Parasha: Balak · Aliyah: Sixth (Yesod)

לכה נא אקחך, "come on, please, I will take you, etc." The word נא in this context is merely a sort of reluctant acknowledgment of what had already happened. Balak wants to try again from another vantage point. The reason he had not yet given up hope was that he thought that the two locations from which he had shown Bileam the Israelites were opposite the righteous Israelites, the ones who had never provoked G'd's anger. He tried to find a location from where Bileam could see the whole people. He was convinced that amongst such a large number of Israelites there had to be some sinners whose presence would provide Bileam with an opening for applying his curses. Balak says "perhaps G'd will agree, etc." When he added: "and curse them for me," instead of saying "and curse them," he meant that G'd did not have to approve a curse against Israel as long as He did not prevent Bileam from speaking his mind.

וירא בלעם כי טוב, Bileam realised that it was good in the eyes of G'd, etc. In view of the Midrash we quoted on 22,12 that G'd had told Bileam that he should neither curse the Israelites nor bless them seeing they were blessed already and had no need for his blessing, how could Bileam assume that it pleased G'd if he continued blessing this people? We must therefore understand Bileam differently. Up until now he had been forced to bless this people although initially G'd had told him not to bless them seeing they were blessed already. In view of his experience so far Bileam had found out that G'd had turned his intended curses into blessings. Seeing this was possible, Bileam now reasoned that G'd could also do the reverse, i.e. turn his voluntary blessings into curses. On the other hand, if we add what we explained on 23,5 that it had not really been Bileam who had pronounced the blessings but an angel using his mouth as the vehicle, Bileam now concluded that there was really no point in consulting all kinds of charms, etc. but that he might as well bow to the inevitable. ולא הלן כפעם, and he did not go as on previous occasions, etc. He concluded a) that there was no point in it, b) that the charms had proved ineffective anyway. He therefore decided to change his strategy and turned his face towards the desert, i.e. to examine how the Israelites had angered their G'd while they had travelled through the desert. He hoped to find something which would enable G'd to let him curse these people.

We may also understand the word המדבר as related to דבור, speech; in Numbers 27,3 אבינו מת במדבר the Zohar volume 3 page 205 understands the word in that sense. If we follow this path Bileam referred to the fact that on each of the ten occasions on which the Israelites had angered G'd in the desert their sin consisted of what they said, i.e. דבור. Bileam was confident that amongst all the Israelites he was looking at there must have been a number who had been guilty of one or several of the rebellious comments which had angered G'd so often.

We can also take our cue from another comment of the Zohar volume 2 page 157 in which the מדבר, desert, is described as the "home" of Satan, i.e. the angel of death and the forces at his command. Bileam looked towards this region in order to awaken the forces of Satan, etc. Satan's armies are all hostile to Israel. Bileam was careful to say פניו, "his face," using a word describing his anger. One of the means to draw G'd near is שמחה ולב טוב, joy and being of good cheer. On the other hand, one attracts the forces of Satan when one is in a vile mood, angry, etc. Bileam displayed his bad mood, פניו, in the direction of Satan to secure his help. An example of the use of פני "My (angry) face," is found in Exodus 33,14 where G'd describes His presence as dangerous to the Jewish people when He is in the frame of mind described as פני.

There is still another way of explaining our verse. Bileam realised that only someone who is good himself is worthy to bless G'd's people, (compare Proverbs 22,9: "the generous man is blessed"); our sages in Sotah 38 suggest that in order to correctly understand this verse in Proverbs the word Yevorach "blessed," should be punctuated as if it had been written yevarech i.e. "he will bless." Inasmuch as Bileam was known for his avarice, he was obviously not suited to be the instrument G'd would choose to bless His people. Bileam now understood that he personally was unfit to bless the people and that the blessings which had come out of his mouth had been spoken by the angel. This is why he concluded that there was no point in heaping more sin upon himself by consulting his charms. Instead, he faced the desert, a place described in Exodus 18,5 as the place where G'd's Presence rests. Bileam made a spiritual turnabout, became a penitent, -but only in order to become worthy to bless the lsraelites.-The Torah informs us that he did not do so out of free volition, but לפנים, he did so in order to deceive G'd into believing he had done תשובה. Perhaps he did so only in order to fool the angel who had put the bar in his mouth. If he could get the angel to remove the bar, he would pronounce blessings of his own accord which were designed to cause harm to the people receiving same. According to Sanhedrin 105 he actually did so when he said כנחלים נטיו, "as valleys stretched out, etc." (24,6). The Talmud points out that this meant that the Israelites should not have orchards and vineyards. Fortunately, the Holy Spirit invalidated Bileam's evil intention, turning these so-called blessings into the real thing.

