Bilaam Realizes the Fatality of His Mission

Parshat Balak

by Rabbi Avi Billet

Perhaps even more than the man who hired him, Bilaam wanted to curse the Israelite nation. The only thing that held him back from his objective was God only allowing him to say what God wanted him to say.

Bilaam begins asking “How can I curse them, if God hasn’t cursed them?” (23:8)

The commentaries explain what Bilaam means.

Midrash Agadah: God doesn’t want them to be cursed! Since the day they worshipped the Golden Calf they were deserving of a curse, and yet God has heaped upon them more blessings. From the day Yaakov tricked his father into giving him the blessing, he was deserving of a curse, and yet he was blessed, as his father Yitzchak said, “He too shall be blessed.”

Rashi: Shimon and Levi deserved to be cursed for what they did to the people of Shchem. Yet Yaakov only cursed their anger. When they are to stand on the two mountains – Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Eival – the Torah says “These will stand to bless the people,” but we don’t find the opposite language of “these will stand to curse the people.” It only says, “These will stand at the curse.” The difference, Rashi notes, is that we don’t want to place the “Shem Klalah,” the name of “curse” upon any specific tribe or tribes. Even though, presumably, the warnings about the curses may come about due to our ignoring the warnings against the kinds of bad behavior we are meant to avoid.

Rabbenu Bachaye presents two thoughts in explaining Bilaam’s curse:

A. Quoting from the book of Nechemia, Chapter 9, where the verse outlines what happened to the people, despite their deeds. To summarize – the people had made the Golden Calf, but God did not forsake them – never removing the protective cloud or fire which accompanied them. They had manna and water for forty years, during which time their clothes did not wear out.

And on and on, the verse describes the kindnesses God did for this seemingly ungrateful people. The battles won, the inheriting of the land, the kingdom established – all until they rebelled against God yet again. And their presence in the land extended for many years, in the hopes they would improve. Until exile came.

And now, Nechemiah is recording how they had come back. And why? Because God did not abandon His people.

And this is what Bilaam saw – despite the evidence HE had in hand, for why God might have abandoned them.

Bilaam describes the people as Hen Am L’vadad Yishkon – they are a nation that dwells alone. And Rabbenu Bachaye compares this to the statement of Moshe later on in the Torah “You are praised Israel, who is like you?” Israel is a nation unique among all nations.

B. Rabbenu Bachaye also quotes Daniel, who had his own vision of what would happen to the nations of the world – “I looked until the beast was slain, and its body was destroyed and given to a flame of fire. But as for the other beasts, their dominion was removed, and they were given an extension of life until a set time.” At which point the Messianic Era will be upon us, and God’s nation will be given dominion and glory and a kingdom.

We don’t have a crystal ball. We don’t know what will be in the immediate future. We like to say that Israel is here to stay, that Israel is not going anywhere. And I am sure the Jewish people felt that way in the time of Yehoshua and the time of Kings David and Solomon, and in the Return to God in the time of King Yoshiyahu (Josiah), all before the destruction of the First Temple, and once again in the times of Ezra and Nechemiah, as they built the Second Temple and had high hopes it would never be destroyed.

History has not been kind to the Jewish people. But our history has proven that we can survive against all odds and that Bilaam’s words – that the Israelites are not counted itself among other nations (23:9) – has most often been true.

The message of Bilaam’s blessing is that no matter what happens, and of course it is true that some terrible things have happened throughout history, God will nevertheless not abandon the Jewish people. And that when that day of reckoning comes, our people will be present, and will bask in the glory of the day that Daniel describes as - “His dominion is an eternal dominion, which will not be removed, and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.” (Daniel 7:14)

May we merit to witness this, speedily in our days.