FREE CHOICE AND FREE ACTIONS
INTRODUCTION TO PARASHAT
HASHAVUA
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In memory of
Yakov Yehuda ben Pinchas Wallach
and Miriam Wallach bat Tzvi
Donner
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PARASHAT
BALAK
FREE CHOICE AND
FREE ACTIONS
By Rabbi Yaakov
Beasley
A.
INTRODUCTION
Our parasha
begins with the end. The forty-year
sentence that has hung over the Jewish People like the sword of Damocles is
approaching its conclusion. The
people have fought and won wars against Sichon, king of the Amorites, and Og,
king of Bashan, and they have finally arrived at the plains of Moav – modern day
southern Jordan by the Dead Sea.
The proximity of the multitudes of the encampment concerns Balak, king of
Moav: “Now will this multitude lick up all that is round about us, as the ox
licks up the grass of the field.” He shares his distress with the elders of
Midian. At this point, his language is reminiscent of the Egyptian reaction at
the beginning of the book of Shemot.
Moav: And Moav was
very fearful because of the people, because they were numerous
[rav], and Moav felt a disgust at the Children of
In response to Balak’s
concern, the elders of Midian and Moav travel to the sorcerer Bilaam, hoping to
persuade him to curse the Jewish People.
Bilaam’s responses to the messengers appear to be appropriate, while
Hashem’s responses to Bilaam’s inquiries are puzzling. What did Hashem want Bilaam to
do?
First, the emissaries
arrive from Moav and Midian and state their mission - they want Bilaam to curse
the Israelites. Bilaam's answer is a model of propriety: “Stay the night,” he
says. “I will consult with
Hashem (and hopefully I will receive permission).” However, Hashem's answer is
unequivocal:
But God said to
Bilaam, "Do not go with them. You must not put a curse on those people, because
they are blessed."
Obediently, Bilaam
refuses to go with the elders. This
causes Balak to redouble his efforts. Perhaps sending more distinguished
messengers and hinting to significant reward would persuade Bilaam to change his
mind. Yet Bilaam’s reply to the second set of emissaries is again exemplary:
“Even if Balak gave me his palace filled with silver and gold, I could not do
anything great or small to go beyond the command of Hashem my God.”
However, here he adds a condition: “Now stay here tonight as the others did, and
I will find out what else Hashem will tell me.”
The implication of the
rider is clear – Hashem may change His mind. Isn’t this impossible? But
to our surprise, that is exactly what Hashem seems to
do:
That night, God came
to Bilaam and said, “Since these men have come to summon you, go with them, but
do only what I tell you.”
First, Hashem
said, “Do not go,” and now He says, “Go!” If this is not problematic enough,
what occurs afterwards only strengthens our question:
Bilaam got up in the
morning, saddled his donkey, and went with the princes of Moav. But God was very
angry when he went, and the angel of Hashem stood in the road to oppose
him.
Hashem says, “Go,” and
Bilaam goes. Then Hashem gets angry because he goes. What is going on
here? Does Hashem change His
mind – not once but twice in the course of a single narrative? What was Bilaam
supposed to do? Instead of providing an explanation, the narrative shifts to the
famous yet mysterious scene of Bilaam’s ass:
Bilaam was riding on
his donkey, and his two servants were with him. When the donkey saw the angel of
Hashem standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand, it turned off
the road into a field. Bilaam beat it to get it back on the road.
Then the angel of
Hashem stood in a narrow path between two vineyards, with walls on both
sides. When the donkey saw the angel of Hashem, it pressed close to the
wall, crushing Bilaam’s foot against it. So he beat it again.
Then the angel
of Hashem moved on ahead and stood in a narrow place where there was no
room to turn, neither to the right nor to the left. When the donkey saw the
angel of Hashem, it lay down under Bilaam, and he was angry and beat it
with his staff. Then Hashem opened the donkey’s mouth, and it said to
Bilaam, “What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?”
Bilaam answered the
donkey, “You have made a fool of me! If I had a sword in my hand, I would kill
you right now.”
The donkey said to Bilaam, “Am I not your own donkey, which
you have always ridden, to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to
you?” “No,” he said.
Then Hashem
opened Bilaam’s eyes and he saw the angel of Hashem standing in the road
with his sword drawn. So he bowed low and fell facedown…
After this incident,
what does Hashem do with the ostensibly rebellious seer? He does not turn him back, but rather
sends him on his way, with a new provision:
“Go with the men; but
only the word that I shall speak unto you, that you shall speak.”
We find ourselves
staggering underneath the apparent contradictions. What does Hashem want? What did He want to tell Bilaam through
this strange event? If he wanted to tell Bilaam that the message had to be
pre-approved by Hashem, that was stated already the night
before:
“If the men came to
call you, rise up, go with them; but only the word which I speak unto you, that
shall you do.”