וישא בלעם את עיניו, Bileam raised his eyes, etc." The Torah had to write Bileam's name once more as well as the word וישא, "he raised." Seeing that we have explained earlier that the Israelites were surrounded and enveloped by G'd's protective cloud so that no evil eye could harm them, the Torah had to tell us that Bileam "raised" his eyes, i.e. that he invoked the prophetic powers with which he had been equipped, in order to see what ordinary people could not see (compare verse 4: "who sees the vision of G'd…with open eyes"). The Torah describes things Bileam saw with his mental eye. His name was mentioned here once more in order to make clear that what Bileam did here he did in his capacity as a prophet designated by G'd to the Gentile nations. He succeeded in seeing the Israelites as a result of invoking these powers G'd had equipped him with.

וירא את ישראל שכן לשבטיו, "He observed the Israelites encamped according to their tribes. He was overcome by the Holy Spirit." Bileam discovered two things of importance. 1) The Israelites were disciplined, each tribe occupying the area assigned to it, their leader at their head. The reason for this separation of the tribes was that each tribe represented a spiritual level all its own. 2) The Holy Spirit rested on the people. It is also possible that Bileam realised the truth of the statement in Baba Batra 60 that the reason the people qualified to have the Holy Spirit rest on them and to have become the מרכבה, G'd's chariot, as it were, was that each tribe had arranged to be a closed unit.

וישא משלו, "He began his parable, etc." Why were these two words necessary? We also need to know why he had to say: "says Bileam, etc." Who did not know that Bileam was speaking? Furthermore, why did Bileam have to tel us once more who his father was? Besides, why did he have to give details about identifying marks on his body? What did he mean when he said: "who hears the words of G'd?" If he meant to boast that he was privy to communications from G'd, why had he waited so long to do this?

We must remember that up until this moment Bileam had uttered only words which the angel had put in his mouth; all the words he had spoken were the complete opposite of what he wished to say. Now he was anxious that G'd should agree with what he would utter, i.e. that the words he would say would be considered as if he had spoken them willingly. He was quite prepared that G'd would turn any curse he would try into a blessing. However, he wanted to make sure that if he were to pronounce a blessing G'd would not invoke His power to bless but would accept Bileam's words of blessing as they were. This was especially so if you accept our second interpretation on the words "he turned his face to the desert," where we explained that he pretended to have become a בעל תשובה, a penitent, and to thereby become fit to bless the Jewish people. The verse then may be understood as follows: וישא משלו, Bileam referred to a parable which originated with him personally, not with the angel. Once we accept this approach we can easily understand the quote from Sanhedrin 105 that his blessings were couched in such a language that they were actually curses as in כנחלים נטיו. These נחלים, rivulets which flow through the valley, are brooks which dry up in the summer so that they do not irrigate orchards adjoining them. The Holy Spirit corrected Bileam, adding the word נטיו, i.e. that not as Bileam meant that they would run dry, but they would continue to flow in every season. The Torah continued כאהלים נטע השם, "as aloes planted by the Lord;" actually, Bileam had not wanted to say the additional words "which G'd has planted;" he had only wanted to single out a category of plant which has a short life; G'd altered the meaning by adding the words: "planted by the Lord," i.e. enduring. In this fashion G'd added whatever was necessary to Bileam's "blessings" in order to make real blessings out of them, not hidden curses. If Bileam's words had been spoken by the angel just as previously, why would the angel phrase them so that they could be perceived as curses in disguise? It is dear therefore, that what we have here are words which Bileam spoke of his own accord although G'd added something in each case in order to blunt his evil intention.

