This, Claire, should be, Farifuwa, Shema, Hayah, Sera, Bat Simcha, Zat Hashem. Amen.
Our parasha is Parashat Balak. I want to give you a quick introduction. This parasha is really different from the other parashiyot in the Torah. Usually, the main character or story in the parasha is about us: Abraham, Yitzchak, Noah, Yaakov, the Shavartim. However, this parasha is about the other side, the bad side: Balak and Bil'am. So this parasha is really different from all the other parashiyot.
This parasha is so important that the rabbis in the Gemara really wanted us to say it in the tefillah (prayer) every single day. In the same way that we say the whole Shema, the rabbis wanted us to say the whole entire Balak, the whole entire parasha, every single day. However, because it is a long parasha, and because of tircha detzibura (it would be too tedious on the people), it would be too tedious on the people. Therefore, we did not include it in the tefillah.
Why did the rabbis choose this parasha and want to include it in the prayers? It is because this parasha shows us that Hashem loves us so much, and that there are many things Hashem does that we do not know about. If the Torah had not written this story about Balak and Bil'am, there were no Jews present to record it. We would never have known. So too, Hashem thwarts all the bad plans that the Goyim (non-Jews) have. There are so many times when we do not even know that they are trying to hurt us, and Hashem saves us without our even knowing. This parasha shows us the future. In the future, there are going to be many times when people—many Goyim—try to destroy us, and we will not even know about it, while Hashem destroys their plans.
This parasha also has in it—I do not know if we are going to get this far—the prophecy of the Mashiach (Messiah) coming, at the end of the parasha. It is a very, very big prophecy, given by Bil'am at the end of the parasha, and the Rambam (Maimonides) writes that this is one of the sources for Mashiach. Again, this is a very important parasha.
The first pasuk (verse). In the previous parasha, we ended with Bnei Yisrael wiping the floors with two very powerful nations, Sichon and Og, Melech HaBashan (king of Bashan). In the previous parasha, the Jews totally wiped them out. Now Balak, as the pasuk says: “Vayar Balak ben Tzipor (Balak son of Tzipor saw).” Balak ben Tzipor was the name of this king. “Et kol asher asah Yisrael la'Emori (all that Israel had done to the Amorite).” He saw what the Jews did to Sichon and Og.
Again, as we are going to see, Sichon and Og were the two nations that Moab, whose king was Balak, had actually hired because they bordered Moab. He hired them to always protect Moab. He paid them a lot of money to be their fortress, so to speak. The Jews just came in and wiped them clean.
Moab became very frightened and afraid in front of Bnei Yisrael because they were very great and powerful. Moab became disgusted with Bnei Yisrael. That is, they were so frightened that they were, so to speak, disgusted with them. They were disgusted with them.
Moab tells the ziknei Midyan (elders of Midyan). Now, Midyan is a different country from Moab. Rashi asks why Moab would approach the elders of Midyan for advice about what to do with Bnei Yisrael. Number one, Rashi points out that Midyan was actually always constantly at war with Moab. They constantly had battles with each other. So why would Moab approach its enemy to seek advice about Bnei Yisrael?
Rashi points out that because they were so scared of Bnei Yisrael, they came together in peace, so to speak. We find something similar when we left Egypt. When Moshe announced to the country that there would be a plague called makkot bechorot (plague of the firstborn), and all the firstborns were going to die, the firstborns started to fight against Mitzrayim (Egypt), and they went to war against Mitzrayim. Then, when they realized that the Jews were going to leave, they made peace with each other and said, “Let’s just go kill the Jews.” It is very similar here: Moab and Midyan were always fighting with each other, but when it came to the Jews, they made peace to try to destroy us.
Why specifically Midyan? Why was Midyan chosen as the country Moab would seek advice from? Even if they made peace, they could have sought advice from any nation. Why Midyan specifically? Rashi points out that they realized Bnei Yisrael’s victories were so powerful, fast, and rapid. It was not normal. The way they were wiping away their enemies was unnatural.
Moab said, “They are not winning on the regular battlefield, in the regular way that normal warfare is fought. It must be something in their leader.” They knew that Moshe Rabbeinu took Bnei Yisrael out of Egypt when he was 80 years old, but when he was 13, he ran away to the country of Midyan. That is where he married his wife, Tzipporah. They approached Midyan because they knew that Midyan would know about Moshe: What was so special about this man, and what was so special about this nation? Moshe had grown up in Midyan and was famous there. Therefore, they approached Midyan, even though they were enemies. Again, because they were scared of Bnei Yisrael, they came together. They approached Midyan specifically because Midyan knew about Moshe Rabbeinu.
What did Midyan tell Moab about Moshe Rabbeinu? They said, “Do you know where the power comes from? Bnei Yisrael’s power is not from their physical strength, but rather from their mouths.” That means they have their prayer. They are so powerful when they pray to their God; Hashem answers their prayers, and they are able to destroy nations. Therefore, Moab came up with a plan: “Okay, they use their mouths. We will fight their warfare against them. We will hire someone who also fights with his mouth,” and we are going to see that this is Bil'am.
