86 | JULY 14 • 2022

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any questions have rightly been
asked about the story of Balak
and Bilaam and the would-be
curses that turned into blessings.
Was Bilaam a true man of God, or was
he a fraud, a magician, a
sorcerer, a practitioner of
dark arts? Did he have gen-
uine powers? Was he really
— as some of the Sages
said — the equal of Moses?
Was he driven by the
prospect of reward and
honor from the Moabites
and Midianites, or was he motivated by
animosity toward the Israelites and their
seeming closeness to God?
Why did God first tell him not to go,
then seemingly change His mind and tell
him to go?
What is the meaning of the episode
of the talking donkey? Did it really hap-
pen, or was it, as Maimonides argued, a
vision in Bilaam’s mind?
These are real questions, much debat-
ed. But there are more fundamental
ones. What is the story doing here at all?
The entire episode occurred away from
the Israelites. No one from their side,
not even Moses, was there to witness it.

The only witnesses were Balak, Bilaam
and some Moabite princes.
Had the Israelites known the dan-
ger they were in, and how they were
saved from it, it would have given them
pause for thought before engaging in
immorality and idol worship with the
Moabite women, in the episode that
follows immediately from the story of
Bilaam. They would have known that
the Moabites were not their friends.
Even Moses would not have known
what happened had God not told him.
In short, the Israelites were rescued from
a danger they knew nothing about by a
deliverance they knew nothing about.
How then did it, or could it, affect them?
Besides which, why did God need
Bilaam to go at all? He said “No” the
first time. He could have said “No” the
second time also. The curses would have
been avoided, Israel would have been
protected, and there would have been
no need for the angel, the talking don-
key and the various locations, sacrifices
and attempted curses. The entire drama
seems to have been unnecessary.
Why did God put into Bilaam’s mouth
the extraordinary poetry that makes
the blessings among the most lyrical

passages in the Torah. All He really
needed Bilaam to say — and Bilam did
eventually say it — was the promise He
gave to Abraham: “I will bless those who
bless you, and whoever curses you I will
curse” (Gen. 12:3).
Who was to be affected by this epi-
sode? What was the intended change
it was meant to bring about? Who was
its target audience? It did not affect
the Moabites. They proceeded to get
their women to successfully entice the
Israelite men. A plague then struck the
Israelites, taking 24,000 lives.
It did not affect the Midianites, whose
hostility to Israel was such that God
later told Moses: “Treat the Midianites
as enemies and kill them” (Num. 25:17-
18). Several chapters later, God instruct-
ed Moses to take military vengeance
against them (Num. 31).
It did not affect Bilaam himself. The
Torah is very subtle about this. First,
we read about the Moabite seduction of
the Israelites and the deadly plague it
caused. Then, six chapters later, we read
that in the course of the war against the
Midianites, Bilaam was killed (31:8).
Then, several verses later, “They were
the ones who followed Bilaam’s advice

God’s Love
for the
Jewish
People

SPIRIT

A WORD OF TORAH

Rabbi Lord
Jonathan
Sacks

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