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

Balak 5648 Second Ma'amar

Note:  Click here for a fascinating story regarding this ma'amar told over by the Tolener Rebbe.

“... וַתֹּאמֶר לְבִלְעָם מֶה־עָשִׂיתִי לְךָ כִּי הִכִּיתַנִי זֶה שָׁלֹש רְגָלִים/(The donkey) said to Bil’am, ‘What did I do to you that you hit me three times?” (Bamidbar 22:28)  The word “time” is found many times in the Torah as “פַּעַם.”  This is the only place in Tanach where the word regel is used to mean “time.”  Why?  The Midrash answers that the Torah is alluding to the shalosh regalim, Pesach, Shavuos and Succos, the three holidays that we celebrate each year.[1]  God is berating Bil’am for wanting to destroy a nation that celebrates these three holidays.

The nation keeps many mitzvos.  Why did God hint specifically at the shalosh regalim?  The allusion to the three holidays specifically, is a response to Balak’s complaint.  Balak’s stated purpose was to prevent the nation from entering the land of Israel, “... אוּלַי אוּכַל נַכֶּה־בּוֹ וַאֲגֳרְשֶׁנּוּ מִן־הָאָרֶץ .../… Perhaps I will be able to strike them and banish them from the land …” (Bamidbar 22:6)  The Sfas Emes explains that from the three holidays we learn of the special connection between the nation of Israel and the land of Israel.  By alluding to the shalosh regalim God is telling Bil’am that there is a special relationship between the nation of Israel and this particular land.  No other land will do.

How do the shalosh regalim indicate a special relationship between the nation of Israel and the land of Israel?  A primary element of the shalosh regalim celebrations is the aliya laregel, the requirement for every male to go up to the Beis HaMikdash on the holiday.  The Sfas Emes explains that aliya laregel is a testimony that the land of Israel was set aside specifically for the nation of Israel as David HaMelech wrote in Tehillim (122:4), “שֶׁשָּׁם עָלוּ שְׁבָטִים ... עֵדוּת לְיִשְׂרָאֵל .../For there the tribes ascended … a testimony for Israel …”  Bil’am himself prophesied this, “כִּי־מֵרֹאשׁ צֻרִים אֶרְאֶנּוּ וּמִגְּבָעוֹת אֲשׁוּרֶנּוּ .../For I will see him (the nation) from the top of mountain peaks and will view him from hills.” (Bamidbar 23:9)  The plain meaning of this prophecy is that every mountain peak and hilltop was designated for the nation of Israel.  He saw the nation filling the entire land. 

Chazal also mention this relationship.[2]  Chazal teach us that God acquired, as it were, five things in this world.  Three of the five are the heavens and the earth, the nation of Israel and the Beis HaMikdash.  That these are mentioned together in this mishna indicates that there is a strong relationship between them. 

What is the nature of this relationship? The Sfas Emes explains that the children of Israel have qualities which exactly match the qualities inherent in the land of Israel.  Just as the Zohar[3] teaches that the land of Israel and the Beis Hamikdash are the foundation from which the entire Creation sprung, so too, the Sfas Emes teaches, the children of Israel are the foundation for all the souls in the Creation.[4]

The land of Israel needs the nation for its tikun/rectification.  Chazal teach us that Bil’am’s blessing, “מִי מָנָה עֲפַר יַעֲקֹב .../Who can count the dirt of Ya’akov …” (Bamidbar 23:10) is referring to the many mitzvos which are fulfilled only in the dirt of the land of Israel.  The mitzvos of tithing, shmitta and many other mitzvos can only be fulfilled in the land of Israel.  These mitzvos are needed to rectify the land and only the children of Israel are able to perform these mitzvos.  This is why God blessed Ya’akov by comparing his descendents to the dirt of the land, “וְהָיָה זַרְעֲךָ כַּעֲפַר הָאָרֶץ .../Your progeny shall be like the dirt of the land.” (Breishis 28:14)  The Creator prepared the dirt of the land of Israel specifically for the descendents of Ya’akov.  Only we can rectify it. 

