From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, July 15, 2005 2:32
AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas Balak,
5765
I'm
a Prophet, but I Don't Know Nature's Ways
By
Rabbi Joshua (naturally known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
In this week's
parsha, Balak, king of Moab, sees the Jewish nation approaching his land. Out of
fear that they will attack and defeat him, just as they did to Sichon and Og, he
tries to hire Bilaam to curse them. Bilaam tells the messengers sent by Balak
that no matter how great the riches he is offered, he cannot transgress God's
words. God then appears to Bilaam at night and tells him that he can go with
these men but he can only do what He commands. The next morning, Bilaam saddles
his she-donkey, or 'ason,' and goes with the officers of Moab, apparently
indicating to them that he will do as they wish. God, angry with Bilaam, sets up
a sword- bearing angel on the path and the 'ason' diverges from the path, and,
eventually, sits on Bilaam. Bilaam becomes angry and hits the 'ason,' and then
God gives her the power of speech, which she uses to rebuke Bilaam, and deliver
God's message that Bilaam can continue to go with the elders of Moab on his
mission for Balak, but he can only say that which God will tell him to say. The
Torah then goes on to record the blessings that God placed into the mouth of
Bilaam. This episode of Bilaam and his she-donkey raises some basic questions
which need to be addressed, as I will explain.
The Mishnah in Avos
(5:6), tells us that the opening of the mouse of the 'ason' was one of the ten
miracles that God performed at twilight of the sixth day of creation, directly
before the onset of Shabbos. The Rambam, both in his commentary to the Mishnah
and in his Guide for the Perplexed, explains the idea behind the creation of
these miraculous occurrences at that time as being an explanation of how these
miracles did not contradict the general principle that God wants the world to
function in accordance with the natural order that He created during the six
days of creation. Since the potential for these miracles was created at twilight
of the sixth day of creation, they were actually incorporated into the natural
order of the world. Interestingly, in his Guide for the Perplexed, the Rambam
again offers this explanation, but then says that this answer of the rabbis is
not necessary in order to maintain the integrity of the natural order in spite
of the occurrence of these miracles, because a deviation that occurs so rarely
is not really a deviation. It is, however, the Rambam's other explanation, given
as an interpretation of the Mishnah, that has become known as his opinion on
this matter.
Rabbi Ya'akov Kaminetsky, in his Emes L'Ya'kov to
parshas Korach, expands on this explanation of the Rambam, and says that God saw
a need, at the time of creation, to provide for these occasional deviations from
the natural order, so that people should not come to think that the world runs
by itself, without a providential God standing behind the scenes, directing the
events. Therefore, on Friday afternoon of Creation Week, just as God was about
to put the natural order into place, He provided for the appearance of various
divergences from this order at certain intervals in history, in order to
demonstrate His continual providence. In light of this expansion of the
explanation of the Mishnah in Avos, we need to understand why God changed the
natural order of things to communicate with Bilaam through the 'ason.' What
dimension was gained by giving Bilaam's she-donkey the power of speech that led
God to superimpose this deviation onto the natural course of events?
On one level, we can simply say that God was giving Bilaam, through
the 'ason,' a messge similar to the one he gave Moshe when he initially
refused his mission to the Jewish nation in Egypt, but in the opposite
direction. When Moshe said that he was not a man of words, God responded, "Who
gave man a mouth, or who makes one mute or deaf, or sighted or blind? Is it not
I, God" (Shemos 4:11). Whereas Moshe was saying that he did not have the power
of speech necessary for his mission, Bilaam was going on his mission with the
attitude that he did, indeed, have the power to say whatever he wanted to. God,
by enabling the 'ason' to speak, was telling Bilaam that any ability he had was
actually in God's hands, and subject to His control.
A further
explanation of the message conveyed by the opening of the 'ason's' mouth may be
that God was thereby informing Bilaam of the importance of good character traits
as a foundation for a connection with Him. When Bilaam struck his 'ason' in
reaction to her deviations from the path and her crouching on him, she told him,
" Am I not your 'ason' that you have ridden upon from your inception until this
day? Have I been accustomed to do such a thing to you?" (Bamidbar 22:30). The
'ason' was thus basically telling Bilaam that he was lacking the basic character
trait of gratitude, a trait which even animals exhibit, as the prophet Yeshaya
noted, " The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's trough" (Yeshaya
1:3). This lack of gratitude can, in turn, be taken as emblematic of Bilaam's
general lack of character development, as witnessed by his readiness to curse an
entire nation for monetary gain. The Mishnah in Avos (5:22), in fact, contrasts
the bad character traits of the students of Bilaam - reflecting the character of
their master - with the good character traits of the students of Avrohom,
reflecting the character of their master. Thus, the miracle of the opening of
the mouth of the 'ason' conveyed the message that Bilaam, by intending to curse
the Jewish nation, was lacking basic character development, and was, in this
way, on a lower level than his 'ason.'
Bilaam's lack of good
character traits reflects, in turn, on the level of his prophecy, as well. Rav
Avrohom Yitzchok HaKohen Kook writes in his Oros HaKodesh that there are two
levels of mussar, or moral development - mussar enoshi, or human morality, which
consists of basic morality that every person knows from his very essence, and
mussar Eloki, or religious morality. Rav Kook writes that mussar enoshi is the
basic foundation of morality, and any aspect of mussar Eloki that contradicts
mussar enoshi is suspect. Rav Yehudah Amital, in his recent work, 'VeHaAretz
Nasan Livnei Adam,’ develops this approach of Rav Kook to morality and applies
it to today's society and its problems. In light of our remarks, perhaps we can
say that Bilaam's lack of character development constituted a lack of mussar
enoshi. In turn, this shortcoming indicated that there was something lacking in
the level of Bilaam’s prophecy, as well. This is also reflected in God's message
to him that whatever he said was subject to God's manipulation. Put differently,
the message that Bilaam delivered did not reflect the activity of a prophet who
has developed his moral and intellectual traits to their full extent, and has
been taken a step beyond through the grant of prophecy, as described by the
Rambam in his Eight Chapters. Rather, it was an artificial exercise, the mere
placement of words in his mouth. My teacher, Rav Aharon Soloveichik, zt"l,
characterized Bilaam's prophecy as the actions of a tape recorder, merely
reproducing the message imprinted upon it, but not constituting a fully
developed man of God, as was the case with Moshe. In this sense, when the rabbis
tell us that while among the Jewish people no prophet equivalent to Moshe ever
arose, among the nations of the world such a prophet did arise, namely, Bilaam,
they were only speaking in terms of the actual prophetic message that he
delivered, but not in terms of the man himself. (A further elaboration of the
nature of Bilaam's prophecy, in contrast to that of Moshe, can be found in the
writings of the great rabbi of Brisk and later of Yerushalayim, Rav Yehoshua
Leib Diskin, as presented by Rav Gedalia Schorr in his Ohr Gedalyohu to parshas
Balak). It was this important message that was imparted by the miracle of the
'ason' being given the gift of speech, and that justified the deviation from the
natural order of things that it constituted.
Please address all correspondence to the
author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.
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