This then is why the Torah wrote three distinct statements to make it unmistakably clear that here we speak about Bileam initiating these blessings. 1) נאם בלעם (3 ,ויאמר (2 ,וישא משלו. It should be recorded forever who it was who thought up these words and uttered them. The reason that Bileam (or the Torah) recorded three separate words identifying the speaker may be analogous to what we learned in the Mishnah Peah 7,1. We are taught there that in order to be certain that a farmer is guilty of violating the law against harvesting fruit from trees he had previously forgotten (שכחה), none of the following three conditions must obtain: 1) The olive tree in question must not be known by a particular name. 2) its produce must not be of a particularly well known quality. 3) The tree in question must not be known because of its specific location. The Mishnah rules that if any of these three conditions applies to the tree in question, it is not conceivable that the owner "forgot" to harvest it when he harvested the rest of the orchard, and therefore he is allowed to pluck the olives from this tree even when this appears to be an afterthought. In our verse, the words "the son of Be-Or" identify the speaker just as the Mishnah identifies the tree. The reason the Torah did not write the usual בן, "son of," but בנו, "his son," is to remind us that Bileam's father was inferior to Bileam the son in achievements. It is also possible that all the Torah wanted to tell us was that Be-Or had only one son, Bileam. If you were to say that he did have additional sons, then the Torah meant that the only son of his who counted was Bileam. As to the specific quality of the fruit of the tree in question mentioned in our Mishnah in Peah the Torah writes הגבר שתום העין, the man whose piercing look would cause harm to anyone he set his eyes on. This is why he had to make it a habit to close his eye i.e. סותם עינו, to avoid killing people indiscriminately. Alternatively, his left eye was distinguished in some way. According to the commentators who understand the expression שתום העין to mean that his eye was opened, it means that when he used to open this eye he would inflict harm on the objects he looked at. Concerning the third identifying mark mentioned in the Mishnah in Peah, the specific location of the tree in question, the Torah wrote שומע אמרי א־ל, "the one who hears the words of G'd," i.e. that he stood in a place where the power of prophecy descended upon him.

We now have to explain why Bileam said three times of himself that he was speaking, i.e. נאם. This may have to do with three distinct hidden powers Bileam possessed. 1) He was endowed with special powers at birth, something he inherited in his genes. 2) He acquired special powers due to certain deeds of his, just like any person who acquires psychic or spiritual powers due to a certain lifestyle. 3) G'd endowed him with certain powers in order to defuse the claim of the Gentile nations that if only they would have had a prophet such as Moses, they too would have distinguished themselves spiritually just as the Jewish people had done (compare Bamidbar Rabbah 20,1). Bileam intended to bring to bear all of his three powers in his speeches. Concerning the powers he had inherited by way of his genes he said נאם בלעם בנו בעור; he made a point of describing himself as the son of Be-Or instead of describing himself as "a son of Be-Or" so as to avoid the impression that his father had possessed these powers in even greater measure than he himself. He was only interested in underlining his own part in these powers. Concerning the psychic spiritual powers he had acquired on his own, he said נאם הגבר, "says the man." The word גבר is also an allusion to גבורה, heroism or bravery. When he added the words שתום העין, he may have referred to something in the Zohar volume 3 page 208 that he made a pilgrimage to Azza and Azael (names of deities, fallen angels) where he acquired spiritually negative powers. There he gained insights into many mystical matters at the same time finding the acquisition of these powers very exhausting, as described there by the Zohar. Finally, concerning the powers G'd endowed him with, Bileam described himself as שומע אמרי א־ל. He repeated the importance of this element among his powers by adding the word ומחזה, calling attention to the fact that he enjoyed visions granted to him by G'd. He referred to two levels of prophetic powers 1) He could hear G'd's words; 2) He could see visions when addressed by G'd. When he added the words נפל וגלוי עינים, "falling down yet with eyes open," he described his reaction when receiving communications from G'd. If the communication was visual, he would fall down at the time. If it was merely aural, he was able to absorb such messages with eyes open, i.e. without having to go into a trance.

מה טובו אהליך יעקב, "How goodly are your tents O Jacob," etc. Bileam addresses both categories of Israelites in this verse. Concerning the average Israelite who studies Torah only occasionally, relatively briefly, Bileam spoke of the "tents of Jacob," i.e. temporary dwellings. Concerning the elite of the Israelites, the ones who make Torah the mainstay of their daily lives, Bileam spoke of the משכנות, the permanent residences. In the homes of the צדיקים Torah finds a permanent home.

