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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