Now, Moab tells the elders of Midyan, “We see that this nation is devouring all the surrounding nations like an ox devours all the vegetation.” This is a very strange way of saying it. Why compare the Jews to an ox eating the vegetation? Rashi points out that an ox does not just eat the top layer of grass, the way a deer or other animals would. When an ox eats, it rips out the actual roots of the grass. The pasuk is telling the people of Midyan that these Jews are not just winning; they are uprooting their enemies. They are not only destroying the nations; they are totally demolishing them, like an ox that rips out the roots of the vegetation around it. Bnei Yisrael is doing the same thing.
Balak was the king of Moab at the time. Rashi points out that really, he was not fit to be a king. Rather, he was one of the ministers of Midyan, their rival country. However, they put him up as king because of the dire situation they were in, in an attempt to destroy Bnei Yisrael.
B'ezrat Hashem, this is a very interesting parasha. B'ezrat Hashem, tomorrow there will hopefully be another class, and B'ezrat Hashem this should be a refuah shelema (complete recovery) for Chaya Sara bat Simcha.
Back to these very important shiurim (lessons). I was not playing hooky. We had a couple of shiva berachot (seven wedding blessings) and weddings. It was for good reason. I did leave the shiva berachot early tonight in order to get back into the swing of things. Last night we had a guest host, my son-in-law Abe Kasson. I am just trying to find out where he got to. Anybody know where he got to? I do not know, but he did a great job. Definitely, he did a great job. The feedback was very good, Baruch Hashem.
Let’s go to pasuk 9. Obviously, you know what is going on here. Balak is the king of Moab, and he wants to attack the Jewish people, not in a conventional way. He is going to hire Bil'am and offer him a lot of money. Bil'am had the power to curse, and Balak will commission him to come curse the Jewish people.
Bil'am responds to the people of Moab, the emissaries: “I have to wait for permission. I have to get clearance from God. If God lets me go, then I will go. So stay overnight, and whatever Hashem tells me the next morning, I will report back to you.”
God comes to Bil'am: “Who are these people who are with you?” That is a trick question, because God definitely knows everything. He knows who is who, who is with Bil'am, and who showed up. So why is He asking, “Who are these people who are with you?” He was trying to trick Bil'am into thinking that, as if to say, God has blind spots, as if God does not know everything. Then Bil'am would think, “Just as He does not know this, I can trick God into cursing His people,” even though Bil'am might be telling God, “Even though I am not important in your eyes, I am important in the eyes of the king, Balak.”
“Behold, the nation that has come out of Mitzrayim is so plentiful that they are covering the eye of the land, and he has asked me to come and curse the nation. Maybe after they get cursed, I will be able to fight them and drive them away.”
Rashi says that there are different words for curses. “Kavah li”—Rashi says there is a Hebrew word for cursing called arur (cursed) or ara, and this is even worse: the word “Kavah li,” where you specify the curse in a clear manner. Rashi says Balak’s intention was not only to drive Bnei Yisrael away from the land, but actually to drive them away from the world. Balak actually said, “I just want to get rid of them from the land.” However, Bil'am was an even bigger antisemite than Balak. He said, “Not only do I want to get rid of them from the land, but I want to get rid of them completely.” That is why Bil'am was a bigger antisemite than Balak himself.
God could not be clearer to Bil'am in His response. Bil'am’s question is, “Do I go and curse, or do I not go?” God says in the clearest words, with no way to misinterpret it: “You shall not go with them. Do not curse the people, because they are blessed.”
There are some missing words here in the conversation between God and Bil'am that Rashi fills in. When God said to Bil'am, “Do not go with them,” Rashi says, “Fine, don’t go.” But Bil'am says, “So maybe I’ll curse them from here,” meaning, “Don’t go, but curse them from my place.” God says, “No, do not curse them at all, not from there and not from here.” Then Bil'am says, “Fine, let me bless them.” God says, “We do not need you to bless them, ki baruch hu (for they are blessed),” they are blessed even without you. Rashi brings the famous adage: “Lo miduvshech velo me'uktzech (I don't want from your honey and I don't want from your sting).” The hornet tells the bee, “I don’t want from your honey and I don’t want from your sting.” As if to say, “Don’t do me any favors. I don’t want your curses, and I don’t want your blessings, not from your honey and not from your sting.”
The question here, obviously, is why Bil'am would want to bless the people. Bil'am told God, “Let me go curse them.” “No, you can’t go.” “Fine, I won’t go. Let me curse them from here.” “No, you can’t curse them at all.” “Fine, let me bless them.” Then God says, “No, they don’t need your blessing either.” Why would Bil'am want to bless them? Unless we say that Bil'am’s intention was to say blessings, but his thoughts were that the meanings of those words would be curses. You could say it sarcastically, and in his mind he would interpret it in a negative way. Therefore God says, “I don’t want your blessings either,” because even Bil'am’s blessings are cursed.
