He that touches you (Israel) touches the apple of Hashem's eye (Zechariah 20:12).
Balak
Reb Shlomo Minyan HarNof
(R. Raphael, email: [email protected])
When Balak, king of Moav proposed an alliance with Midian against Yisrael, he identified the source of Yisrael's holiness: "they are gathered together and will lick up all around them" (Bemidbar 22:4). Balak had seen that the defeat of the Emorites came about because of the love and unity within the Jewish nation that made them pleasing to Hashem. And, as the "other side" always does, Balak took the unity that he saw from the outside and imitated it for his own purposes.
Even though Moav was not one of the seven nations of the Land of Kanaan that was directly in danger of conquest by Yisrael, Balak felt threatened. "If they bring Torah into the land through the commandments, extending it down to the level of 'aretz,' then the whole reality of the world will be changed. So long as they are in the desert eating the manna, drinking from the well and dwelling in the clouds, our lusts and appetites for this world are safe. But if we let Klal Yisrael create a holy existence in the land then we are finished. No one will able to draw life through anything but holiness" (see Shem MiShemuel).
Bilaam and Balak felt threatened because they have their root in Amalek, reishit kol goyim, the "spiritual" head of the seventy nations. Bilaam's name contains the first two letters of Amalek, Balak the last two. Bilaam as the prophet of the seventy nations has the same level of prophecy as Moshe Rabbeinu. But while Moshe makes himself small, humbling himself before Hashem, Bilaam represents pride, appetite and the evil eye. While Moshe connects upwards to Hashem, Bilaam gazes downwards in jealousy, looking from the outside at the fruits of holiness in Yisrael. When he builds his seven altars, he means to say that his claim is as great as the Avot, Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, who together built seven altars (Rashi). "Why choose Yisrael which is merely one?" asks Bilaam of Hashem. "Let all seventy nations serve You."
But there is a dark intention veiled by the "truth" that Bilaam asserts. Thus, even though it says in Tzefaniah, "In the future the nations will call out with clear speech to Hashem," we see that Bilaam is really acting out his selfish motives and jealousy of Yisrael, who up to now have connected themselves to the world to come. Because now they want to bring holiness to this world as well, the world which Amalek claims is rightfully theirs.
The Root Of The "Other Side"
This has to do not only with the history of the nations and Yisrael, but with every individual. The "spiritual" root of the body, disassociated from holiness, is outwardly directed, trying to fill its needs by feeding on chitzoniut, using the eye to grab for itself. Inwardly, it fills its emptiness through envying those who draw holiness into their lives. The Gemara says, "No one ever fills half their desires in this world." So the need for fulfillment feeds on itself like an addiction, making it more and more acquisitive, jealous of anyone else's possessions or contentment. This is why taavah is the root of the bad eye. The bad eye is the negative judgment of others that arises from the jealousy born of unconstrained desires. (Thus Bilaam is also associated with lashon hara, evil speech directed towards those who have a spiritual connection.)
When Bilaam tries to bring Gd's wrath upon Yisrael, he does this out of his jealousy. There is indeed a moment when Hashem, so to speak, directs His judgment at Yisrael. Bilaam, who has achieved knowledge motivated by his hatred, would like, in his corruptness, to use that anger to uproot Yisrael. But Hashem connects to Yisrael from a point that is more penimi (deeper, more essential) than the spiritual jealousy can comprehend, and Bilaam's attempt is doomed to fail.
Shatum Eiyin - One Eye For Hashem
Bilaam was "shatum eiyin." This phrase is variously translated as enlightened (Ramban - "shatuei bekol makom); future-seeing (Lekach Tov); seeing eye (Targum); open eyed (Rashbam); evil eye (Zohar); blinded, "satum" (Sanhedrin 105a); dislocated (Rashi).
The Baal Shem Tov explains the difficulty of this unusual word with its seemingly contradictory explanations in this way: one can only be a prophet if he has purified the five senses, seeing, hearing, etc., which are parallel to the five levels of soul. Bilaam's practices were the opposite of purity. He was the one who advised Paroh, presiding over the most impure of nations, Mitzrayim, how to enslave Yisrael for its own purposes; it was he who set the snare for Yisrael to sin with the daughters of Midian; he used various impure methods of divination, and, as it states in Sanhedrin 105a, he had relations with his donkey to increase his powers of sorcery.