Just as He measured the land, “מִי־מָדַד ... וְכָל בַּשָּׁלִשׁ עֲפַר הָאָרֶץ .../Who measured with a measure the dirt of the land …,” (Yeshaya 40:12) He also measured the dirt of Ya’akov, “מִי מָנָה עֲפַר יַעֲקֹב .../Who can count the dirt of Ya’akov …”  The Sfas Emes teaches us that that each grain of dirt in the land of Israel is associated with a Jewish soul.  May we merit appreciating the integral connection between us and our land and to fulfilling the mitzvos needed to rectify it!

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[1] Bamidbar R. 20:14

[2] Avos 6:10

[3] Zohar 2:222a-b

[4] The Creation is structured as a hierarchy leading from most to least spiritual.  Life giving energy flows from the Creator through the spiritual realms and finally to the physical world, giving existence to all.  The souls of the nation of Israel are an integral part of this hierarchy.  (see Nefesh HaChaim 1:17 and 2:17)

Balak 5632 First Ma'amar

There is more to the world around us than what we sense with our eyes.  Everything physical has a spiritual aspect to it.  Even those things which our eyes tell us are antithetical to holiness have a spiritual aspect.  They must, otherwise they would not exist.  Those who are on a high spiritual level can sense the spirituality.  

The nation of Israel in the desert was on such a level.  Not only were the people on this level, but their high spiritual level spilled over, so to speak, on their surroundings such that the peoples they passed and with whom they came into contact experienced a Godly revelation as well.  What happens when a person who is not ready for it, experiences a spiritual truth that contradicts the evidence of his own eyes?  The Sfas Emes explains that he denies it and believes, rather, what he sees.  The wicked cannot see the truth. 

This explains the pasuk at the beginning of our parsha, “... עַם יָצָא מִמִּצְרַיִם הִנֵּה כִסָּה אֶת־עֵין הָאָרֶץ .../… a nation went out from Egypt; behold, they have covered the face of the earth …” (Bamidbar 22:5)  The literal translation is, “He has covered the eye of the land.”  “The eye of the land” is a metaphor for eyes which only see the physical.  Balak, as well, experienced the revelation which showed the spiritual to be the ultimate reality, not the material world around him.  From his perspective, though, the exact opposite happened.  The reality of his physical surroundings was covered over with a veneer of spirituality.  This is why he was angry with the nation of Israel.  They were disturbing his view of reality.  

Balak 5632 Fifth Ma'amar

"וירא בלק ... את כל אשר עשה ישראל לאמורי: ויגר מואב מפני העם מאד כי רב הוא .../Balak … saw everything that Israel did to the Emorites.  Moav was very afraid of the people for they were many …" (Bamidbar 22:2,3)  Why was Moav afraid?  The nation of Israel had no designs on Moav's land.  Israel even acquiesced to Moav's request that the people not traverse Moav in order to enter Cana'an.[1]

Balak and Moav were not concerned that Israel would conquer their land.  They were concerned about something far deeper.  We can learn what was bothering Balak from the Zohar's[2] explanation of a pasuk in Tehillim (31:20), "מה רב טובך אשר צפנת ליראיך .../How great is the good that You have hidden for those who are in awe of You …" 

What is the "good" that God has hidden for the righteous and where did He hide it?  The Zohar teaches that the good is the first light that God created, "וירא א-להים את האור כי טוב/God saw that the light was good." (Breishis 1:4)  The Zohar says that this first light was not the physical light that we see today.  The physical light of today comes from the celestial bodies and from fire in all its forms.  The first light must have been something else since it was created before the celestial bodies and before fire.  Rather, the first light may be better understood as enlightenment.  It was the enlightenment that came from the Torah which God used to create the world[3] and which is hidden within the works of the Creation.