Bil'am has to report back to the people what God said. He gets up in the morning and tells Balak’s people, “Go home. God refuses to allow me to go with you.” Listen to how Bil'am, who is such an antisemite, hears what he wants to hear. When God said, “Do not go with them,” we understand it to mean, “Don’t go.” Bil'am understands “with them” to mean that they are not respectful enough for him; they are a lower-level emissary. Let them send a more important entourage, and maybe God will consider it. It is as if Bil'am understands God to be negotiating for him: “Don’t go with these guys. They are not respectful enough to send you such a low-level emissary.”
Therefore, Bil'am says, “God refuses to allow me to go with you.” From here, Rashi says you see that Bil'am was very high-spirited and had ga'avah (haughtiness). Instead of telling the people the truth—that he cannot go—he says, “I can’t go with you.” They go back to Balak and report to him, “Me'en Bil'am haloch imanu (Bil'am refuses to come with us),” meaning Bil'am refuses to come with us.
“Vayosef od Balak (Balak continued further).” Balak persists. “Vayishlach sarim rabim v'nechbadim me'elleh (he sent more numerous and more distinguished officers).” He sends even higher-ranking people than the first ones. They come and say, “Please refrain. Do not refrain. I don't want to go to Africa.” Whatever we promised you in the past, we are going to give you even more. We will honor you very much, meaning a lot. Whatever you ask, we will do. Please come and curse.
Bil'am answers again. This is one of the classics in the whole parasha. Bil'am could tell them, “Listen, I can’t go. God said I can’t go.” Instead, he says that even if they pay him a house filled with silver and gold, he cannot transgress the word of Hashem to do something small or big without His permission.
Where did he get that price from? Who offered him a house filled with silver and gold? What kind of price is that? He should say, “I can’t go.” Rashi says that from here you see he was setting a price. He was saying, “This is what it’s worth.” But even if they paid him what it was worth, he could not go unless he got permission.
Why was he saying it was worth so much? Listen to how he calculates it. He says, “Listen, there are two ways you can beat Bnei Yisrael. One way is you hire me, one guy, and I’ll take care of it. Otherwise, you’ll have to hire mercenaries, soldiers. You’ll have to get an army and pay the army. You’ll have to pay for their lodging, their food, and their ammunition. It’s going to be a sustained event, so it’s going to be very expensive. Whatever you are going to pay the army, pay me. Therefore, it’s going to cost you, as they say in the vernacular, an arm and a leg to pay for an army. So pay me the arm and the leg.”
You see how greedy Bil'am’s soul was, and he obviously coveted the property of others. He also says, “Even if you hire another army, it is not guaranteed that they are going to win, so you are taking your money and making a 50-50 bet. You put your money with me, and I am definitely going to win.” Therefore, he put a price there. But then he says, “I cannot go against what God tells me.” Rashi says he told them that against his will—he said it against his will—because he did not want to admit it. What he was really saying was, “It’s not going to be easy for me to nullify the blessings God has already given Abraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov.”
One more pasuk: “Ve'atah shevu na bazeh gam atem halaylah, ve'edah mah yosef Hashem diber imadi (Please stay here tonight too, and I will know what Hashem adds to tell me).” Rashi says here, “pi v'shilo.” When Bil'am said, “Stay overnight, you too,” Rashi says God put that in his mouth to say, “You too will get the same answer that I get. Just as I told the others that I can’t go, I am coming back with a negative answer as well.”
Rashi says Bil'am asks them, “Let’s see what God is going to add in speaking to me.” What can He add? Rashi says, “He’s not going to tell me that I can curse.” Rashi says that Bil'am had a prophecy that ultimately he would say, “Let’s see what God is going to add.” The day before, God told him, “I don’t want you to bless.” What is going to happen is that Bil'am will end up blessing, but the blessings will not be with bad kavanah (intention). They will actually be with good kavanah. Therefore, the words “there will be an addition” came out of his mouth: an additional commandment that would not come until that point. Until then, God had said, “Not from your honey and not from your sting.” Ultimately, Bil'am will end up giving us the most beautiful blessings. He prophesied that ultimately berachot (blessings) would come through him.
What they explained is that Bil'am was worried: “I’m worried that God might add and say, not only am I not going to let you bless them and curse them, but I’m doubling down on my blessing for the people.” It only caused God to give a second blessing. Bil'am says, “I hope that”—and that is exactly what ended up happening: God, through Bil'am, ended up adding “mah yosef” to the blessings Bnei Yisrael already had.
Rabotai, there you have it. I’m back in the swing. I’m a little rusty; I haven’t done this for a couple of nights, but Baruch Hashem. Shabbat Shalom. We wish all our members, “Leil tov, yirbu simchot b'Yisrael (Good night; may joys increase in Israel), leil tov.”
We’re continuing Parashat Pinchas, and we are right in the middle of the census. We do these classes—Amen, amen. We’re getting to the pesukim here. Let’s see where we left off. Tonight we are going to start perek kaf-vav (chapter 26), at pasuk 15.
