Balak 5774:    Go Straight to the Source

By Rabi Joshua (directly known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

The Mishnah in Avos (5:8) lists ten items that were created on Shabbos eve at twilight. Among them is the “mouth of the donkey”, or the ability of Bila’am’s donkey to speak, as recorded in this week’s parsha. The Rambam, in his Mishnah commentary, explains that all of these items constitute miracles that would occur at various times in history. The miraculous is problematic, because it seems to imply that the order of the universe created by God in the first six days is somehow lacking. Therefore, miracles were included as part of the six day process of creation, thus maintaining the integrity of God’s work. In his Moreh Nevuchim, the Rambam mentions this idea as well, but then says that we do not have to resort to it in order to avoid seeing imperfection in God’s creation. Rather, something that occurs only once in history is not really considered a deviation that contradicts the general order as created by God. 

Rav Mordechai Gifter, zt”l, in his Pirkei Torah, offers a different explanation, specifically in regard to the miracle of the opening of Bila’am’s donkey’s mouth, the “pi ha-ason.” He says that, as the six days of creation end at twilight of erev Shabbos, and man readies himself to enter Shabbos, he begins to see the purpose for which the physical universe was created, to serve the spiritual. During the week, the physical tends to blind one to the spiritual aspects of life, but, on Shabbos, that needs to be corrected, and this process is symbolized by twilight of erev Shabbos. Bila’am, who witnessed the miracle of the speaking donkey, was presented with the challenge of using his spiritual gifts in a way that would bring blessings, thus utilizing the physical for spiritual goals. He failed, however, and continued in his attempts to curse the Jewish people.

Bila’am’s primary failing, writes Rav Gifter, was due to his arrogance. Although he realized that he had a great spiritual gift, as reflected in his ability to speak to a donkey, and, later, to an angel of God, he persisted in his effort to curse the Jewish people, superimposing his own agenda onto the spiritual gift he received.  Rav Shlomo Yosef Zevin, in his LaTorah ULaMoadim, points out that, from beginning to end, there is no break in the Torah’s narrative of Bila'am, neither for an open parsha separation, a pesucha, nor a closed parsha separation, a setumah. This is because Bila'am did not change, despite the miracles he saw and the spiritual level he had attained. Rav Shmuel Bornstein, in his Shem MiShmuel, notes, similarly, that when the Torah says that God was angry with Bila’am for going with the princes of Moav, even though He had told him he could go with them if he wanted to, the verb for “to go” is written in the present form – “holech” (Bamidbar 22:22), meaning “he was going.”  The idea, he says, is that Bila’am persisted in going with the princes of Moav for his own reasons, and to achieve his own agenda, rather than to fulfill God’s directive.  He did not change, in this regard, from beginning to end. Our challenge is to use the spiritual abilities we are given to take the physical universe and utilize it to accomplish God’s goals for it, in contrast to Bila’am, who did the reverse.