Spiritual Warfare

The Torah portion of Balak opens with the Jewish people camped on the bank of the Jordan River, opposite the city of Jericho. The narrative picks up from the previous parshah, Chukat, which concluded with Moses and the Jewish people successfully vanquishing Sichon, king of the Emorites, and Og, king of Bashan, battling their respective armies and conquering their lands. These wars occurred because Sichon refused Moses’ request for safe passage through his land and Og attacked the Jews unprovoked.

The Moabites, fearful after witnessing the Jewish nation’s recent victories, appointed Balak, a Midianite prince, as their king to help protect them from what they believed would be an attack by Moses and the Jewish people. Moab and Midian were not the best of friends; the two nations were constantly warring with one another. However, they made peace and joined forces to oppose the Jewish people, following the principle of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

Understanding that Moses’ power was spiritual, Balak knew that military might would prove useless against the Israelites. Therefore, he enlisted the services of Balaam, who was renowned for his prophetic abilities and the efficacy of his curses. Balak sent a delegation to recruit Balaam, hoping his curse would enable Moab to wage a successful war and drive the Jews away.

“Money is no object,” the delegation told Balaam. “Name your price; we want to hire you because you’re the best. We need you to come with us and curse the Jews.”

From Curses to Blessings

This appears to be a terrible story in the making—Balak, king of Moab, conspires with the wicked prophet Balaam to curse and weaken the Jewish people. Yet, what was the end result? Tremendous blessings! Instead of cursing, Balaam praised Israel:

“How goodly are your tents O Jacob, your dwelling-places O Israel.”1

“They are a nation that in the ultimate future will dwell alone, for they alone will inherit the earth.”2

“They are a people that rises [in the morning] like a lion and raises itself like a lion [to do G‑d’s will fearlessly].”3

“Those who bless you shall be blessed, and those who curse you shall be cursed.”4

These and many other beautiful blessings and praises were the result of Balak and Balaam’s failed conspiracy to harm the Jewish people.

Why, indeed, was Balaam unable to accomplish what he set out to do? As Moses would later say, “The L-rd your G‑d turned your curse into a blessing for you, for the L-rd your G‑d loves you.”5

No Good Deed Goes Unrewarded

In the midst of all this, King Balak erected seven altars and offered 42 sacrifices to G‑d. Now, Balak was a pretty bad guy, and on top of that, his sacrifices were brought in an attempt to convince G‑d to allow Balaam to curse the Jewish people, even after He already told Balaam quite explicitly that the Jewish people were not to be cursed. Nevertheless, in a fantastic demonstration of how good things can come from seemingly terrible events, the Talmud teaches that, “As a reward for the 42 sacrifices which Balak, king of Moab, offered, he merited that Ruth should issue from him and that from her issued [King David and King] Solomon.”6

Balak offered sacrifices to G‑d, hoping to harm the Jewish people, and G‑d said, “Sacrifices are good! You will be rewarded!” From Balak came Eglon, the father (or grandfather) of Ruth, the matriarch of the Davidic dynasty, and our righteous Moshiach! Balak’s sacrifices—a wonderful act by a wicked person—ultimately will lead to our Ultimate Redemption.

See No Evil

During his second attempt at cursing the Jewish people, Balaam proclaimed, “He [G‑d] does not look at evil in Jacob, and has seen no perversity in Israel.”7

The Third Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch, known as the Tzemach Tzedek, provides a beautiful explanation of this verse in his book Derech Mitzvotecha:8

Why is it, he asks, that it is so easy for us to see the negative in others, especially those closest to us? All too often, we focus on other people’s bad traits, while overlooking our own shortcomings.

This happens because we rationalize our own behavior; self-love conceals our sins. The wise King Solomon declared, “Love covers all transgressions.”9

Consider this: Two people fall in love, marry, and initially think their spouse is perfect, that they have no flaws. Thirty years later, they have a list of 100 things wrong with their spouse. What happened? Did he or she change and become a terrible person? Of course not. What changed is that the powerful love at the beginning of the relationship has waned, no longer covering up the shortcomings that were always there.