“Family of Gad and their families and their families are Tzefon, the Tzefon, the Tzefon family, the he and the yod, that's the O-U, that's the kashrut symbol, that the families did not assimilate. LaChagi, the family of LaChagi; LaShuni, the family of LaShuni; LaOzni, the family of LaOzni.” Rashi says that the Ozni family is referred to in a different place as Ezbon. Ezbon is the same family as Ozni. Rashi says he does not know why the Torah changes its name here. Earlier, when we learned this in the previous parashiyot, they were referred to as Ezbon; now they are referred to as Ozni.
I saw that the Torah Kadosh says something beautiful. The Gemara says in Ketubot that HaKadosh Baruch Hu (the Holy One, blessed is He) made the finger, the etzba, the finger, rounded at the end and shaped like this, because if a person hears lashon hara (evil speech), he can fit his finger into his ear. The finger fits perfectly in the ear. Hashem made it so the ear can be plugged up by the finger. Therefore, you do not have to hear lashon hara.
Therefore, the Shelah HaKadosh says that Ozni, the name of the family here, comes from the word ozen, ear. It says that they used to call them Ezbon. Ezbon comes from the lashon (language) etzba, the finger. It gives us an image: the way a person controls his ear is through—Then I saw a beautiful interpretation based on this. When a person sins, where does the sin come from? It is because he listened to the yetzer hara (evil inclination). He let the yetzer hara penetrate his ears. When the yetzer hara tells you to do something, take it out of here. Leave me alone. I’m not listening to you. Every sin is because you did not put your finger there and close your ears to the yetzer hara or to outside influences.
In the olden days, they would have to bring a korban (sacrifice). What would the Kohen (priest) do? He would sprinkle the blood of the korban on the Mizbeach (altar). How would he sprinkle the blood? It says he would take his finger, dip it into the blood, and sprinkle. I saw from the rabbi an explanation of why the finger is used: the source of all sin is that you did not put your finger in your ear. You did not close your ears. You did not follow the advice of the Shelah HaKadosh and the Gemara Ketubot. “Le'etzbon, the family of Ezbon, is the family of Ozni”: the way you make the tikkun (rectification) of the ozen is by taking the etzbon. A beautiful, beautiful interpretation.
We continue: “Le'Eri, mishpachat ha'Eri; l'Arod, mishpachat ha'Arodi; l'Areli, mishpachat ha'Areli (to Eri, the family of Eri; to Arod, the family of Arodi; to Areli, the family of Areli).” This is the family of Gad: 40,000 and 500.
Yehuda. We know this story. Yehuda had Er and Onan. We learned about Er and Onan earlier. They died. Yehuda had other children. That is actually the family of Mashiach (Messiah). How many people were in Yehuda’s tribe? Shishah v'shiv'im elef, 76,500.
“U'vnei Yissachar, l'mishpechotam.” To their families. First you have Tola. That is one of his children: Mishpachat haTola'i. L'Puvah, mishpachat haPuni; l'Yashuv, mishpachat haYashuvi. One of the children of Yissachar was Yashuv. Rashi says he was also known earlier as Yov. When they went down to Mitzrayim, Yissachar had a son called Yov. Now he is not called Yov anymore; he is called Yashuv. What happened? Why did they change his name?
It says that the reason they changed his name is—according to Rabbi Moshe Hadarshan, she was pregnant with them, with these children. He is not excited—explaining what happened, they added an extra shin to his name, so he went from being Yov to being Yashuv. Rashi does not really tell us exactly why they added a shin to his name, but it is the same guy.
The Yissachar family had 64,300. This morning we sent over a hiddush (novel insight) from the Or HaChaim HaKadosh regarding the family of Yissachar. Yissachar was the family of Torah. That is the family that studies Torah. That is why Yissachar stands for “Yesh sachar.” They get reward, because the main reward is not the physical reward a person gets in this world for making money and getting physical things. The main reward a person should anticipate is the reward for learning Torah. That is why his name is Yissachar. He has reward, meaning he has the real reward.
Furthermore, the Gemara says that the tzaddikim (righteous people) who study Torah will be rewarded by God in Olam Haba (the World to Come) with shai olamot, 310 worlds. It is called shai olamot. Therefore, Yissachar is Yissachar. “Yesh” is yud-shin, which is 310. Yissachar will benefit from the 310 worlds. The chachamim (sages) tell us that one of the things about people who learn Torah is that they are protected from judgment. Rabbi Or HaChaim HaKadosh says that judgment in Hebrew is called din. Din is 64: dalet, yud, and nun. That is why there were 64,000 people in the tribe. But he says, “What do you mean? 64,000 is not a good number. That represents din.” If you look at the pasuk, it says “Arba'a v'shishim elef.” He says it is like saying 64 plus 1, plus an elef, plus 1. So it is 65. And 65 is the numerical value of God’s name. The tribe that learns Torah turns midat hadin (attribute of judgment) into midat rachamim (attribute of mercy), into the midah of mercy.
