A True Relationship – Parshas Balak 5769
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Loading ...ויען בלעם… אם יתן לי בלק מלוא ביתו כסף וזהב לא אוכל לעבור את פי ה’ אלקי… (כב:יח).
“Bilaam responded… ‘even if Balak were to pay me his entire treasury of gold and silver, I cannot transgress against the word of Hashem, my God…” (22:18).
A cursory glance at the character of Bilaam may yield a surprising result. Is he really such a bad guy after all?! Certainly, the Torah tells us that he was terribly evil, however, my question is: from where do we see this in his actions?
He simply followed everything that Hashem said!? He asked Hashem if he could go with Balak’s messengers and Hashem replies in the negative. Finally, after repeatedly asking, he obtained clearance from Hashem and thus proceeded to join them. He asked Hashem for permission to curse the Jews and in the end only used the exact phraseology that Hashem dictated to him! So everything he did was with Hashem’s permission, what did he do wrong?!
Reb Elchonan Wasserman zt”l hy’d is perplexed by this question and his response is a masterpiece that underlines the foundation of our religion! He says that Bilaam followed the word of God, but that was precisely all that he followed! He cared not for the desire and wish of God, only whatever he could manipulate into the words of Hashem, to be congruent with his personal whims and desires! He only followed the letter of the law, but cared not for its spirit.
Hashem showed Bilaam repeatedly that He did not support this venture. Nevertheless, on account of man’s freewill, Hashem eventually allowed him to travel as he desired. Only when it came down to the actual curse did Hashem intervene and disallow him from hurting the Jews! Bilaam was not looking for a relationship and closeness with God, for that he chose his donkey. Bilaam did not care what Hashem wanted, it was only that he could not deny God’s existence and thus had to work within His framework! He himself stated this most clearly in our verse, “Pi Hashem, I follow the word of God!”
There are those that follow the letter of the law; you cannot catch them unable to cover their tracks based upon it. They are quite unpleasant to be around! But there are those that realize that a relationship does not just follow rule-books. Rather it thrives on a striving to understand the other and a sensitivity towards their feelings and wishes. One can live his whole life following the book technically, and yet no one will want to have anything to do with him. Only one who is committed to going beyond the call of duty and is dedicated to truly understanding others is a pleasure to share a relationship with.
Indeed, with this principle we can understand why Hashem sent Bilaam much embarrassment through the medium of the words of a donkey! One who only follows “Pi Hashem” is put in place by “Pi HaAsone, the mouth of the donkey!” Chazal in Bava Metzia (30b) tell us that Yerusalayim was only destroyed on account of the people being inflexible and unwilling to act beyond the call of duty towards each other! Imagine, they did everything in the book and followed the precise Torah laws. So what was their sin? They lacked in the realm of thoughtfulness and sensitivity and so Hashem allowed the enemy to conquer them and plunged them into exile! Powerful words!
We as Jews strive for closeness and enjoy the deepest relationship with Hashem who loves us dearly as well. In appreciation of our commitment to serving Him, Hashem rewards us in that (Tehillim 145:19) “He will grant the wishes and desires of those that fear Him!”