Chazal[4] teach us that the pasuk, "וירא א-להים את כל אשר עשה והנה טוב מאד/God saw everything that He did and behold it was very good," (Breishis 1:31) refers to the angel of death and the evil inclination.  How so?  The angel of death and evil inclination represent God's concealment in the physical world.  They represent the concealment of the hidden light of the Torah.  God saw that everything He made was very good because the light of the Torah, which was referred to before as "good" was hidden in everything that God had made.

While there will come a time when God, according to His Divine plan will reveal the hidden light, our mission is to find that hidden light now.  The result is a revelation of the undeniable truth.  In this way we can influence our surroundings to become subordinate to God.  The children of Israel as they sojourned in the desert experienced the hidden light all the time.  They lived with daily miracles.  The effect on their surroundings was dramatic.

Balak was unavoidably affected as well.  "וירא בלק .../Balak saw" that God's glory was revealed, "ואמרו אל יושב הארץ הזאת ... אשר עין בעין נראה אתה .../They will say about the inhabitants of this land … that God appears to them eye to eye …" (Bamidbar 14:14)  This revelation of holiness totally contradicted Balak's view of reality.  In fact, Balak refers to this when he says, "... עם יצא ממצרים הנה כסה את עין הארץ .../… a nation left Egypt; behold it covered the face (lit. eye) of the land …" (Bamidbar 22:5)  ארץ/Land represents nature.  It represents Balak's view of reality.  He considered the holiness to which he was exposed as covering up his own eyes so that he could not see reality clearly.  This is the exact opposite of the truth.

Balak saw this and was afraid.  He was afraid of the aspect of "hidden light" represented by מאד/very in the pasuk, a reference to the hidden light which is described in the story of the Creation as "very good".  The nation of Israel caused him to be exposed to the hidden light.  The words, "כי רב הוא/for they (the people of Israel) are many," is a reference to, "מה רב טובך/How great is your good (i.e. the hidden light)."

According to the Sfas Emes, Balak saw the revelation of God's glory.  He was unable to assimilate the holiness and was therefore afraid.  It totally contradicted his view of reality.

The nation's sojourn in the desert, then, was an important preparatory period for the nation before entering the land of Israel.  It was during this period that the notion of the hidden light became totally ingrained and internalized in the national psyche.  

The land of Israel, according to the Zohar[5] is the center point of the entire world.  The very force that causes the entire Creation to exist comes first from this center point and sustains all.  Experiencing and being exposed to the hidden light was thus crucial to being able to benefit fully from life in the land of Israel.

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[1] Viz. Shoftim 11:17

[2] Zohar 3:88a

[3] Zohar 1:5a Introduction

[4] Breishis R. 9:7,10

[5] Zohar 1:108b

Balak 5632 Fourth Ma'amar

In this week’s haftara the prophet exhorts us to remember the story of Bil’am and Balak, “עַמִּי זְכָר־נָא מַה־יָעַץ בָּלָק מֶלֶךְ מוֹאָב וּמֶה־עָנָה אֹתוֹ בִּלְעָם בֶּן־בְּעוֹר ... לְמַעַן דַּעַת צִדְקוֹת ה׳׃/My people, please remember what Balak, king of Moav schemed and what Bil’am son of Be’or answered him … in order to recognize the righteous acts of God.” (Micha 6:5)  Also, Chazal relate the importance of remembering the story of Balak.  There were even those who wanted this story to be a part of Kri’as Shma.[1]  It isn’t, the Gemara tells us only  because it would have inordinately lengthened Kri’as Shma.  What is so important, so significant, about the story of Balak that the prophet asks us specifically to remember it and that it almost became a part of the Krias Shma?

The story of Balak is unique in that an implacable enemy was not only ineffective; he actually blessed us against his own will instead of cursing us.  When the nation follows the path of truth and is aligned with God’s will even their most implacable and hostile enemies submit to God’s will.

We find this same idea on a personal level as well.  Chazal tell us that two angels, a good one and a bad one, escort each of us home from the synagogue Friday night.  If they find a home prepared for Shabbos, the good angel says, “May it be your will that this will happen next Shabbos as well.”  The bad angel answers Amen against his will.