This is the family of Zebulun. That is 60,500. I do not know if you noticed that here we have an exception. Not only are the letters he and yud written next to every family member, but the tribe has them too. It says—I did not do that before with the other tribes. It said, for example, what we just read, but here, when it comes to—it does not say, it says—why does it put the extra standard on the name of the tribe itself? We learned last night that the prefix and suffix represent God testifying that these families are pure, with no assimilation and no blood from the foreign nations. Why would God put it not only in the families of Zebulun, but in the actual name of the tribe? The rabbis answer that Zebulun’s business was traveling. They went overseas and left their wives for a long time. Nobody should think that when they traveled, they were tainted and had compromised their families. It says that even though they traveled and went away, they were still pure, and the children who came from them were only from their Jewish wives and had proper lineage.
Now we get to Bnei Yosef. It is a good name for a shul too, Bnei Yosef. As we know, when it came to this fellow from the tribe of Menashe, there was a guy called Tzelofchad. He did not have any boys; he only had daughters. The daughters’ names were five daughters. These are the families of Menashe. How many people do they have in the tribe? 52,700. 52,700.
Now we finish up. These are the families of Ephraim. These are the families of Ephraim. Now, the children of Shuthelach. Now, the children of Shuthelach. Now, the children of Shuthelach. The Shuthelach family. Let’s see; I have it here. How many people did Ephraim have? 32,500.
Rashi gives you a subtotal. Altogether in this parasha you will find 57 families from all the tribes, and 8 families from Levi. Altogether, 65 families in the Jewish people. That is why the pasuk says that God says, “ki atem hame'at (you are the smallest of the nations).” What is “hame'at”? “Hame'at.” “Chamesh atim hasirim b'mishmot kula amim.” That means, how many nations did the Goyim have? There were 70 families. We are 70 nations. And we are 75. So God says, “Hame'at.” You are five fewer than the Goyim. They are made up of 70 nations, and we have Goyim. No, we have 65 families, and the Goyim have 70 altogether. So God says, “He-me'at, he-me'at,” you are five fewer than the regular number among the nations of the world. That is from Rabbi Moshe Hadarshan.
Bnei Binyamin is also a good name for a shul. Bela is a lady’s name, but in those days Bela was a man’s name. That’s a tongue twister. How many people do I have? One of the biggest tribes—not so much—45,600. This is a big tribe. Rashi just says that this family called Shupham in Bereshit was called Mupim, but they changed them from Mupim, and here they are calling them Shupham. A change of name. I do not know why they changed his name, but they went from Mupim to Shupham.
Now we get to Eleb and Edan. This is the people of Dan. Shucham is actually Hushim. This is a very important man, this guy called Shucham. It is the same letters as Hushim. We know that he was handicapped; he was deaf. Yaakov Avinu had a special grandson. “Mishpachat haShuchami.” He is the one who actually killed Esav, if you remember. “Eleh mishpechot Dan.” Even though he only had one child, Dan only has one child, and it was a deaf child, look how many people this tribe ends up having: 64,400. That is one of the biggest tribes. What do you learn from this? You cannot figure out where the beracha is going to come from. You would have said, “Poor Dan, he only has one special kid, deaf.” He ends up coming from that one child, multiplied to become one of the biggest tribes. Sometimes the blessing comes in a strange disguise.
The daughter of Asher was named Serach. We know Serach, but Asher is the one who gave the news to Yaakov Avinu that Yosef was still alive, and she was still alive, by the way. She lived all the way from Bereshit. This is now after the Jews came out of Mitzrayim and spent 40 years in the Midbar, so she lived a very long time. She had extraordinary longevity. Bnei Naftali—and that is the tribe of Asher. How many people in Asher? Not so much, 53,000.
Last tribe, Bnei Naftali: “L'Yachze'el, mishpachat haYachze'eli; l'Guni, mishpachat haGuni; l'Yetzer, mishpachat haYitzri; l'Shilem, mishpachat haShilemi.” “Eleh mishpechot Naftali, mishpechotam.” How many people? “Chamishah v'arba'im elef.” That is 45,400. How many people altogether in Bnei Yisrael? 600,000, 601,730. Not including tax. So you have 601,730. There goes the census. Bnei Yisrael, we have one more night. Tomorrow night we will go into the next episode of the daughters of Tzelofchad and the division of Eretz Yisrael. So stay tuned.
We’re continuing the parasha. We’re learning for—we’re in Balak, and we are up to—or half of us at the shilishi. Bil'am wakes up in the morning, and you see here that when a person has hatred, it causes them to do things that are not normal behavior. It is not normal behavior for a respectable man like Bil'am to saddle his own donkey, but sometimes a person is driven by hatred, and it causes him to do things out of protocol.
