[Par-lite] For Parshat Balak
Menachem Leibtag
tsc at bezeqint.net
Thu Jul 3 03:54:48 EDT 2014
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THE TANACH STUDY CENTER
[http://www.tanach.org]
In Memory of Rabbi Abraham Leibtag
Shiurim in Chumash & Navi by Menachem
Leibtag
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PARSHAT BALAK
Is Bil'am really such a 'bad guy'? This
may surprise
you, but if you read this week's Parsha
carefully, you'll have
trouble pinpointing any specific
transgression that he
commits.
Indeed, God's anger with his decision to
travel with
Balak's messengers (see 22:12,22) suggests
that his true
intentions may have been to curse Am Yisrael.
However, this
fact may prove exactly the opposite - that
Bil'am is a man of
high stature! After all, over and over
again, Bil'am
overcomes his personal desire to curse
Yisrael and blesses
them instead - "exactly as God commands him"
(see 23:12,26 &
24:13). In fact, his final blessing of Am
Yisrael appears to
have been of his own initiative (see 24:1-6).
Why, then, do Chazal cite Bil'am as the
archetype 'rasha'
(a wicked person / see Pirkei Avot 5:22)?
Simply for once
having 'bad intentions'?
In this week's shiur we attempt to
answer this question.
INTRODUCTION
As we mentioned above, in Parshat Balak
it is hard to
pinpoint any specific sin that Bil'am
commits. In fact, by
the time the Parsha is over, one is left with
the impression
that Bil'am may even be a rather righteous,
God fearing
individual. Let's cite some examples:
Before he departs upon his journey,
Bil'am makes sure to
make it absolutely clear to Balak's
messengers that he will
not stray one iota from whatever God will
tell him (see
22:18).
Later on, upon his arrival at 'sdeh
Mo'av', Bil'am
actually blesses Am Yisrael instead of
cursing them, precisely
as God commands him (see 23:1-24:9). In
fact, Bil'am's
blessings are so 'pro-Israel' that by the
conclusion of the
story, Balak becomes so angry that he
basically tells Bil'am
to 'get lost':
"Balak's anger was kindled with Bil'am and,
striking his
hands together, Balak tells Bil'am: I asked
you to curse my
enemy and instead you have blessed them
three times! Now,
run away to your own place..." (24:10-11).
Then, as though he had not disappointed
Balak enough,
Bil'am's 'farewell address' to Balak includes
a harsh
predication of how Yisrael will one day
defeat Mo'av and Edom
in battle (see 24:15-19).
Finally, it's all over when "Bil'am gets
up and goes to
his homeland, and Balak also went on his way"
(24:25).
Clearly, as Parshat Balak reaches its
conclusion, we are left
with the impression that Bil'am & Balak split
on 'no-speaking'
terms. Bil'am, the 'loyal prophet of God',
returned home -
leaving Balak 'empty handed'.
Surely, had this been the only story in
Chumash about
Bil'am, it would be quite difficult to judge
him as a "rasha".
In the following shiur, we will show how the
primary source
for Chazal's negative view of Bil'am may be
rooted in a
different story, one that is recorded later
on in Parshat
Matot - where the Torah tells us about
Bil'am's 'untimely
death'.
We begin our shiur by showing how the
story in Parshat
Matot forms the continuation of the story in
Parshat Balak.
BIL'AM & THE WAR WITH MIDYAN
Recall that immediately after the story
of Bil'am in
chapters 22-24, we find the story of Bnei
Yisrael's sin with
'bnot Mo'av' (the daughters of Mo'av and
Midyan) in chapter
25. Although the Torah does not specify who
instigated this
sin, the juxtaposition of these two stories
already suggests a
thematic connection (see Rashi & Ramban
25:1).
Due to their sin, Bnei Yisrael are
punished by a terrible
plague, but finally they are saved by the
zealous act of
Pinchas (see 25:1-9). At the conclusion of
that entire
incident, God commands Bnei Yisrael to avenge
the Midyanim
(i.e. to launch a reprisal attack / see
25:16-18).
