Balak

Parashat Balak 5784

How did Bilaam merit Moshe Rabenu’s level of prophesy?

In this week’s parashah there is a very basic yet very difficult question. The words of

Chazal are well known. The Torah tells us after the death of Moshe Rabenu that there

never was and never will be a prophet in Yisrael comparable to Moshe. Chazal derive

from the fact that the Torah says b’Yisrael, that only amongst the Jews shall there not

be a prophet like Moshe but by the goyim there was. Whom? Bilaam.

Not only is it unfathomable to us that Bilaam reached such a high level, but even more

so shocking is the fact that seemingly he reached a level which eluded even to the Avot

HaKedoshim,and all the holy prophets and tzaddikim who did not reach the level of

Moshe, how are we to understand that the evil Bilaam exceeded all of our holiest

ancestors?

There was a rationale for his achieving this level of prophesy. Rashi quotes the Midrash

that Hashem gave the goyim a prophet in order that they should not excuse their

misbehavior with the argument that if they had a prophet like Moshe they would have

rectified their ways. Hashem “disproved” this argument by providing them with a great

prophet; not only did they not refrain from sin, even their prophet himself descended to

depravity. Still, we must try to understand how it was possible for such a high level of

prophesy to attach itself to Bilaam.

Moshe received the prophesy of Billam

Gemara Bava Batra (14b) teaches us who authored the books of TaNaCh. Regarding

Moshe it says “Moshe wrote his book (chumash) and the episodes of Bilaam and Iyov”.

Rashi elucidates “The episodes of Bilaam - his prophesies and parables – Although

Moshe was not actually a participant in the events of Bilaam and Balak, and seemingly

he had no way of knowing of them, still the gemara writes that he knew them and

recorded them.

The “Shining reflection” and the “Hazy reflection”

The Gemara writes: “ All the prophets gazed at aspaklaria she’aina meira (a hazy

reflection) Moshe Rabenu gazed at a aspaklaria meira (a shining reflection) Rashi

explains that since the others prophets did not see clearly, they mistakenly thought that

they were actually perceiving the countenance of Hashem. Moshe however saw clearly

and therefore knew that he was not seeing Hashem directly. We therefore deduce that

everything that Moshe saw in his prophesy he knew to be absolutely true, just as he

knew that he had not directly perceived Hashem’s countenance.

Rambam lists the traits and attributes that one must attain in order to merit prophesy.

He elaborated that a prophet must have a plethora of positive character traits.

Maharil Diskin writes that the aspaklaria that the prophet looks through is like a mirror.

The prophet receives a message from Hashem and he is entrusted to convey the

message to the people. In order to accomplish this he first needs to perceive and

process the message, he then transmits it with his own understanding and words.

In contrast, Moshe was a pure conduit for the words of Hashem; he was able to relay

them as they were given, in their true and original form. This is the essence of the

difference between the prophesy of Moshe and that of all the other prophets. The

others saw through a mirror, the mirror was made up of their own characters. Any flaw

or impurity, any imperfection or “tint”, was reflected in the image that they relayed to

the people. The aspaklaria she’aina meira caused that the prophesy took on the

personality of the prophet.

Not so with Moshe. He saw with aspaklaria meira. His prophesy was neither shaded nor

tinted, it was related to the people in its original true form, as it was given to him from

Heaven. It is this distinction which is given to the prophesy of Bilaam, “B’umot haolam

kam” the nations established a prophet like Moshe, who saw through aspaklaria meira.

That which we read in the parasha from the words of Bilaam were unchanged words of

Hashem.

Rebbi Chaim MiVoloshin explains the Midrash that points out that when Hashem called

Avraham Avinu “Avraham – Avraham” there is a punctuation between the two.

However when Hashem called “Moshe Moshe” there is no punctuation between

them. This can be understood according to Gemara Chulin that says that words

of Moshe and Aharon were greater than those of Avraham. Avraham said “I am

dust and ashes” while Moshe and Aharon said “What are we?” This seemingly

minute difference manifests itself in prophesy. Every person’s soul is made up of

different parts, the more spiritual part which has no physicality, until the

“nefesh” which is synthesized with the body and therefore has some form of

physical attributes. Prophesy as it emits from Above, is totally spiritual. It is

perceived by the higher, spiritual part of the soul and then descends to the living

prophet. By nature, in order to be perceived by a physical man, the prophesy

must take on some physical attributes. The degree of this transition is dependent

on the state of physicality of the prophet himself.

Avraham considered himself “dust and ashes” almost complete nothingness.

However, the slight bit of physicality found in this lowest form of matter, precluded him

from attaining the highest degree of prophesy, for the prophesy needed to take on

some form of physicality in order to attach to the tiny bit of “self” that Avraham still

had. There was still some physical body that could not perceive a totally spiritual word.

Moshe however said “What are we?” Total nothingness. He had reach absolute

perfection of his attributes and absolute humility; therefore his prophesy was the

uncolored and unchanged word of Hashem.

Alas, Bilaam was given a lofty level of prophesy, but he was unable to transmit it to the

nations. Bilaam was far from having negated his self, on the contrary he was filled with a

desire for fame and glory. Therefore, the prophesy of Bilaam did not have an effect on

the goyim since he was unable to transmit it as it was given; it was tainted by a body

soiled by sin and lust.

Yehi Ratzon milifne Hakadosh Baruch Hu that we shall merit to overcome all of our evil

inclinations so we will be able to serve Hashem with all the positive traits he has gifted

us with .

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Gad Bouskila

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