses change to blessings, we laugh at the stupid prophet who cannot even see what his ass sees; we are angered when he strikes the innocent beast, and sigh in relief when the evil plot is thwarted.

However, I believe that the temptation to side with the ‘good-guys" makes us miss the point of the story.

Can we ever side with Balaam? In order to do that, we must remove the title "the wicked" that the Sages gave him, we must revoke the plentitude of sins they attributed to him, and ignore the connection made by Scripture between Balaam's curse and the sin of Ba'al Pe'or. Then we can momentarily enter the enemy's imagined consciousness and find an island of hope in a sea of enmity in the story of the curse that became a blessing.

Clearly, my suggestion imposes an unbearable burden - how can we desert the position of the persecuted, suffering Jew, and exchange it for the terrifying image of a cruel and destructive conqueror?! Indeed, it is not easy to take leave our righteous status as "those who suffer insults but do not inflict them."

The political cartoonist Dosh expressed this difficulty well in a cartoon he drew about a year after the Six Day War, in which adorable Srulik stands before a mirror and discovers a monster looking back at him.

Let us return to Balaam, a prophet equipped with powers of prophecy and malediction. He is sure of the tremendous power of the words that leave his mouth, but still recognizing his limits; he is blessed with spiritual wisdom. It is reasonable to assume that he really did want to curse, both because he had been promised a tempting wage and because he identified with his clients. Like Moav, he stood in amazement and fear before the tribe which threatened to control the Middle East. The delays and dawdling were caused by his uncertainty regarding his powers and regarding the plan itself; they were not born of a lack of identification with his customer. Personal and financial interests jibed well with his political interests.

The professional prophet approached to check-out the proposed victim of his curse, but discovers a new side to it. From his chosen perspective, high in hill-tops, a multi-dimensional picture is revealed to him, including inner and outer characteristics, unimagined cultural and spiritual qualities, as well as internal and military might.

Here we see Balaam undergo a dramatic change of mind. He had meant to exploit every weakness and failure he found as convenient points from which to work his curse, but he could not ignore the new information that had been revealed to him. The story of the scouts - like contemporary affairs involving intelligence and espionage - teaches us that subjective interpretation is no less important than the actual information uncovered. Those who are sent to collect information often skew their conclusions to fit the common wisdom or their own initial positions, causing them to miss important facts that were in plain sight.

The ability to develop unexpected interpretations requires courage, intellectual honesty, and a readiness to make due without stereotypes and stigmas. Balaam stood well in this trial; his readiness to recognize new aspects of the situation and to uncover complexities that he had not formally seen allowed him to change his original world view.

Balaam appears in an arena where both Israelites and Moabites are frozen in their conceptualizations. They are incapable of looking up and observing the situation from a broader viewpoint. Balaam suggests new perspectives to both sides: he proposes to the Moabites that they take note of the special qualities of the wandering tribe of slaves, to see their foreignness not only as a threat but also as a challenge. As for the Israelites, he allows them to appreciate their strengths and uniqueness.

Balaam was not sent to work out a compromise, but his prophecies forced the king to rethink his belligerent orientation; the whole affair results in a truce. Scripture concludes laconically: Balaam arose and went and returned to his place, and Balak also went on his way (Bamidbar 24:25). The crisis had been avoided for the time being because one or both of the sides realized the futility of the conflict.

True, Balak claims that Israel is mighty and powerful, but military power does not have to pose a threat in itself if it is unaccompanied by aggressive intentions. Perhaps the Or Ha'Hayim (on 24:25) is right in saying that Balak was the one interested in worsening the relations with Israel because his rule was based upon displays of power: "Balak did not continue to serve as king, because Moav understood from Balaam's words that the Israelites would do them no harm. Thus, the purpose [of his reign] became void and they dethroned him, so he left to his way."

It seems that as a king with a strictly military agenda, Balak wanted to strengthen the threat, and when the Israelite threat dissipated, the Moabites dethroned him. From here we see that there must be two parties to a crisis, and according to this interpretation, Balak took the lion's share of responsibility for bringing the region to the brink of war. The Or Ha'Hayim's interpretation makes it clear that in the case before us, war was not forced upon anyone of the nations; it was not a decree of fate but rather the rational - and perhaps cynical - choice of a war-mongering king.

The hero of the story is, then, Balaam. Thanks to his allegiance to his inner voice, which was stronger than conventions and interests, the prophet managed to internalize a new world view, to look at the other and the stranger and to see in him beauty and strength.

The wonder of having one's eyes open is not a supernatural event. The words and the Lord uncovered Balaam's eyes and he saw describe the moment of his decision to consider the situation from an additional viewpoint that invited new discoveries and that allowed him to become cognizant of a presence that had previously been hidden. The view itself determines reality, coloring it with new hues and influencing the course of history.

In our parasha, the ass that sees better than the prophet serves as a deprecating symbol for all those whose thinking is frozen, who refuse to see what is happening before their very eyes. The beast and its master challenge us to be flexible and open in relation to foreigners and enemies.

We have seen that the conflict was postponed non-violently. However, the avoidance of bloodshed is not received with fanfare, because the courage of one who disarms opponents is modest; it wins neither medals nor headlines. It does, however, require great strength of character to make an acquaintance of a stranger and turn conflict into compromise.

Ruti Lazare is a lecturer, teacher advisor and curriculum developer.

 

 

Balaam's Ass: Reality, Dream or Prophecy?

And the Lord opened the ass's mouth: It seems that this was also a demand of the moment. It was needed in order to show him that he was like the ass, for whom it was not natural to speak, but whose mouth was opened by the Lord for Israel's sake. Similarly, the Lord temporarily opened Balaam's mouth to prophesize for Israel's sake, and to keep the nations from saying, "If only we had prophets, we would repent."

(Keli Yakar Bamidbar 22:23)

 

And the Lord opened the ass's mouth: According to the plain meaning, the ass's speech was a great miracle and unnatural, and it occurred for Israel's sake, for the Holy One blessed be He performed a wonder and changed the plan of Creation by having an animal speak in order to say that even an animal can recognize and know that this mission [of cursing Israel] was improper. It is like a man who says that the mountains should cover him over and the hills should fall on him, and there is no need to mention the human race, for it is intelligent, for even the mindless animal understands that it is wrong to curse the people, for it is blessed.

And if you understand the passage's hidden meaning, you will find that the ass's speech is like the snake's speech; in neither case does it come from themselves for they have no faculty of speech. It is for this reason that the Lord juxtaposed [the verses] and the Lord opened the ass's mouth and the Lord uncovered Balaam's eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord, for as soon as she spoke and died the angel was revealed to him and spoke with him, for her swerving from the path and pressing his leg and crouching down were three signs. Each of hem occurred because of the angel, and there is no need to even mention the fourth sign, i.e., [the ass's] speech.

(Rabbeinu Behayey Bamidbar 22:28)

 

We have explained that wherever it is mentioned that an angel was seen or had spoken, this has happened only in a vision of prophecy or in a dream whether this is explicitly stated or not... .And there is no difference between a statement in which the prophet literally affirms from the first that he saw the angel and a statement according to whose external sense the prophet at first thought that an individual had appeared to him, whereas at the end it became clear to him that it was an angel. For inasmuch as you find in the course of the event that he who was seen and had spoken was an angel... And likewise the whole story of Balaam on his way and of the she-ass speaking: all this happened in a vision of prophecy, as it is finally made clear that an angel of the Lord spoke to him.

(RaMBaM, Guide of the Perplexed II:42, Pines translation)

 

There Is No Augury in Jacob, 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, Avodah Zara 11:16)

 

 

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