The Pshat Heard 'Round the World

Just as Balak brings Bil’am to consider his enemy from various vantage point, likewise does Parashat Balak allow us to view ourselves from the vantage point of others. The main story in Balak is of a single piece, and Am Yisrael appear only as foils for the central story – the interaction of Bil’am with Hashem. What is curious is that not only does Am Yisrael not appear as a real character in the story, we don’t even get a mention. Every time Balak or Bil’am refer to Am Yisrael in the non-visionary passages, they employ indirection: “this people”, “my enemies”, but never Yisrael. It almost feels that they are avoiding speaking the name, one which Bil’am, at least, employs so beautifully in his prophetic speeches. Now, recalling that this story of the interaction of other nations with Am Yisrael is being told in the Torah, I think the message is this: Yisrael is our name in the context of our covenantal interactions with Hashem, just as Hashem’s real name is used only in the conte...

" Mah Tovu Ohaleicha Ya'akov, Mishkenoteicha Yisrael" . How good are your tents, Ya'akov; your dwellings, Yisrael! These words, some of the first we utter each morning as we enter the Beit Knesset for Shacharit, are the opening words of the third and climactic blessing that Bil'am utters in place of the curse he was summoned from afar to place upon Israel. Though Bil'am was intent on cursing Yisrael one way or another, and sought some subterfuge through which to slip in a curse, Hashem placed His word in Bil'am's mouth like a bit in the mouth of a donkey, and compelled him to follow His original, unchanged instructions of blessing Israel. See Ramban, who explains that Hashem's consent to Bil'am's journey was predicated upon the latter's understanding that he may well end up blessing Israel in Balak's presence! So Bil'am knew he was going to be compelled to bless, and yet he went anyway, and uttered some of the most lofty ...

It's well known that Bil'am is considered the paragon of evil by Jewish tradition. It's also a common experience that a read through this week's parashah hardly depicts Bil'am as such an evildoer - he is a sorcerer who is somehow somewhat conversant in engaging Hashem, who tells those who come to summon him that he'd like to oblige, but he can only do what Hashem tells him to do. After repeating this caveat, he goes, meets Balak, performs the rituals necessary to invoke Hashem, and blesses Israel , as Hashem instructs him. What's so bad about that, other that a little self-interest? Rashi helps us see deeper into the text, teasing out the clues to Bil'am's real character by carefully exploring precisely what he says and how he says it. He uses as his guide the statement in Avot, chapter 5:19: Anyone who possesses these three traits is a disciple of Avraham, our father; (one who possesses) three opposite traits is a disciple of Bilam the wicked....