That is why the pasuk says—the Gemara says, and the Gemara comes along and says that God told him, “You think you are the first one to come along and saddle his own donkey? Abraham Avinu did it first. He also got up. Abraham also saddled his donkey.” I never understood this Rashi. What does it mean, “Abraham beat you to it”? What does Abraham have to do with Bil'am? Abraham was going to do the Akedah (binding) Yitzhak, and it says he woke up early and saddled his own donkey. Why should that neutralize what Bil'am is doing? What is the connection? Two totally different people doing totally different things. So what does God say? “You think you’re going to get up early and saddle your own donkey in order to kill the Jewish people? Avraham Avinu did it already.”
I saw a beautiful explanation: Avraham and Bil'am both got up early in the morning and saddled their donkeys for the same thing, to destroy Klal Yisrael. If you think about it, what was Avraham doing? Avraham was going to kill Yitzhak, and if he killed Yitzhak, there goes Klal Yisrael. So what God was saying was, “Rasha, Avraham Avinu was already moser nefesh (sacrificed himself) to kill Yitzhak on my word, and therefore you will not have the ability to kill Klal Yisrael.” When he said Akedat Avraham, that action was to get rid of Klal Yisrael by potentially killing Yitzhak. That preceded you. Both had the same outcome. Bil'am tried to destroy Bnei Yisrael, and Avraham Avinu did as well. The only difference was that Avraham was commanded. Therefore, God says to Bil'am, “You think you will be able to come along and destroy Klal Yisrael after Avraham Avinu did that Akedah? Nothing good.”
The pasuk says God saw that Bil'am was going with a desire to curse, and therefore God was angry with him. Now we are going to start the story of the angel who blocks Bil'am. God positioned an angel to stand on the road, to be an impediment to him. Bil'am was on his donkey, with two people with him.
Rashi says you can imagine: it is amazing that this angel who came to stop Bil'am is called by Rashi an angel of mercy, because he is trying to stop Bil'am from sinning. Even the worst rasha (wicked person) like Bil'am is given a chance by God before he is punished. That is what Rashi says. The angel was trying to prevent Bil'am from sinning, so that he would not be a sinner and then perish. The pasuk says he had two ne'arim (young men), two lads with him. Rashi says that when a person is traveling, an important person should take two people as an entourage, so they are able to serve each other. They serve the man.
The donkey sees the angel standing on the road, and the angel has a sword. Rashi says the donkey saw—“she'natan HaKadosh Baruch Hu binah ba'behemah lirot yoter min ha'adam (He gave animals understanding to see more than people),” Hashem gave animals greater perception than people. Animals see more than humans can see. Why? Because if we saw what was really out there, we would go crazy. There are shedim (demons), there are mal'achim (angels), there are demons, there are spirits. So hamorim—hamor (donkey), anyway, he does not know what he is looking at. But if humans could see all that is out there, they would be filled with fear at seeing all these harmful spirits.
The angel had a sword, holding a sword. Rashi says that this is the way they fight: they fight with the sword. That is Esav’s blessing. They fight with the sword. How do the Jewish people fight? We fight with our mouths; we pray. So now Bil'am uses the conventional way the Goyim fight, with a sword, and he uses our way, our tactics, against us, using his mouth. God sent an angel with a sword in front of him, and God promised that Bil'am would eventually be killed by the sword, which he was. We are going to read about it later in Pinchas.
The donkey turned away from the road and started to veer into the field. Bil'am hit the donkey to turn it back onto the road. All of a sudden, the donkey found himself in an area with vineyards. There was a fence on both sides. Rashi says this fence was made of stones. All of a sudden, the donkey sees the angel and moves to the wall, to the stone wall, because he wants to get out of the way. It starts to press against the wall and against Bil'am’s leg. The angel continued to pass in front of him.
Rashi says the angel appeared in front of the donkey three times, and the Midrash writes that he was giving him a siman (sign) to the avot (forefathers) of Abraham, Yitzhak, and Yaakov, that he should not go after the Jews. Anyway, Bil'am hit him a third time. The angel stood in a narrow place where the donkey could not move to the right or the left. It crouched down beneath him, and sure enough, Bil'am hit the donkey again. That was the third time.
The pasuk says that God opened the mouth of the donkey. So this is it, the talking donkey. Remember the talking horse? Now I have the talking donkey. The donkey turns to Bil'am: “What did I do to you? You hit me three times.” The Torah uses the word here, and Rashi points out: what do you think? You are going to try to eliminate a people, a nation that keeps the three holidays? The donkey is giving him mussar (rebuke).
Bil'am tells the donkey, “You are mocking me; you are disgracing me. If I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you.” The joke here is the shame and embarrassment Bil'am is putting himself under. He is calling to kill a whole nation, and he cannot even kill his own donkey. Rashi says Bil'am is going to kill the whole Jewish people without a bullet; he is going to use his mouth. What does he tell his donkey? “You are lucky. If I had a sword in my hand, I’d kill you.” The people saw how weak Bil'am actually was.