What, then, did
Hashem want from Bilaam?
B. MAN
CHOOSES HIS OWN PATH
Two nineteenth-century
commentators, the Malbim and R. Zvi Hirsch Mecklenberg (author of Ha-Ketav
Ve-Ha-Kabbala), suggest the following explanation of Hashem’s
contradictory messages based on close textual analysis. The Hebrew text uses two
different words to mean “with them” in the first and second Divine replies.
After Bilaam’s initial query, Hashem says, “Don’t go with them
(imahem).” After Bilaam’s second question, Hashem says “Go with
them (itam).” The two prepositions have subtly different meanings.
Imahem means “with them mentally as well as physically,” implying going
along with their plans. Itam means “with them physically, but not
mentally;” in other words, Bilaam could accompany them but not share their
purpose or intention. Hashem is angry when Bilaam goes because, as the
text states, he went imahem. His accompanying the messengers signified
that he identified with their mission.
This interpretation is
ingenious, but there remains a difficulty in verse 35, in which the angel of
Hashem, having opened Bilaam’s eyes, finally tells Bilaam, “Go with
(im) the men.” According to the Malbim and R. Mecklenberg, this is
precisely what Hashem did not want Bilaam to do.
We therefore prefer the following
suggestion of the Ramban:
In my view, Hashem had stopped
him at the beginning from going with the people, for they were blessed. Why should he go with them if he wasn’t
going to curse them anyways, for they were interested in no other course of
action… Of course, Bilaam informed them of the Divine message, causing Balak to
send another mission to him, for he did not believe what he was told. He added more honor to him and sent more
distinguished princes than the previous time and promised to reward him even
more munificently. However, Bilaam
answered them once again that it did not depend on money or his honor, but only
on God, and that he would consult Him once again. In saying this, Bilaam behaved
correctly, for what could he know of Hashem’s intentions?
…
Now Hashem told him, I have
already informed you that the people are blessed and you cannot curse them, and
the emissaries have just come back again.
The text “if the men have come to call you” implies “if they have come
solely for the purpose of inviting you, and will be content if you accompany
them on condition that you do not curse the people, as I forewarned you” then
“rise up, go with them, but only the word which I speak unto you, that you shall
do” … for it was Hashem’s wish that the Jewish People should be blessed
by a prophet of the nations.
Bilaam should have stated this to the
emissaries, telling them, “Hashem has permitted me to accede to your
invitation to go with you, but on condition not to curse the people but to bless
them, if He should so command me.”
If they would not agree to this, then they would leave
him…
Now Bilaam, out of his eagerness to
accompany them, did not tell them this; he said nothing to them, but “rose early
in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moav” as if he
was willing to do just what they wanted.
Therefore, Hashem was angry at his going. Moreover, this was a profanation of the
Divine name – chillul Hashem – since Bilaam’s going, without specifying
the conditions above, might be interpreted to mean hat Hashem had given
him permission to curse the people, contradicting the original message... and
far be it from Hashem to do such a thing, for the Eternity of Israel will
not lie nor change His mind.
In summary, Hashem did not
change his mind. Instead, it is
Bilaam who acted against the Divine command, rushing to violate it.
C. RAV
MEDAN’S APPROACH
Rav Yaakov Medan shlita, Rosh
Yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion, recently suggested one final approach at the
Yemei Iyun on Tanach sponsored every year in Alon Shevut by the
Machon Michlelet Yaakov Herzog. In
his address, Rav Medan argued that the question only arises because we tend to
assume that the portrayal of the events in our parsha follows a strict
chronological order. While this
makes sense for chapters 22 to 24, at what point in time does chapter 25 take
place? Let us review quickly the
events of that chapter:
(1) And
Did the horrific events of chapter 25
take place immediately after Bilaam praised and blessed the Jewish people’s
sense of modesty, their virtue of chastity? Rav Medan suggests that our questions
regarding Hashem’s apparent mind-changes disappear if we read the
narratives of chapters 22 and 25 as occurring simultaneously, as laid out
below:
The advantage of Rav Medan’s creative
restructuring of the narrative is that is removes the question of why
Hashem changing his mind.
Bilaam is granted or denied permission to go based on the spiritual level
of the Jewish People. When they sin at Baal Pe’or, they become vulnerable, and
Bilam is granted the permission denied previously. Pinchas’s dramatic actions to rectify
the situation not only stop the plague - they cause the angel to interfere in
Bilaam’s path, even though he possessed what he thought was Divine approval. As
long as the people maintain the spiritual status required of Hashem’s
earthly representatives, no one can harm them. When they falter, however, they expose
themselves to danger.