We actually pray for this in the prayer that we say immediately following the Amida, “וְכָל הַחוֹשְׁבִים עָלַי רָעָה מְהֵרָה הָפֵר עַצָתָם וְקַלְקֵל מַחְשַׁבְתָּם/And all who wish me ill, quickly overturn their scheme and corrupt their thoughts.”

Many times we are faced with hostile and vicious enemies.  There seems to be no way to overcome them.  From the story of Balak we learn that although we may not be able to overcome the enemy in a direct manner, there are other options.  Although it seems improbable, it is an important part of serving God to cultivate a strong belief that all our enemies, even those who are the complete antithesis of holiness must subside and submit to the will of God.  There is no such thing as a creation acting autonomously, even our cruelest enemies.

Our worst enemies will submit to God’s will though, only  if we compromise not an iota, if we stay on the path of truth, the path of God.  Then we will merit not only the destruction of our enemies but their blessing, just as the nation of Israel merited it on the plains of Moav.

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[1] Brachos 12b

Balak 5632 Third Ma'amar

The Midrash relates the argument Bil’am used to try to convince God to side with the nations of the world against the nation of Israel. Bil’am’s point was simple. Would it not be better to be worshiped by seventy nations than one nation? At first glance, Bil’am’s argument to God was a good one. Does it not indeed make more sense to include the nations of the world?

God answered, the Midrash[1] tells us, with a pasuk from Mishlei, “טוֹב פַּת חֲרֵבָה וְשַׁלְוָה־בָהּ מִבַּיִת מָלֵא זִבְחֵי־רִיב/Better dry bread and peace than a house full of contentious celebrations.” (Mishlei 17:1) The Midrash explains the metaphor. The dry bread represents the nation of Israel. The house full of contentious celebrations represents the nations of the world. God would rather be worshiped by the nation of Israel than the nations of the world if their purpose is to insert a wedge of discord between Him and Israel.

This answer seems to beg the question though for if each nation truly submits to God, why would God prefer Israel? The answer, the Chiddushei HaRim says, is that the nations of the world are disingenuous regarding their submission to God. While the nations of the world certainly accomplish great things, Chazal teach us that they are far from altruistic.[2] Rather, their own interests motivate them. They may perform acts of kindness, but it is only to lord it over others. Bil'am himself subordinated himself to God, "... אִם־יִתֶּן־לִי בָלָק מְלֹא בֵיתוֹ כֶּסֶף וְזָהָב לֹא אוּכַל לַעֲבֹר אֶת־פִּי ה׳ אֱ־לֹהָי .../.. Were Balak to give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot transgress the word of God, my Lord …” (Bemidbar 22:18) Yet Chazal learn from this very pasuk that Balak really wanted all that money.

Sincerity, then, differentiates us from the nations of the world. God prefers our worship to theirs since it is sincere. The nations of the world use their submission to God as a springboard for self aggrandizement. The nation of Israel also submits. However, for our righteous, the submission is an end in and of itself. Even when we ask God to help us reach higher levels, it is to come closer to Him, to be able to submit even more.

Conventionally, a lowly soul – נֶפֶשׁ שְׁפֵלָה – one of the good character traits that Avraham Avinu teaches his students, is one who spurns the base desires and temptations of the physical world. Bil’am, Chazal[3] tell us, had an expansive soul – נֶפֶשׁ רְחָבָה. He surrendered to his physical desires and used his stature to do so.

The Sfas Emes, however, gives us a deeper understanding of a lowly soul. Unlike Bil’am, it is one who does not use his work to come close to God in a self serving way. Of course, he will not use his service to God as a way of satisfying base desires. He also will not use his service to God as a means for reaching higher spiritual levels and gaining more spiritual power. Unquestionably, as a byproduct of his work, he will reach higher spiritual levels. But these achievements are not his goal. Instead, he uses those levels to further subordinate himself to the infinite God.

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[1] Bemidbar R. 20:18

[2] Bava Basra 10b

[3] Avos 5:19