Parasha: Balak · Aliyah: Second (Gevurah)

ויקם בלעם בבקר, Bileam arose in the morning, etc. Bileam may have waited with relaying what G'd had said to his guests as the news would not please them. There was therefore no point in waking them in the middle of the night. Alternatively, the Torah means to tell us that Bileam himself did not awaken from his deep sleep until morning. When the Torah wrote that he rose in the morning, the implication is that he could not rise sooner. It is also possible that the Torah meant to criticise Bileam who immediately sent back these emissaries in order to ensure that other, higher ranking ones, would take their place to enable him to go with them. The Torah may also have wanted to give us an example of Bileam's tight-fistedness in that he dismissed Balak's emissaries before offering them breakfast. This is in stark contrast to the story of the פלנש בגבעה in Judges chapter 19, where the prophet describes the art of treating guests and making them feel welcome. Bileam may be described as the root of all avarice. He told the emissaries to be on their way as he was afraid that if they were to have a meal at the local inn he would be required to foot the bill.

לכו..כי מאן ה׳ לתתי להלך עמכם, "go..for G'd has refused to permit me to go with you." Bileam did not tell his emissaries all that G'd had told him. He neither mentioned the fact that G'd had forbidden him to curse the people, nor that the people were blessed. All that he told them was that G'd had not allowed him to go with them, implying that their rank was inferior. This is the reason that Balak immediately sent higher ranking emissaries. It is possible that Bileam interpreted the words "for it is blessed," to mean that as long as the Jewish people enjoyed G'd's blessing he must not curse them, but that there could be a time when the people would not enjoy that blessing as a result of which they would become subject to his curse. This may have been the reason Bileam did not give Balak's emissaries a final answer at this time. He hoped that by the time higher ranking emissaries would come, the people might be subject to his curse.

מאן בלעם הלך עמנו, "Bileam refused to come with us." They suspected him of being a liar, accusing him of desiring more honour than what Balak had shown him thus far. It is also possible that seeing that Bileam had promised to inform the emissaries immediately of G'd's answer but had not done so until morning, this made them assume that he told them what he wanted them to know and not what G'd had told him. Perhaps there was even a traditon that Bileam was a compulsive liar.

ויוסף עוד בלק שלח שרים, Balak sent additional princes, etc. This means that he sent both the original emissaries as well as additonal higher ranking ones. We deduce this from the word מאלה, "than these." Unless the original emissaries were present with the additional ones the word מאלה makes no sense. The Torah should then have written the word מהם, "than those." The reason that Balak sent the original emissaries along was so as to prevent Bileam from denying what these emissaries had reported in his name.

The word ויוסף may also indicate that Balak sent a larger number of emissaries than the first time. We could not have deduced this if the Torah had only written: וישלח עוד שרים רבים. I would then have understood the word רבים to mean that he did not send fewer delegates than the first time.

אל נא תמנע, "please do not be prevented, etc." Inasmuch as the first set of delegates had come to the conclusion that Bileam had declined their invitation for reasons of his own, they expressed the hope that his desire for the appropriate honour had now been satisfied. There was therefore no further obstacle that could prevent him from acceding to their request. Bileam, who was not aware that the first set of emissaries had suspected him of merely inventing G'd's prohibition interpreted the words of the new delegates to mean that he should ignore what G'd had told him and should come against G'd's will. This is why he made a point of saying that his previous refusal had nothing to do with the size of his fee or his personal honour, but that he was unable to contravene G'd's instructions. He explained that he was not free to exercise his free will in this matter.

ועתה שבו נא בזה גם אתם, "And now, you stay here also, etc." Bileam pleaded as he was afraid that these dignitaries would do what the Midianite delegates had done when they heard that Bileam was waiting to get G'd's instructions. The Midianite delegates at the time had gone home immediately without staying overnight as they anticipated Bileam's refusal (compare Bamidbar Rabbah 20,8). Now that the delegation was large and consisted of highly placed people, Bileam was afraid that they would not be willing to wait.

אם לקרא לך באו האנשים, "if the men simply came to call you, etc." Why did G'd describe the purpose of this delegation as in doubt, i.e. "if?" After all, G'd knew full well what was in the minds of these delegates? A more difficult question is why G'd consented that Bileam go on an errand the purpose of which was for him to curse Israel? Why, in the process, did G'd appear to reverse Himself seeing He had told Bileam previously not to go with Balak's delegates nor to curse that people? How had conditions changed since the arrival of the first set of emissaries so that G'd's decision now would not be viewed as a reversal of His previous decision?

It appears from what the Torah reports that G'd could have dealt with this request in one of two ways. Each one of these ways contained the appearance of His being unfair in some way. If G'd were to agree to Bileam going on such a mission, the nations of the world would conclude that Bileam was totally free to make his own decisions in the matter, and they would not appreciate that just as the master controls the line by which his dog is tied so G'd pulled the strings limiting Bileam's freedom of action. It was important to G'd to demonstrate to the world at large that Bileam was unable to cause harm to anyone whom G'd did not want to be harmed. On the other hand, if G'd refused to let Bileam go altogether Bileam would conclude that G'd Himself was afraid of what Bileam would be able to do once he got to Moav, i.e. that G'd was afraid of Bileam! As a result of these two considerations G'd was very clever in resolving both possible misunderstandings. He first told Bileam לא תלך, "you must not go." In this way He had shown the world that the wicked dog Bileam was not at liberty to cause havoc wherever and whenever he wanted to. He also paid Bileam the reward due to him for having explained to Balak's emissaries that he was not at liberty to disobey G'd. The reward that G'd gave Bileam was related to G'd's foreknowledge that in the end Bileam would go to Moav with the next set of delegates. This was something that would not be to his advantage, as we know from Balak's own remarks in 24,11 that G'd had prevented Bileam from receiving the honour Balak had intended to bestow upon him. However, his very trip would lead to his being killed by the sword as we know from 31,8. Bileam was caught in Midian at the time, as he had gone there to collect his reward for the 24.000 Israelites whom G'd had killed because they had allowed themselves to be enticed by Moabite women at the suggestion of Bileam. Originally, G'd had not stopped Bileam from going because He does hold back people who are bent on their own destruction by telling them not to go. This was an additional form of reward to the one we mentioned earlier that Balak was to send higher ranking delegates.

When Balak now sent a second delegation, G'd had to address His second fear, namely that if He forbade Bileam to go this would be interpreted as His inability to stop Bileam from wreaking havoc once he was near the Jewish people. Bileam would arrive at the conclusion that once he arrived in Moav G'd would not be able to stop him from doing what he wanted. This is why G'd said to Bileam קום לך אתם, "arise and accompany them;" G'd implied that "if" Bileam really thought that going with these delegates would be to his advantage, He, G'd did not want to stop him. The conditional "if" was a warning to Bileam that He, G'd, did not think that this journey would be to Bileam's advantage. G'd may even have hinted that Bileam should consult his charms to find out for himself if his trip augured well for him. Even this warning was part of G'd's reward to Bileam for having pointed out that he was bound by G'd's decisions. It would work to his advantage if Bileam's mind had not been made up to commit evil. However, under the circumstances, Bileam did plan to to commit evil, and he was bent on ignoring G'd's warnings. This may have been the reason G'd became angry when he went with the delegates. The fact that Bileam went with the delegates proves that he expected to profit from his trip; this was only possible if he did indeed curse the Jewish people, something G'd had forbidden him to do. We will still provide another reason which caused G'd to become angry at Bileam at this stage.