The details of that ensuing battle are
recorded several
chapters later - in Parshat Matot (see
31:1-12).
[Even though logic would dictate for
Chumash to record this
battle immediately after its command, i.e.
in chapter 26;
for some reason, Chumash interrupts this
narrative with
several other 'parshiot' instead. The
reason for this
'interruption' will be discussed in next
week's shiur on
Parshat Pinchas.]
In its brief detail of the battle
against Midyan (in
Parshat Matot), the Torah informs us, almost
incidentally,
that Bil'am is killed together with the five
kings of Midyan
(see 31:8).
Why was Bil'am executed? Was he an
officer in Midyan's
army, or was he simply 'caught in the
cross-fire'?
The Torah doesn't tell us explicitly why
he was killed,
but it certainly wants us to know that he
indeed deserved the
'death penalty' together with the other
'leaders' of Midyan.
To understand the underlying reason, we
must undertake a
quick analysis of the story that follows when
Moshe Rabbeinu
meets the officers who had returned from this
battle.
Let's pay careful attention to the
section where Moshe
censures the military officers for taking
female captives,
noting how and why he mentions Bil'am in this
censure:
"And Moshe became angry at the military
officers... saying:
Why did you leave the female captives
alive? Were they not
the very ones who seduced Bnei Yisrael -*
bi-dvar Bil'am *-
at the bidding of Bil'am - to go against
God in the matter
of Pe'or, causing a plague...!" (See
31:14-16).
What is Moshe referring to when he
mentions 'dvar
Bil'am'? From the context of these psukim,
it seems quite
clear that dvar Bil'am refers to Bil'am's
advice to use the
daughters of Mo'av and Midyan to lure Bnei
Yisrael towards the
idol worship of 'Ba'al Pe'or'. [This
explanation is also
advanced by the Gemara in Sanhedrin 106a.]
If this assumption is correct, then the
connection
between these two parshiot becomes clear. It
was Bil'am
himself who instigated the entire incident of
'chet bnot
Mo'av'! It was his idea to lure Bnei Yisrael
into sinning.
Bil'am was so involved in this plot that this
entire incident
is associated with his name!
Furthermore, from the very casual
mention of dvar Bil'am
in Moshe's censure to the officers, it
appears that Bil'am's
involvement in this scheme is 'common
knowledge'. In other
words, Moshe takes for granted that the
military officers are
aware of what dvar Bil'am refers to. Hence,
everyone seems to
know that Bil'am was the instigator behind
this devious plot.
Therefore, when Bil'am is executed, it
is not because he
had once intended to curse Bnei Yisrael.
Bil'am is found
guilty for it was he who orchestrated the
entire scheme of
chet bnot Midyan.
So what led to Bil'am's sudden change of
heart? Why,
after blessing Am Yisrael, does he turn
around and orchestrate
their demise? Was dvar Bil'am simply some
last minute advice
to Balak before leaving?
It doesn't seem so. Recall from Parshat
Balak that when
Bil'am was sent away, he and Balak were not
exactly on
speaking terms. Furthermore, what was Bil'am
doing in Midyan
at all? Had he not gone 'home'?
Before we can answer these questions, we
must first
determine where Bil'am is from. [& it's time
for a short
lesion in 'Biblical geography'.]
BIL'AM'S 'HOME-TOWN'
To better understand Bil'am's true
character, we must
first establish that he lived in Mesopotamia,
a very far
distance away from Mo'av and Midyan! How do
we know this? In
the opening psukim of the Parsha we are told
that:
"Balak sent messengers to Bil'am ben Be'or,
to city of
Petor, which is by the river... to call
him." (22:5).
In Chumash, the phrase: the river
('ha-nahar') usually
refers to the Euphrates (i.e. 'nehar prat'),
the main river
flowing through Mesopotamia.
