Balak 5631 First Ma'amar

 Disciples of Avraham and Disciples of Bil'am

Chazal[1] in a Mishna in Avos teach us that the disciples of Avraham Avinu are recognized by three character traits.  They are generous, humble and live simply.  The disciples of Bil’am the wicked have three opposite qualities, stinginess, arrogance, and greed.  Bil’am’s students have poor character traits, to be sure.  But one need not be a disciple of Bil’am to learn these traits.  In fact, any fool can develop these bad character traits without learning from anyone.  What exactly, then, do the disciples of Bil’am learn from him?  Conversely, what do the disciples of Avraham Avinu learn from him?

The interesting thing about Bil’am is that he subordinates himself to God.  For example, in response to Balak’s appeal that he curse the nation of Israel, he claims that even if Balak would give him his entire estate filled with silver and gold he cannot transgress the word of God.[2]  Yet, from this very response Chazal learn that Bil’am was greedy.[3]  Why do Chazal consider him to be so wicked?  The Sfas Emes explains that Bil’am viewed himself as a very important person who does God’s will notwithstanding his own importance.  

Bil’am used service to God for his own ends, to increase his own egotism.  This idea is alluded to in the pasuk describing Bil’am, “... נֹפֵל וּגְלוּי עֵינַָיִם/… fallen and revealed to him.” (Bamidbar 24:4)  True, he falls before God.  But he does so only to achieve a higher level to feed his bloated ego.  Bil’am teaches his students to use service to God to achieve personal goals.

The righteous, on the other hand, have a simple soul.  They ask nothing for themselves.  Their sole desire is to be close to God, the source of life.  They want to be God’s tool in this world, like an axe in the hands of a wood chopper. 

In fact, this is the only way to merit the next world.  Chazal[4] tell us that this world is a corridor leading to the next world which is compared to a hall.  The corridor is the only path to the hall.  The only way to get to the next world is through this one.  This is because the next world is so completely holy and spiritual that it is beyond our comprehension.  It is impossible for someone who is completely disconnected from anything spiritual to merit the next world.  What must we do, then, to merit it?  The Sfas Emes explains that by revealing holiness in this world we connect to holiness, to God’s life force.  This connection enables us to experience the next world.

The Ba’al Shem Tov explains that this is the meaning of the second half of the mishnah quoted above.  The second part of the mishnah states that the disciples of Avraham Avinu benefit (lit.אוֹכְלִין /eat) in this world and נוֹחְלִין/inherit in the next world.  The Ba’al Shem Tov explains that Chazal are not simply listing the rewards awaiting the disciples of Avraham Avinu.  Rather they are teaching us about the relationship between this world and the next.  Chazal alluded to this relationship by using the word nochlin for inherit instead of the more common יורשים.  נוֹחְלִין/Inherit has the same root as the word נַחַל/stream.  The Ba’al Shem Tov explains that benefiting from this world is not part of the reward.  Rather, it is part of the work.  Whenever we benefit from this world we must channel the stream of God’s life force into the activity.  Chazal are telling us that we must inject some of the next world’s holiness into our activities in this world.  

By revealing the hidden holiness inherent in this world, we will merit experiencing the hidden holiness of the next world.  The mishnah brings proof from a pasuk in Mishlei (8:21), “לְהַנְחִיל אֹהֲבַי יֵשׁ וְאֹצְרֹתֵיהֶם אֲמַלֵּא/I have something to bequeath those who love me and I will fill their storehouses.”  The next world is referred to as אַיִן/nothing because it is not tangible and it is beyond our comprehension.  When we reveal hidden holiness in this world, we develop a connection to it.  This connection allows us to see and experience the אַיִן/nothing of the next world as יֵשׁ/something.

 This, then, is the teaching of Avraham Avinu.  Once we view ourselves as agents of God and consider that God is the absolute and singular force giving life and existence to everything, then generosity, humility, and living simply, follow.

Bil’am teaches his students exactly the opposite.  He teaches that we can and should gain personally even from subservience to God.  Chazal in fact teach us that that any kindness the nations of the world did, they did for their own benefit.[5]  This is why the mishnah states that the students of Bil’am inherit gehinom.  Gehinom represents God’s concealment, the opposite of the next world.  By introducing evil into the good that they do, Bil’am’s disciples conceal even the Godliness that would otherwise have been revealed by their positive actions.  They, thus, inherit the ultimate concealment of God.

May we merit being the disciples of Avraham Avinu.  Amen!

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[1]Avos 5:19

[2]Bamidbar 22:18

[3]Tanchuma Balak 6

[4]Avos 4:16

[5]Tikunei Zohar 6:22b

Chukas 5632 Third Ma'amar

Understanding Mitzvos that Have No Apparent Reason

The first part of our parsha describes the mitzvah of the red heifer.  The ashes of a red heifer are mixed with water and sprinkled on one who is spiritually impure through contact with a corpse. Because this mitzvah seems to have no apparent logic, Rashi[1] quotes a Midrash that states that this is one of the mitzvos about which the nations of the world and the satan chide the nation of Israel.  Our answer to them is that this mitzvah is a divine decree which we must adhere to even though it has no apparent reason.  For this reason, the pasuk introduces the mitzvah with, “זֹאת חֻקַּת הַתּוֹרָה .../This is the decree of the Torah …” (Bamidbar 19:2)

The Sfas Emes asks that this answer does not seem to be an answer at all.  The nations of the world tell us that our religion contains elements of illogic and we answer that our religion contains elements of illogic!

In order to understand this, we must know that every decree in the Torah is based on a good, valid reason.  There is no such thing as a decree for its own sake.  What then is the meaning of the Midrash?  The Midrash is teaching us that decrees represent a category of mitzvos whose underlying reasons cannot be attained directly.  The only way to attain an understanding of the decrees in the Torah is by embracing them even without understanding.

This is so because the reasons for these mitzvos are spiritual in nature.  They can only be approached by distancing ourselves from the physical.  A mitzvah, like the entire Creation, has a physical component – the act of the mitzvah – and a spiritual component.  The performance of a mitzvah creates spiritual effects.  The mitzvah’s reason is part of its spiritual component.  

By living spiritual lives, we prepare ourselves to understand even the decrees of the Torah.  This concept is borne out by Chazal[2] who teach us that during the time of David HaMelech, the children who had not yet tasted sin, were able to understand the reasons behind even the most esoteric laws of purity and impurity.

In the poem that the Arizal composed for recital before Kiddush on Shabbos morning we find, “יְגַלֵּה לָן טַעֲמֵי דְבִתְרֵיסַר נַהֲמֵי/reveal to us the reasons behind the twelve loaves (of showbread).  There are reasons even though they are not apparent to us.  We ask God to reveal them to us.

In fact, the Sfas Emes teaches that our purpose is to reveal the reasons.  By revealing the spiritual, we reveal the reasons as well.

As the Sfas Emes states in many ma’amarim, the spiritual component of the Creation is more revealed on Shabbos than during the week.  As such, on Shabbos we are closer to understanding the reasons underlying the existence of the entire Creation.  We find a hint to this idea in the musaf of Shabbos, “טוֹעֲמֶיהָ חַיִּים זָכוּ/Those who savor it will merit life.”  The Hebrew word for “savor” is the same as for “reason”.  So, this can be understood as, “Those who receive the reasons (having prepared themselves) merit life.  In fact, our work during the days of the week should be geared towards preparing ourselves so that we can reach higher levels of spirituality on Shabbos.

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[1]              Rashi on Bamidbar 19:2

[2]              Tanchuma Chukas 4