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