This assumption is confirmed in Sefer
Devarim, in a short
reference to Mo'av and the story of Bil'am:
"... and because they hired Bil'am ben
Be'or from Ptor Aram
Naharayim" [Aram - (located between) the
two great rivers
(the Euphrates and Tigris)] (see 23:5).
Furthermore, Bil'am's opening blessing
states
specifically that he came from Aram, from the
East (modern day
Syria/Iraq):
"from Aram, Balak has brought me... from
mountains in the
east [harerei kedem]" (23:7).
Now we must show how that fact that
Bil'am resided in
Mesopotamia affects how we understand a few
'missing links' in
the story.
THE RETURN OF BIL'AM
Recall from the conclusion of Parshat
Balak that Bil'am
had returned home (see 24:25), i.e. to
Mesopotamia, after
blessing Bnei Yisrael (instead of cursing
them).
Nevertheless, only a short time later we find
that Bil'am is
'back in the neighborhood' (as we discussed
above) - when Bnei
Yisrael sin with bnot Midyan. [See 31:8.]
Thus, we must
conclude that after Bil'am had returned home,
he came back to
Mo'av - i.e. for a second time!
So what motivated Bil'am's lengthy trek
back to Mo'av?
Why was he so interested in giving Mo'av and
Midyan advice
that he knew would cause Bnei Yisrael to sin?
The answer is startling, but simple:
Bil'am the 'prophet' went home - but
Bil'am the
'consultant' returns! Let's explain:
The very fact that Bil'am later returns
to Mo'av proves
that his true intention all along was to
curse Bnei Yisrael.
Yet as a 'prophet, [professionally
speaking,], he could not do
so for 'how could he curse he whom God
Himself does not curse'
(see 23:8).
However, even though he may be faithful
to God as a
professional 'prophet', he is far less
faithful as a person.
It seems as though Bil'am's desire to
cause Bnei Yisrael
harm was so great that he searches for a
different avenue to
bring upon their demise. Instead of using
his 'prophetic
abilities', this time Bil'am uses his
'prophetic knowledge' to
create a situation where God Himself will
curse Am Yisrael.
As reflected in his blessing of Bnei
Yisrael, Bil'am 'the
prophet' recognizes the special relationship
between God and
His Nation. He fully understands why God
does not allow him
to curse them, for it is His will that Bnei
Yisrael fulfill
their Divine purpose to become God's special
nation.
On the other hand, Bil'am finds a
loophole. Being a
prophet, he also realizes that should Bnei
Yisrael themselves
fail in their obedience to God, He Himself
would punish them.
In other words - this special nation could
not be cursed
without reason. However, should they sin,
God would have
ample reason to punish them. Bil'am's
conclusion is shrewd:
to cause Bnei Yisrael to be cursed - by
causing them to sin.
Bil'am finally found a method to curse
Bnei Yisrael. He
advises Mo'av and Midyan to cause Bnei
Yisrael to sin.
This may be the underlying reason why
Chazal consider
Bil'am the archetype "rasha" - for he
utilizes his prophetic
understanding, the special trait which God
gave him, to
further his own desires rather than to follow
God's will. In a
general sense, taking special divine given
qualities - and
using them in an improper manner, can be
considered the 'way
of life' of the 'wicked'.
BETWEEN AVRAHAM AND BIL'AM
In the Mishna in Pirkei Avot (5:22), not
only is Bil'am
called the rasha, he is also contrasted with
Avraham Avinu:
"Whoever has the following three traits is
among the
'talmidim' (disciples) of Avraham Avinu;
and whoever has
three other traits is among the 'talmidim'
of Bil'am ha-
rasha:
BIL'AM AVRAHAM
evil eye good eye
arrogant spirit humble spirit
greedy soul meek soul ...