The aton (female donkey) answers Bil'am: “I am your donkey, whom you have ridden upon from the beginning of your days. However, have I ever been accustomed to do such a thing to you? I never did anything to you. Obviously, something is going on here. Is this normal? I don’t usually do this. Did I ever do this to you?” He answered her—Bil'am could not even answer his donkey.
All of a sudden God uncovered Bil'am’s eyes: “Vayar et mal'ach Hashem (he saw the angel of Hashem),” and now he sees the mal'ach; “ve'charbo shelufah beyado (and his sword drawn in his hand),” with the sword; “vayikod vayishtachu le'apav (he bowed and prostrated himself on his face),” he mouths them. The angel of Hashem said to him, “al mah hikita et atonecha zeh shalosh regalim (Why did you hit your donkey three times?).” “Hineh anochi yatza'ti le'satan (I came down to impede him).” I came down to impede him because he—he went on the road against me. Rashi says here, “is for three words that the angel”—the donkey got scared and veered away.
“Rabbi, what’s the connection between the donkey talking and the snake talking? It’s the only time we ever hear this happening.”
“No, it’s not. You’d be surprised. If you open up Perek Shira, for example, the ladies read; all the animals talk. All the animals praise God in their own language. And it’s not the first time we’ve seen the Nevi'im (Prophets), that the Avonavi talk to the sheep before he brought them up to Nara Kamel. They were talking to him. Each one of these animals has an angel, so that the tzaddik (righteous person) is able to connect to the origin of each item and communicate the powers of each of each item. In this case, Bil'am was really a miracle, because the donkey just opened its mouth without being provoked by a prophet.”
All of a sudden the angel comes along. When God opened Bil'am’s eyes, and Bil'am was able to see the angel and the sword he had, he bowed. The angel says, “Why did you hit your donkey three times? I actually came down as an impediment because he was hastening on the road against me. Bil'am was coming on the road to make an aveirah (transgression), but the donkey saw me, and as a result it moved away from me three times. Had he not turned away—or had she not turned away, the donkey, the female donkey—I would have killed you as well and left her alive.”
Basically, he is getting rebuked by the angel with the female donkey. The angel says, “I would have killed you as well. Not only would a delay have fallen on you because of me, but you would have been killed. For sure you would have been delayed because I stopped you, but I would have killed you too and kept her alive.”
Rashi says something amazing. Because it spoke, the donkey rebuked Bil'am, and he could not answer the rebuke, as it said, “Did I ever do anything to you? Did I ever harm you?” Bil'am said no. He could not answer. At this point the angel kills the donkey. Why would he kill the donkey? What did the donkey do? So nobody would say, “This is the donkey that was able to rebuke Bil'am, and Bil'am wasn’t able to answer.” What do you see again here? God has mercy on people. This is Bil'am, Rabotai. I would keep the donkey alive and let Bil'am get embarrassed. This is the donkey that mouthed off against Bil'am. “I don’t want to embarrass anybody.” Therefore, since the donkey was smarter than Bil'am in this conversation, we do not want people to say, “Oh, there’s the donkey that told off Bil'am.” So the angel killed the donkey.
That is an amazing law as well, and there is a similar law in the Torah. Wait one second. It is talking about a case where a person has relations with an animal. It says that besides killing the person, you kill the animal too. Why? It was not the animal’s fault. God does not want people to say, “Oh, that’s the animal that had relations with so-and-so.” That would embarrass him. I would say the guy is an animal himself, so we should embarrass him. But no, he got his punishment. What do you see from here? If God has mercy on the guy who commits bestiality (relations with an animal), and if God has mercy on Bil'am, killing the donkey because He did not want people to say, “That’s the donkey that rebuked Bil'am,” then all the more, how careful we have to be to show the utmost respect, to talk nicely, and all the praise of our—yeah, as well, by killing the donkey, by killing the monkey.
Tomorrow night is special—we are going to start now with Bil'am’s curses turning to blessings. Anyway, we do this for the—
We’re in the middle of Balak. We’re learning for Chaya Sara bat Simcha. Thank you. The pasuk says, let’s see where we ended up last night. We’re going to start from perek—let’s do—so the mal'ach tells him, “Go with the people. Ve'efes, however, whenever I speak to you...” So God is telling him that by force he is going to have to speak what God tells him. He went. He says that when he went with—he went with the officers of—he was happy to curse Israel as they were, which Rashi tells me means that he still intended to curse, even though God had just told him he could not. Talk about a guy with a one-track mind.
He went and sent out emissaries to—and brought him to the city of—the country of—“Why didn’t you come sooner? I think I’m unable to respect you properly.” He says, “Listen, I was delayed.” He tells Bil'am, “I came, but I’m not able to speak anything. That’s what I’m going to be able to speak.”
They got to a place called Kiryat Chutzot. It’s a city filled with marketplaces, men and ladies and women and children. Balak saw all the marketplaces and had mercy—or actually, he had mercy on the Goyim. Balak took him to a big, like, mall of all Goyim shopping and everything, men, women, and children. He was basically trying to tell Bil'am, “If you don’t curse these Jewish people, they’re going to come and destroy this beautiful shopping area,” so Bil'am would have mercy and try to curse the Jewish people before they came in and attacked.
