No, you won't see My anger - Balak 5785

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What was Bilaam thinking?  It’s kind of mind boggling to think that Bilaam thought that he would be able to curse the Jews.  Let’s briefly recap the story.  Balak, king of Moav, sees the Jews camped near his border.  Even though Hashem had clearly warned them not to capture the Moabite lands, Balak hated them and claimed that the Jews were about to commit genocide.  That was his excuse to commit genocide on the Jews.


So he sends messengers to the biggest anti-Semite of all, the prophet Bilaam, whose main claim to fame is that he is an extremely successful curser.  Balak knew this because Bilaam had actually cursed Moav before and they had lost a war with the Amorites.  This is a job that Bilaam relishes - to curse his enemies, the Jews.  What exactly had the Jews done to him?  It doesn’t matter, he was protesting their existence.  And he had the power to do something about it, or so he thought.


So he asks Hashem in a dream to let him curse the Jews.  I guess he was really convinced of the righteousness of his cause, after all the Jews were about to colonize the land of Canaan, and anyway they had no right to exist.  Hashem says: “Don’t do it, they are blessed.”  So he tells Balak’s messengers that he can’t go, but he’s trying to weasel his way around this.  So he tells them: Hashem won’t let me go with YOU,” implying that it was beneath his dignity to go with lesser officers like them.  By the way, arrogance was also something he was known for.  


So Balak sent more senior officers.  This time Hashem says:  “Go ahead, make my day” or something like that.  But... “You will do only what I tell you!”  Bilaam’s irrational hatred for the Jews is so strong, that he ignores the warnings and goes ahead, hoping to somehow get a curse in.  Maybe a ballistic missile, maybe a hypersonic missile, but somehow he’ll clear the world of these hated people one way or the other.


Then on the way an angel with a drawn sword accosts him and warns him to say only what he is told to say.  He persists.  In the end, of course, Bilaam, the arch-enemy of the Jews (what was the reason for his hatred again?) gives the Jews some of the greatest blessings we have ever received.  So, what was he thinking?  He was a prophet, after all, though a deeply flawed one.  He must have known that if Hashem told him he would not be able to curse them, he wouldn;t be able to.


The answer is found in a short phrase that Bilaam said in the opening lines to his blessings (Bamidbar 23:8) “...How can I invoke G-d’s wrath? God has not been angered!”  Rashi explains that every day there is a moment when Hashem’s wrath is revealed in the world, and Bilaam’s cursing strength lay in the fact that he knew exactly when that moment was.  Any curse he uttered at the moment of Divine wrath would be fulfilled.  So even though Hashem had told him not to go, and even though the angel threatened him, his hatred was so intense that he hoped he would be able to find that moment of wrath and curse the Jews.


The miracle was that throughout the time Bilaam was in Moav, Hashem did not reveal His wrath in the world.  And this is what Bilaam meant in the aforementioned verse: “...How can I invoke G-d’s wrath? God has not been angered!”


I always wondered about this Midrash.  Hashem could have allowed nature to continue as usual and just not accepted Bilaam’s curse.  I haven’t seen this written, but it seems to me that this is an example of how Hashem works as much as possible within nature, even when invoking the supernatural.  The way Hashem set up nature, the daily moment of wrath is a time when those who know can effectively curse.  Even though this very nature was created by Hashem, He does not like to supersede it.  He therefore removed that natural possibility in order to protect His people.  There was still a miracle.  The daily event of Hashem’s wrath was withheld, but the natural order of the effect of a curse persists.


We live within nature.  There are rules of nature that govern how the world runs.  And Hashem generally does not change the natural order.  At the same time, Hashem created this order, and is constantly creating and running every aspect of the world.  If He deems it necessary, he tweeks a little thing here or there and we have a miracle.  These little miracles happen every day all over the world.  The question is, are our eyes open to see it?  It looks like nature, but it is driven by Divine Providence.


A remind that this Sunday is the fast of the 17th of Tamuz.  Please click here for information on this very important observance.

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