Bileam may also have alluded to two different time frames when distinguishing between "tents" and "residences," respectively. In Exodus 26,7 the Torah speaks of the coverings of the Tabernacle making a tent of it. When Bileam spoke of the "tents of Jacob," he referred to this element the Tabernacle represented. In Kings I 8,1 where Solomon dedicates the Holy Temple, he describes G'd as taking up residence in a permanent home, using the word לשכון for residing somewhere permanently. When Bileam spoke of the משכנות ישראל, he referred to the time when the permanent Temple would be built. The reason Bileam spoke of either dwelling in the plural i.e. אהליך and משכנותיך is that both the Tabernacle and the Holy Temple consisted of different levels of holiness in that the Holy of Holies was more sacred than the Sanctuary in front of the dividing curtain.

כנחלים נטיו, "As valleys stretched out, etc." Our sages in Sanhedrin 105 offer many interpretations on this verse. I believe we may do well to explain the verse in the following manner. Bileam speaks of four different groups of righteous people amongst the Jewish nation. One category is similar to the prophet Samuel who used to tour the whole land of Israel year after year in order to spread Torah knowledge (Shabbat 56). The second group of righteous men are the ones who made their headquarters on the Temple Mount near the Sanctuary teaching and judging. Actually, this group is not basically different from people such as the prophet Samuel except that people wishing to hear the word of G'd had to come there instead of the word of G'd coming to them. The group of people who emulate the prophet Samuel are superior to this group as they bring the word of G'd to all parts of the country. The third category of righteous people is the group who study Torah for its own sake, i.e. without ulterior motives. The group mentioned previously is superior in that it not only studies but also teaches. The fourth category of the righteous are the ones who provide the financial backing for those who study by going out to earn the money necessary to support both themselves and the people studying Torah.

Bileam had something to say with regard to each of these four groups of righteous Jews. He compared the members of the category who model themselves after the prophet Samuel by describing them as "brooks which stretch out," to describe the way they reach out spreading their Torah knowledge. He complimented these people for being like drawers of water enabling others to drink. He described the second category of the righteous, the ones who study and dispense knowledge and justice on the Temple Mount as "gardens along the river;" a garden has been planted as a fixture and anyone who wishes can come and avail himself of what it has to offer. The fruits of this garden eventually reach all corners of the country when the people who had come there take the fruit with them. This is what the prophet Isaiah had in mind when he said (Isaiah 2,3) that "Torah emanates from Zion and the word of G'd from Jerusalem." The third category of the righteous, the ones who isolate themselves in study for study's sake but who do not interact much with the community they live in, Bileam compared to aloes "planted by G'd;" they are similar to Jacob whom the Torah described as a loner, "a man living in his tent" i.e. devoting his life to study. [The author uses the letters of the word aholim in the text as if they had been vocalised oholim "tents." Ed.] The reason Bileam used the word נטיעה, "planted" in this context is that the older these plants (aloes) become the more roots they develop i.e. their souls become ever more deeply rooted in Torah values. Finally, concerning the fourth category of the righteous the ones who provide the material wherewithal for those who study and/or disseminate Torah, Bileam describes them as towering cedars. This is hyperbole for the men of physical and spiritual stature of this world. Although they possess all these attributes they do not yield fruit as they have not studied Torah themselves.

I have written repeatedly about the fact that the only true "fruit" is the fruit resulting from Torah study. It behooves us to study what the Zohar volume 3 page 202 has written on Deut. 20,19: "do not destroy its trees." The author understands the trees mentioned in that verse as a reference to Torah scholars, whose Torah knowledge is considered as the fruit they yield. Bileam adds the words עלי מים, that these cedars grow near sources of water to explain the reason why they endure. Water is a simile for the Torah which stands by people who study it, just as water is an indispensable part of physical life. People who enable the Torah scholars to keep on studying by providing their physical needs share fully in the rewards of these scholars, as we have documented repeatedly. The entire blessing is meant to describe all of the Israelites as deeply rooted in sanctity, even the section of the population which devotes itself to the pursuit of material goals in order to share the results with the Torah students.