The pasuk says, “Vayizbach Balak bakar vatzon (Balak sacrificed cattle and sheep),” and Balak brought korbanot (offerings). First he brought a little one, bakar and one tzon. It’s one head of cattle, one sheep. Then it says, “Vayehi baboker (It was in the morning).” It was the morning. They went to the top of the mountain and were able to see part of the nation from there. “Build for me seven altars.” Everything is seven here: seven bulls, seven rams, seven altars. Balak does everything, and they brought one par (bull) and one ayil (ram).
Balak tells Bil'am, “Stand by your korban and I’m going to make my way. Maybe God will happen to me and show me something, and I will tell you.” “Shefi” means he went alone. This is the daytime, so Bil'am says, “God usually doesn’t talk to me during the day. God usually talks to Bil'am only at night. So listen, maybe God will come to me today, and I’ll let you know what He says.”
He goes alone, quietly. Or anybody, by the way? Sure enough, the pasuk says he came, he appeared to—Bil'am tells God, “I built the seven altars,” even though he is a liar. He did not do anything; he actually called Balak to do it. But okay. Then he says, “And I brought a par and an ayil on each Mizbeach.” The Shelah says that Bil'am says, “I built,” or “I prepared,” seven Mizbechot. Or he actually says, “the seven.” He said that the fathers of this nation also built seven Mizbechot. I built four, as the pesukim say, and Yitzhak also built a few Mizbechot, and so did Yaakov. All together, Abraham, Yitzhak, and Yaakov built seven. Bil'am said they collectively built seven, and I did it myself, trying to outdo the Avot. Abraham built four Mizbeach, Yitzhak built one, and Yaakov Avinu built two. Therefore, he is saying, “And I built seven.”
The pasuk says God placed some words in Bil'am’s mouth. Bil'am returns to Balak, who is standing by his korban, along with all the people of Moab, and starts his parable. That is where the blessing is going to start. We start with the first blessing.
He said, “Balak hired me or led me from Aram. He brought me from the mountains of the east. What did he tell me? ‘Come and curse for me, and come bring anger to the Jewish people.’” But how can I curse when God does not want me to curse? I cannot get angry if God does not want me to get angry.
Rashi says that even when they deserve a curse, they do not get cursed. When Shimon and Levi killed the whole town of Shechem, they were worthy of being cursed, because Yaakov was very upset with them. He said, “I’m angry that they killed the city.” But he did not curse them; he cursed their anger. As the pasuk says, before Yaakov Avinu died, he did not curse Shimon and Levi for killing the city of Shechem; he cursed their anger: “Arur apam (cursed be their anger).”
Remember when Yaakov Avinu went in trickery to get the berachot from Esav? He should have gotten a curse. What does the pasuk say? “Gam baruch yihyeh (he got blessed).” Even when they deserve curses, they get blessed. So how am I going to curse these people? That is what Bil'am was saying. There is no chance.
Rashi says Bil'am knew exactly the moment when God gets angry. It is one split second. But Rashi tells us that during the week Bil'am was trying to do this, God did not get angry. Therefore, the pasuk says, “How can I get angry if Hashem is not getting angry?” Bil'am knew the moment, but the moment was not happening.
“Ki me'rosh tzurim er'enu (I see the heads of their families).” Who are they? That refers to the Avot and the Imahot (matriarchs). “I see the heads of the rocks,” which are the Avot, “and I see them dwelling by the mountains,” which refers to the Imahot. They are a nation that is alone. They have no connection to the—and that is what the Avot instilled in us: we have to be separate from the Goyim. Even Bil'am understands that the Jewish people are separate, different, and alone.
He says, “Who is able to count the afar Yaakov (the dirt of Yaakov)?” What is he talking about, counting the dirt of Yaakov? Rashi says that even the dirt of Yaakov does mitzvot. For example, you are not allowed to plow a donkey and an ox together. That is a mitzvah the dirt is doing. You are not allowed to plant and mix seeds. Or they take dirt from the ground for the parah adumah (red heifer), and they mix it in there. Or, for the waters of sotah (suspected adulteress), they take dirt from the ground. Bil'am is saying that we cannot even count all the things the Jewish people do with dirt, let alone everything else.
Then he says, “When I die, I want to die a death of the righteous ones.” The problem is, he did not want to live like that. It also says, “Rova Yisrael (the seeds of Israel),” referring to the seeds of Israel. Basically, he was saying that the Jewish people have a lot of children, the product of their relations. Then he says, “I want to die like the righteous ones.” That is a beracha that came out of his mouth. Balak is going to get angry and tell Bil'am, “I hired you to curse,” and instead he is giving berachot. Therefore, he is going to take him to a different location, and the same thing is going to happen again. Bil'am has no control of his mouth at this point. Bil'am is putting whatever he wants into Bil'am’s mouth to bless the Jewish people. All right, more or less.