Parashat Balak - 5761 - OU Torah Insights Project

By Rabbi Avraham Fischer. A publication of the Orthodox Union in cooperation with the Seymour J. Abrams Orthodox Union Jerusalem World Center

Parshat Balak
July 7, 2001

FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE TORAH until its end, the narrative follows one perspective: the emergence of the Jewish people, as seen from the insider's view. We follow the development of the Patriarchs' families, who issue from the family of humankind, as they become the Children of Israel. They are transformed into a nation, ready to establish a society founded upon the values of Torah. They rise to sanctity, fall in sin, and rise again in repentance.

ONLY ONE SECTION OF THE TORAH, the parshah of Balak, deviates from this "story line." The "camera" pulls away from its "interior shot" and regards Israel from the outside. From the first word in the parshah, VAYAR, and he saw, which follows Israel's victories east of the Jordan (Bamidbar, Ch. 21), we are spectators:

AND BALAK THE SON OF TZIPPOR saw all that Israel had done to the Emorites . . . (Bamidbar 22:2).

The whole parshah is filled with Hebrew verbs of vision:

R-A-A-H (23:21) - to see
SH-U-R (23:9; 24:17) - to observe
TS-F-H (23:14) - to watch
N-B-T (as in HIBIT, 23:21) - to scrutinize
SH-K-F (as in NISHKAF, 23:28) - to look from above
CH-Z-H (24:4,16) - to foresee.

THERE ARE ALSO MANY EXAMPLES of vision-related imagery, such as "the eyes of G-d" (23:27; 24:1); "the eyes of the angel of Hashem" (22:34) and "the one whose eyes have been opened" [Bil'am] (24:4, 16). Another expression Bil'am applies to himself, SHTUM HA'AYIN (24:3,15), might mean, as quoted by Rashi, either "of the gouged, or blinded, eye" or "of the open eye"! Perhaps Bil'am himself is unsure whether his vision is occluded or clear.

THE EVENTS OF THIS PARSHAH turn on moments of vision. Initially, Israel is described as they must have appeared to outside observers:

And Moav said to the elders of Midian: Now, this congregation will lick up all that is around us, as the ox licks up the greenery of the field . . . Behold, the people that has come out of Egypt - behold, they cover the face [EIN, literally, eye] of the earth (22:4, 11).

BIL'AM'S DONKEY not only speaks, but three times (22:23,25,27), it sees the angel, which its master, the "seer," cannot see! Bil'am is thereby taught that, in addition to his own power of speech, his vision, too, comes from Hashem (verse 31).

WHEN BIL'AM SON OF BE'OR is brought from Petor to curse Israel, thereby making them vulnerable to attack, he and Balak repeatedly look upon the people, always from without:

And it was in the morning, and Balak took Bil'am and brought him up to the Bamot [elevations] of Ba'al, and from there he saw the edge of the people (22:41).
And Balak said to him: "Come, please, with me to another place from which you will see them; you will only see the outer part of them, and you will not see all of them; and curse them for me from there" (23:13).

BALAK ASSUMES that the people can be cursed using Bil'am's power of vision. As Kli Yakar (R. Ephraim Shlomo of Luntshits, 1550-1619) explains, Balak at first thought that the people could be cursed by finding the weakness in their origins, their descent from idolaters. Next he searched for the sins of the descendants themselves, as a weakness to be exploited. His error was in evaluating these failures from a superficial perspective: in fact, the Patriarchs created a new ancestry, and the children had been absolved of their sins, often through painful atonement.

THE EPISODE OF THE DONKEY foreshadowed Bil'am's own heightened perception and truer vision:

And Bil'am saw that it was good in the eyes of Hashem to bless Israel, and he did not go, as in past times, towards enchantments, and he set his face to the wilderness (24:1).

NOW HE BEHOLDS THE PEOPLE devoid of preconceptions, thereby opening himself up, as Ramban says, to prophecy:

And Bil'am lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel dwelling according to their tribes, and the spirit of G-d was upon him (24:2).

BIL'AM DISCOVERS that the Children of Israel must be observed from within. Ironically, this also provides him with the means for their downfall: by enticing them to sin through the women of Midian, he undermines their inner moral and spiritual strength. It is significant that some of the key words associated with the dispatching of the Israelite man and the Midianite woman in 25:8 - KUBBAH (tent) and KAVATAH (her belly) - connote "that which is within," and also resembles a word for cursing, KABO, that was mentioned often in the parshah (e.g., 22:11,17; 23:8,13,27).

IN THIS INCIDENT, too, there are two kinds of vision: the flagrant immorality of the man with the Midianite women occurs "in the eyes of Moshe and in the eyes of all the congregation of the Children of Israel" (25:6); but only Pinchas knows what to do: And Pinchas son of Elazar, son of Aharon the Kohen saw, and he arose from the midst of the congregation, and he took a spear in his hand (verse 25:7).

The parshah opens up with VAYAR BALAK and concludes with VAYAR PINCHAS!

WHAT DO WE GAIN BY BEING ENDOWED with the perspective of Balak and Bil'am? Prof. Nechama Leibowitz quotes:

Said Rabbi Chiyya bar Abba: The praise of a woman is not when she is extolled by her friends, but when she is extolled by her rivals (Devarim Rabbah 3:8).

MOREOVER, THIS PARSHAH is set against the backdrop of the book of Bamidbar, which chronicles the immense shifts in the relationship between Israel and Hashem. We may fear we are rejected, but when we are granted the gift of seeing ourselves as Hashem wants us to be seen by others, we understand more profoundly Hashem's love for us.