Hashem gave the seventy nations the same level of prophecy that Moshe had in order that they shouldn't have a claim of unfair favoritism towards Yisrael (see Rashi). But, as we already stated, prophecy only rests on those who purify themselves. Therefore, Hashem split Bilaam in two, blinding one of his eyes, preventing him from sinning with it so that prophecy could rest there. Thus, although Bilaam had no desire to connect his self with holiness, he could act as a visionary vessel. Although all but one bit of him was sunk in the greatest tumah,he could use his "opening," i.e., his dead, "good" eye, while turning his other, corrupt eye, towards Yisrael. He sought their destruction because of his jealousy of the holiness they had attained - a holiness which he had no desire to attain for himself.
Overcoming Bilaam In Our Service To Hashem
Bilaam is the aspect of bad middot, looking with a bad eye, not being content with what one has. The root of this is promiscuous sexual desire, "niuf." Before a person can merit to receive Torah he needs to be tested in the desires that are rooted in the seventy languages, because language is the repository of all the different ways of seeing the world. Through discipline he can use this as a means of purification. By persevering, he is able to shake off the shell of the different ways of looking and reaches the hidden fruit. This is chochmah and binah - wisdom and understanding - going beyond the grasping of self to the powers of holiness that are imprisoned there.
Bilaam is called "opened-eyed" because he represents the lack of self-restraint, the root of the bad middot that characterize the seventy languages which exists in each individual. The tikkun for this is pressing one's eyes tightly closed when reading the Shema and connecting his innermost penimiut to the Source of unity. As the rabbis say, "The saying of the Shema cures the lust for promiscuity which originates in the occluded blood of the spleen. Unless a person clarifies the blood, it gathers to itself all of the impurity of desire which feeds upon itself. This self-indulgence is called malchut harasha (corruption of one's power to rule over self) or "el acher," worshipping the "other god" - defining fulfillment of self through outwardly directed desire. (See Lekutei Maharan on Bilaam.)
The one who looks outwardly for fulfillment makes himself devoid of spirituality. But when a person will cry out to Gd as it says in Tehillim 42, "my soul yearns for You," with the utmost sincerity, then the secrets of Torah are opened and he gives birth to new souls. These are the souls of Yisrael that make up the Torah and the one who guards his connection to holiness is able to bring these souls towards their realization, connecting them to the inwardness of the Torah.
We live in a world where people hunger to believe that real life (holiness) is possible. We need to start by understanding that Hashem who is the Source of kedushah cannot be thwarted. While free choice is granted and people sometimes choose evil ways, Hashem's living presence in the world is, nevertheless, preserved. Those who turn their eyes from the distractions of this world help to ripen the fruits of holiness by shining an inner light into the souls which make up the Torah. Those who look outwards end up ripping off, creating a break within themselves and others that keeps them from nourishing from the source of life. The tikkun for those who have turned outward is to choose to reconnect the penimiut of himself and others to Hashem. While the bad eye swallows others in judgment, the person who finds contentment in what he receives from above is like the final hey if Hashem's name, the place of the world, providing the place for others to find their connection to holiness.
Irony And Blessing
Ironically, the highest blessings come through Bilaam. His way of looking in judgment which is born from his jealousy become blessings when attached to the root in holiness. With Hashem's help, his evil gaze becomes the illumination of the best parts of Yisrael. In contrast to his own unrestrained eye, Bilaam observes how Yisrael's tents don't face each other, protecting us from being aroused to grasp what doesn't belong to us and falling into the destructiveness of outward jealousy. (Bemidbar 23:5)
Yisrael's connection to the holy preserves us from the gaze which seeks out our weakness: "I see this nation from the mountain tops and gaze from the heights" (Bemidbar 23:9). Although Bilaam can look from the outside, he cannot affect that which is rooted in holiness because it has a deeper inner connection. Ultimately it is Amalek itself that will be uprooted. In grasping in jealousy, it unwittingly finds the source of its own destruction, conferring blessing to the root in goodness that expresses Hashem's will: "First among nations is Amalek, but in the end he will be destroyed forever" (Bemidbar 24:20).
The highest tikkun of Moav (Bilaam's people, who go back to Lot, nephew of Avraham), comes through Ruth whose descendent is King David, the one who wrestles with the forces of chitzoniut (outward-directed desire) through his five books of Tehillim, showing how to bring all of ourselves into kedushah.
Mitzvot
According to Sefer HaChinuch there are no commandments in the parashah.
At A Glance