Both Avraham and Bil'am are men of
renowned spiritual
stature. However, Bil'am exploits this
quality for his own
personal pride and gain, while Avraham Avinu
utilizes this
quality towards the perfection of mankind. A
rasha, according
to Chaza,l is one who harnesses his God-given
traits and
abilities towards an unworthy purpose. A
disciple of Avraham
Avinu is one who harnesses these qualities
for a Divine
purpose.
In Chumash, we find several textual
parallels between
Bil'am and Avraham Avinu that support this
comparison. We
will note two examples:
(A) BRACHA & KLALA
Avraham:
"and I will bless those whom you bless,
and those who
curse you shall be cursed, and through
you all nations on
earth shall be blessed" (Br.12:3).
Bil'am:
"for it is known, that he whom you bless
shall be blessed,
and he whom you curse shall be cursed"
(22:5).
(B) ARAM NAHARAYIM
The homeland of both Avraham and Bil'am
is in Aram
Naharayim, the center of ancient
civilization:
Avraham: see Breishit 24:4 & 24:10, and
Br.11:27-31.
Bil'am: see Bamidbar 23:7 & Devarim
23:5.
These parallels point to this thematic
contrast between
Bil'am and Avraham Avinu. As Bnei Yisrael,
the chosen
offspring of Avraham Avinu, are about to
enter the Land that
God had promised him - to become a 'blessing
for all nations'
(Br. 12:3), they meet a final challenge.
Just as God's
prophecy concerning Avraham is about to
become a reality,
Bil'am - the prophet with the ability to
bless and curse -
together with Mo'av (the descendants of Lot)
and Midyan (the
descendants of Yishmael) make a last minute
attempt to thwart
the fruition of this destiny.
PROFESSIONAL BIAS
Once could suggest that this
confrontation may be
reflective of a more fundamental conflict.
Unlike the people
of Mo'av, whose fear was motivated by a
practical threat upon
their national security (22:3-4), Bil'am's
fear of Am Yisrael
may have been more ideological.
The very existence of Am Yisrael posed a
threat to Bil'am
himself! Bil'am, as echoed in his three
blessings, perceived
the Divine purpose of Am Yisrael: a Nation
destined to bring
the message of God to mankind. This novel
concept of a Nation
of God threatened to upset the spiritual
'status quo' of
ancient civilization. Up until this time, if
there was a
Divine message for mankind - it would be
delivered by inspired
'individuals' - e.g. men such as Bil'am
himself.
However, once Bnei Yisrael would become
a nation in their
land, this same purpose could be fulfilled by
a nation -
instead of by an individual. From a certain
perspective, this
itself could be considered a 'professional
threat' to Bil'am
and to the society that he represents.
On a certain level, this confrontation
between Bil'am and
Am Yisrael continues till this very day. Is
it possible for a
nation, a political entity, to deliver a
Divine message to all
mankind? While Bil'am and his 'disciples'
continue to
endeavor to undermine this goal, it remains
Am Yisrael
responsibility to constantly strive to
achieve it.
shabbat shalom
menachem
=============================
FOR FURTHER IYUN
A. Note the commentary of the Abarbanel
where he explains
that Bil'am is a descendant of Lavan.
1. Does this support the basic points made
in the shiur.
2. What parallels exist between Bil'am and
Lavan?
3. Did Lavan ever receive 'nevu'a'? Did
Hashem ever speak to
him? If so, what was the content? Is it
parallel to Bil'am?
4. Could the struggle between Lavan and
Yaakov also be
considered of a spiritual nature?
B. Bil'am was almost successful. Bnei
Yisrael's sin with
bnot Mo'av and Midyan led to some 24 thousand
casualties. The
plague was stopped due to the zealous act of
Pinchas (25:6-9).
His act returned Bnei Yisrael to their
covenantal partner. In
reward, Pinchas receives the covenant of the
'kehuna' (25:10-
13).
1. In what way does his reward reflect his
deed?
2. What are the responsibilities of the
'kohanim' in addition
to working in the mikdash?
3. How does this relate to the ultimate
fulfillment of our
national destiny?