יזל מים מדליו, "Water will flow from his buckets, etc." We have a tradition expressed in Shemot Rabbah 28,6 that every Israelite received his personal share in the Torah [some insight not revealed to someone else at the revelation at Mount Sinai; this was why all the souls who had not yet been assigned bodies were present at that time. Rabbi Moshe Alshich elaborates on this. Ed.] This is the reason Moses called the Torah מורשה in Deut. 33,4 (compare Pessachim 49). The Talmud suggests that the word Morashah could be read as Me-orassah, "betrothed." The "bucket" Bileam speaks about is the common source from which all the Torah insights are derived. Moses is considered as the one who filled this "bucket" with water originally, i.e. that all these insights have been alluded to in the written Torah.

Bileam used the word bucket as hyperbole although a bucket is hardly a highly valued tool, because he envisages a time when the Messiah comes and the 50th level of בינה, "insight" will be revealed to mankind. At that time all the preceding 49 levels of insight which have been attained by various people throughout the preceding years will be considered as having been raised from that "bucket." In retrospect then, this insignificant bucket will be perceived as having been an extremely valuable and prestigious tool. Bileam refers to that period in the future as the time when the descendants of Israel will enjoy many waters, i.e. many insights.

וירום מאגג מלכו, "and its king will be greater than Agag." Bileam here revealed that Israel would become a formal kingdom at the time when king Agag the first king of the Amalekites ruled that nation. Saul lost his kingdom having failed to kill Agag and he was replaced by a more worthy colleague, i.e. David. The reason that Bileam described the commencement of the Jewish monarchy in terms of Agag the king of the Amalekites was only because this first Jewish king wasted his chance to kill Agag before the latter had progeny. Megillah 13 reveals that during the night that Saul kept Agag prisoner he succeeded in impregnating a woman who perpetuated his seed throughout the ages. The correct meter of our verse then is: "the reason that David became a greater king than Saul is the latter's failure to deal with Agag as G'd had commanded." The subject of מלכו is David. Bileam continued ותנשא מלכותו, that the kingdom of the Messiah who is a reincarnation of David will be more exalted even than that of David after Saul (Compare Ezekiel 37,24: "and My servant David will be king over them." Compare also Isaiah 52,13: ירום ונשא וגבה מאד מאד, where you have both these expressions in one and the same verse applied to one and the same person).

Another thought Bileam may have had in mind when he spoke about the kingdom of the Israelites surpassing in grandeur that of Agag maybe a reference to the war against Amalek preceding the arrival of the Messiah. Inasmuch as all Amalekites nowadays are descended from Agag, G'd will have to defeat Agag and wipe out any memory of Amalek before His throne can be firmly established on earth (compare Tanchuma at the end of Parshat Ki Tetze).

א־ל מוציאו ממצרים, "The G'd who has taken them out from Egypt, etc." We approach this on the basis of the tradition that when the Israelites left Egypt they had isolated all the sparks of sanctity which had been trapped inside Egypt by the forces of the קליפה, spiritually negative forces. We have explained already that holiness possesses the power to seek out and identify its branches (which had been lost temporarily). When Bileam speaks about מוציאו…כתועפות ראם לו, the subject is the Jewish people. [The word א־ל then is not to be translated as plain "G'd," but as "the divine power possessed by Israel." Ed.] These Israeliteshad taken out the sparks of sanctity previously trapped inside of Egypt by dint of their own holiness. The words: "he consumes nations which are its enemies" refer to the process which liberates the sparks of sanctity trapped inside the bodies of the pagans. These "sparks" will be absorbed by the collective "Soul" of the community of Israel. This is the mystical dimension of Proverbs 13,25: צדיק אכל לשבע נפשו, "The righteous eats in order to satisfy his soul" [as opposed to his body. Ed.]. ועצמותיהם יגרם, "and he crushes their bones." Bileam means that Israel crushes even the strongest parts of its opponents.

