86 | JULY 14 • 2022 

M

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

continued on page 88