Our story this week is unlike any other part of the Torah. The whole beginning of the פרשה is about a dialogue between and the actions of two men that are not part of the people, and until later when Moshe mentions in passing to them in his final speech that this episode took place, the people have no idea what is going on. There is no doubt that סיחון, עוג, Amalek, and Pharaoh all had discussions with their elders and magicians to see how to destroy the Jewish people, and it is very possible that some of them even took action and tried to curse us or attack us, but we don’t have any records of those events. So why does Hashem dedicate an entire פרשה to what happened with בלק and בלעם here in the desert?
A second question: the Mishna is פרקי אבות 5:19 says that anyone who has a good eye, a humble spirit and a lowly soul is in the school of Avraham and anyone who has the opposite, a bad eye, haughty spirit, and an inflated spirit is from the school of בלעם הרשע. Why would there be a comparison between Avraham and בלעם? They didn’t live at the same time, they weren’t ever adversaries and never knew each other. What is the Mishna trying to teach us by comparing specifically these two?
I think the Mishna got it from the פסוקים, since there are more than 10 parallels between Avraham and our story with בלעם in the פרשה.
- The defeat of עוג was the impetus for בלק to panic and call בלעם, and עוג was part of the 4 kings vs 5 kings war and he was the פליט that told Avraham that Lot got captured
- מואב was the child born from Lot and his daughter.
- Lot’s fight with Avraham was over cattle eating all the food in the area, here too בלק says ילכחו הקהל את כל סביבתינו כלחך השור
- The concept of blessing and curse shows up in each case. ואברכה מברכיך ומקללך אאר is what Hashem tells Avraham and בלק also tells בלעם I know that those that you curse are cursed and those that you bless are blessed.
- Avraham was told they would be many and now they are. בלק is nervous about them overpowering, וכסה את עין הארץ.
- בלעם saddles his own donkey just like Avraham did by the עקידה, both wake up early in the morning to do this.
- בלעם tells the מלאך that just like by the עקידה Hashem used a מלאך to contradict Himself, He is doing the same thing here (Rashi פסוק 34)
- Both by the עקידה and here the commandment was the opposite of what was done in the end. At the עקידה Avraham ended up not killing Yitzchak and here בלעם was planning on cursing and ended up blessing.
- Both had their two “נעריו” with them when they traveled to their destination.
- בלעם says בלק called him from “Aram”, and that was where Avraham was from
That helps get the Mishna off the hook, but why would the פסוקים make these connections and what are we to learn from this?
I think the answer lies in the overall theme of this פרשה which is blessing and curses.
Hashem tells Avraham that those who bless him will be blessed and that those who curse him will be cursed, and through that blessing will come to the world. The mission of our nation is not to go out and preach and bless other nations. Our job is to operate as God’s chosen nation and live by the Torah, and no matter what there will be those in favor of what we are doing and those who are opposed. And the ones who realize that we are carrying out God’s will and bless us for that will themselves be blessed. This system is unique since what determines the “blessedness” of each person is their own decision on how they view the actions of the Jewish nation.
בלעם however, was the exact opposite. בלק tells בלעם, ידעתי את אשר תברך מברך ואשר תאר יואר. I know that those that you bless are blessed and those that you curse are cursed. In this case, בלעם is the one who decides who is blessed and who is cursed regardless of their own actions. It is with this attitude he is hired to curse the nation which Hashem has said is blessed, and we all know how that ended.
This difference sums up the differences in the Mishna in אבות. The theme of בלעם’s traits is internal focus and self-centeredness. His eyes which look outward see other people in a bad light, he is haughty and thinks highly of himself. Whereas Avraham’s traits are externally focused and are altruistic, he sees others in a good light, and views himself as small nit necessarily worthy of receiving things, more of giving things.
Hashem forced בלעם to speak words of blessing against his intentions to prove the point that people’s one’s actions are what open them up to blessing our curse, not בלעם’s whims. And it is after 2 failed attempts that the פסוק says, וירא בלעם כי טוב בעיני יהוה לברך את ישראל. בלעם sees that it is good in God’s eyes to bless the Jews, and he speaks blessings about the people. And it is no surprise that in this blessing we hear the inverse of what בלק originally told בלעם. Here בלעם says מברכיך ברוך וארריך ארור, those who bless you are blessed and those who curse you are cursed. he finally realized that a people’s actions are what set them up for blessing and nothing else.
The sad part is that his evil still had a hold on him and Rashi says that he knew that sin is what would cause the people to be cursed. He understood the concept we just described above but he manipulated it to set up the Jewish nation to sin with the daughters of מואב so that their actions would cause them to be cursed.
Our message is clear. We are meant to act in accordance with the Torah that we received from Hashem and know that those actions will set us up to receive blessing, and that there is force outside of ourselves and our actions which can affect our blessedness or cursedness.