וחציו ימחע, "and smashes their arrows." We may best understand this by referring to Tanchuma Beshalach 15 where Isaiah 24,21 is explained. The author of the Midrash understands the words יפקד ה׳ על צבא המרום במרום that G'd does not annihilate the army of a nation in the terrestrial world until after He has vanquished that nation's "protector" in the celestial spheres. If the nation is only "weakened" and not destroyed in battle on earth, this is a sign that its שר, "protector or representative" at the celestial court has not been vanquished. G'd only humbled such a representative prior to this representative's "client" on earth suffering a defeat. When a nation experiences what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah, this meant that the celestial representatives of these kingdoms had been liquidated by G'd. Bileam refers to these celestial representatives of the various nations as "their arrows", the ones who carry on the fight on behalf of their clients in the celestial spheres. The word ימחץ may be understood as similar to Psalms 110,6: מחץ ראשו על ארץ רבה, "He crushed its head in the land which is "great" i.e. in the celestial spheres." It is a reference to the "protectors" of these various nations being vanquished. If we were to understand the word מחץ as meaning immersion or washing, then Bileam alludes to all these arrows as having been soaked in the blood of the enemies of the Jewish people.

כרע שכב כארי, "He couched, he lay down like a lion, etc." Bileam extols the prowess of the Jewish people as being evident even when the nation is in repose, unarmed, etc. The nation relies on its reputation and does not fear attack even when lying down. The reason Bileam uses two different names for lions in this verse is once again in accordance with the way he divided the Jewish people into Jacob and Israel, i.e. into the average Israelite and the elite, respectively.

מברכיך ברוך וארריך ארור, "the ones who bless you is blessed, those who curse you is cursed." Why are the respective subjects in this verse described in the plural whereas their respective victims or beneficiaries are described in the singular? The reason is simple. Bileam did not want to bless more than a single Jew. He used himself as a model; his well known avarice would not allow him to proliferate blessings. When he appears to have used the same approach in describing the people who curse the Israelites, he limited the negative fallout for people who curse the Israelites to a single one. In other words, although many may attempt to curse Israel only one of them will wind up cursed himself. Bileam used this stratagem so that he himself would not necessarily be included if he succeeded to curse the Israelites. Possibly, he had another evil intent here. When he said "those who bless you is blessed," he meant that the blessing should be fulfilled on the person doing the blessing who would remain blessed as a result of pronouncing it. He mentioned the second alternative, i.e. that those who curse Israel will be cursed only afterwards so as to ensure that he had already secured an enduring blessing for himself by having blessed Israel first. G'd made certain that Bileam's curse, i.e. his evil intent, boomeranged, so that he himself wound up accursed both in this world and in the hereafter (compare Sanhedrin 90 where we are told that Bileam forfeited his share in the hereafter).

ויתר אף בלק..ויספק את כפיו, "Balak became angry… and clapped his hands, etc." He expressed his anger by clapping his hands together.

ברכת ברך, "you have surely blessed." Balak meant that the blessing he heard Bileam pronounce was not the kind that was a curse in disguise. He proved this because Bileam had said that anyone who blesses Israel (in this fashion) was to be blessed himself, etc. Clearly, Balak had not understood the nuances of Bileams's words we have explained as reflecting his evil intent even here.

ועתה ברח לך, "And now, you better flee for yourself, etc." Balak decreed four penalties against Bileam. 1) He was not allowed to remain in Moav but was forced to return home (in disgrace). 2) He should make haste, i.e. ברח, "flee." 3) He should go by himself without attendants, i.e. לך "by yourself." 4) He was not to go from this city of Moav to another city or even to Midian but straight to his home, מקומך, "your place." Balak explained to Bileam that if he was forced to belittle him in this fashion though he had previously boasted about his ability to confer a lot of honour on him (22,17), this was only because G'd did not want Bileam to receive this honour, i.e. הנה מנעך השם מכבוד. Balak appears to have interpreted G'd's refusal for Bileam to curse the Jewish people as only a stratagem to prevent Bileam from being honoured.

Bileam immediately denied this argument when he reminded Balak that he had already told the delegates that he would only be able to say what G'd would tell him, and that Balak had insisted that he should come all the same. Bileam reminded Balak that he had repeated the word כבד אכבדך, i.e. he had insisted that Bileam should come because he wanted to honour him regardless of what he would say. He also repeated the words: "your delegates whom you sent," although the words "whom you have sent" were quite redundant, because he also referred to the first set of emissaries. The word מלאכיך refers to the second set of delegates, the words אשר שלחת refer to the first set of emissaries. He added the word לאמור to remind Balak that he had not only told the emissaries what was on his mind, but had asked them at the time to make sure that they would convey this to Balak.