C. An additional textual parallel exists
between Avraham and
Bil'am: Travelling in the morning with two
servants etc.:
Avraham - Va-yashkem Avraham ba-boker,
va-yachavosh et chamoro
Va-yikach et shnei na'arav ito .. (Br.
22:3)
Bil'am - "Va-yakom Bil'am ba-boker,
va-yachavosh et atono...
u-shnei na'arav imo" (Bamid.
22:22-23)
Could this parallel be the source of the
Midrash Chazal
describing the 'satan' who challenges Avraham
Avinu on his
journey with Yitzchak to the Akeida? If so,
explain why.
D. As you read the opening chapter of Parshat
Balak, note the
the numerous textual parallels between this
story, and the
opening story of the Exodus as described in
the first chapter
of Sefer Shmot. Can you suggest a thematic
parallel that this
textual parallel may be alluding to?
E. Who wrote 'Sefer Bil'am'?
Parshat Balak seems to be an integral
part of Chumash;
however, the Gemara in Bava Batra 14b makes a
very strange
statement: "Moshe katav sifro (chumash -his
book), parshat
Bil'am, and sefer Iyov (Job)."
It is understandable that we need to
know that Moshe
wrote Sefer Iyov, but why would there be
any 'hava amina'
that he didn't write Parshat Bil'am ?
Rashi (in Bava Batra) explains that
every other parsha in
Chumash is connected in some way to Moshe -
either 'tzorcho',
'torato' (mitzvot), or 'seder ma'asav'
(narrative).
Rashi explains that everywhere else in
Chumash Moshe is in
some way directly involved. In parshat
Bil'am, no one
including Moshe should have known about the
entire incident
between Bil'am and Balak.
The obvious question then arises, who
wrote the story of
Bil'am that appears in Chumash?
If not Moshe, what other navi was there who
could have?
This question is answered by Rabbeinu
Gershom (al atar)
that the possibility exists that this parsha
was written by
Bil'am himself! Since he was a navi, his
brachot and
conversations are quoted directly!
In order that we do not come to that
conclusion, the
Gemara must tell us that Moshe wrote down
this entire Parsha
directly from Hashem, and did not receive
them via Bil'am.
How does this relate to the machloket
regarding: 'Torah -
megila nitna', or 'sefer chatum nitna'?
F. One could also ask how Bnei Yisrael aware
of Bil'am's
involvement in the sin of bnot Mo'av. Why
was dvar Bil'am
common knowledge among Bnei Yisrael? Who
told them that it
was Bil'am's idea?
The answer could be quite simple. Most
probably, the
daughters of Midyan (who sinned with Bnei
Yisrael) had
informed their 'patrons' as to who had sent
them. [The 'word'
got around.]
G. "Ma Tovu Ohalecha Yaakov"
>From the time that Bnei Yisrael leave Har
Sinai, Sefer
Bamidbar has few positive events to record.
The nation
appears to be going from one sin to the next
(mit'onenim,
mit'avim, meraglim, korach, mei meriva etc.).
With all the
complaining, internal strife etc., it is
difficult to find
anything positive.
It 'davka' takes an outsider, like Bil'am,
looking from a
distance at Am Yisrael, to perceive the
greatness of this
nation despite all of its problems. When
Bil'am recognizes
that an entire nation is following Hashem
through the desert,
he proclaims:
"Ma tovu ohalecha yaakov..."
This is an important insight for today also.
Sometimes we
become over-disillusioned with ourselves, as
we see so much
disagreement, lack of unity, lack of
commitment etc. We
become so involved with the details that we
sometimes are
unable to take a step out and look at the
whole picture, to
see our achievements. With all the problems
in Israel today,
there continue to be great achievements in
all walks of Jewish
life. It is important to periodically take a
step back and
assess the good as well as the bad. It gives
us the
motivation to continue to achieve. "Ma tovu
ohalecha Yaakov" -
a nice attitude to start off the day!
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