Shabbos Parashas Balak - 5776

Shabbos Parashas Balak - 5776

Rabbi Hal Miller

How will I curse what G-d has not cursed? How will I cause anger against those at whom

G-d is not angry? [Bamidbar 23:8]

We like to think poorly of Bilaam. He beat his donkey without reason. He tried to curse

the Jews in return for money. He disobeyed G-d and attempted to curse the people. Yet, in

the end, he blesses the people, he blesses G-d, and he makes numerous statements that

sound on the surface like they could have come from Moshe himself. For instance, when

Balak demands yet again that he curse the people, Bilaam answers with our verse, which

sounds like he is acknowledging G-d as the Supreme Power. Is this a problem? Is Bilaam

the good guy here? What exactly is Bilaam saying here?

According to Rashi, this is merely Bilaam acknowledging to Balak that he, Bilaam

does not have the power to defeat G-d in a match of powers. In itself, that is not a

problem. I would concede the same thing.

Rashi then asks, why does Bilaam think that he cannot curse the Jews? It is that he

knows that all the times in the past when G-d had reason to curse the people, He chose

not to. Bilaam is saying, "how can I curse when G-d has already shown that He does

not want this nation to be cursed?" Further, the second half of our verse gives us an

additional clue. Bilaam tells Balak that his, Bilaam's, entire power consists of being able

to tell when G-d is angry, and that at this point, G-d is not angry at the Jews. This shows

that perhaps Bilaam was not on quite so high a level as he might have been, as he is

saying, I would curse them for you, but now is not an opportune moment.

But Balak is asking Bilaam to raise G-d's anger, not to rely on existing anger. Rashi

explains Bilaam's response: "Bilaam does not say that he cannot cause anger because

G-d is not presently angry. That would be illogical; if G-d were already angry, there

would be no need for His anger to be aroused. Rather, Bilaam said that he could not

cause anger because G-d already had shown that this was a time that He could not be

angered."

How did Bilaam know that this was a time that G-d would not be angry with the Jews?

We see in the next verse, "For from the top of rocks I see it and from hills I look at it,

behold it is a nation that dwells in solitude and is not reckoned among the nations."

Rav Hirsch explains that this means Bilaam could tell that G-d saw in Israel's future that

they would achieve their purpose in Creation. Bilaam saw the details with which the Jews

painstakingly tried to be the people that G-d wanted them to be. In 24:1, "Bilaam saw that

it was good in the eyes of G-d to bless Israel." Then in 24:5, "How goodly are your tents,

O Jacob", Bilaam sees, according to the Midrash, that the Jewish tent city is laid out

such that tent openings were not directly across from each other, in order that nobody

could look out and see into the tent of their neighbor, as a matter of privacy. Bilaam

knew that this type of lifestyle was what G-d wanted, and He would not be angry with a

people who lived this way.

Although Bilaam still wanted to defeat the Jews, and to trick G-d into allowing it, he

gave us a lesson that we can use today on how we as a people can survive. If we live

with that much concern for our neighbor, G-d will protect us from the Bilaams of the

world.