When love is present, you see no evil. So great is G‑d’s love that He “sees no evil in Jacob.” He sees no iniquity because love conquers all.

Seeing the Good in Everyone

Balaam said to Balak, “How can I curse those who G‑d has not cursed?”10 Rashi explains that even when the Jewish people may have deserved to be cursed, they were not: Jacob could have cursed Simeon and Levi for wiping out the city of Shechem, but he did not; he only cursed their anger, saying, “Cursed be their wrath.”11

This highlights a fundamental lesson in effective communication and healthy relationships:

When a child needs to be disciplined, or when someone upsets us, we must be careful to direct our criticism at their behavior, not at them.

We should say, “You’re a wonderful kid. What you did was not acceptable.” We must never, G‑d forbid, say, “You are bad.”

Good parenting involves criticizing unhealthy or bad behavior, while being careful not to say anything negative about the child.

Abraham vs. Balaam

When the Moabites sought a prophet with a powerful tongue, they chose the best: Balaam. According to some opinions, Balaam’s prophetic abilities were on par with Moses’. But, while Moses used his prophecy to promote holiness, Balaam used his to oppose it.

The Mishnah in Ethics of the Fathers contrasts Balaam and our patriarch Abraham:

“The disciples of our father Abraham have a good eye, a meek spirit and a humble soul. The disciples of the wicked Balaam have an evil eye, a haughty spirit, and an arrogant soul.”12

The first trait common to the disciples of Abraham, a “good eye,” means that they are happy with whatever they see and, more importantly, with the success of others. In Yiddish, there’s a wonderful word—fargin—which loosely translates to wholeheartedly appreciating the success of others. The second trait, “a meek spirit,” signifies their extreme modesty and attitude of, “It’s not all about me.” Lastly, “a humble soul” means they are not arrogant, self-centered, or greedy.

In contrast, the disciples of Balaam possess the opposite traits: they have an evil eye and are upset when others succeed. Additionally, they have “a haughty spirit and arrogant soul”: everything is about them, they are driven by power and greed, and they always want more.

It All Begins with Our Choices

Balaam, as mentioned, may have been endowed with prophetic ability on par with Moses. Why would G‑d cause His Divine presence to dwell on such a wicked person?

There are many wonderful non-Jews, whom the Torah calls “righteous gentiles,” who have done amazing things for the Jewish people. But Balaam was not a righteous gentile; he was a rasha—a wicked man. If so, why give him prophecy?

Rashi explains that G‑d did this to level the playing field, so to speak. The Jewish people had Moses, a prophet and leader of the highest caliber. The nations of the world might have turned around and said, “We have no leaders! We have no prophets! Had you, G‑d, given us a leader like Moses, or leaders like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we’d be good people. If we had prophets who would tell us to change our evil ways, we’d have done so!”

To preempt this, G‑d gave them a prophet. He gave them Balaam. And it was not a subterfuge. Balaam had the potential to be as great as Moses, but he made some bad choices. Why? Because as the saying goes, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Just because you’re a leader doesn’t mean you’re a good leader.

G‑d says, “Behold, I have set before you today life and good, and death and evil … you shall choose life.”13 G‑d wants us to have free choice, and He wants us to use that power to choose wisely, to choose good. Balaam and his ilk did not choose good.

Before Balaam, the nations of the world had boundaries with respect to their morality. They had fences to protect the sanctity of marriage and family life. Instead of encouraging such practices and strengthening these boundaries, Balaam encouraged the people to tear them down. At the conclusion of the parshah, we find that after failing to curse the Jews, Balaam advises the Midianites to send their daughters out to seduce the Jewish men, and in the course of their seduction, to entice them to worship the pagan idol Baal Peor. This was one of Balaam’s many poor choices.

G‑d made it very clear: good and bad, life and death, are there for the choosing. Choose well. This applies to Jews and non-Jews alike.

May G‑d grant us the wisdom to choose well, to choose to lead with dignity and morality, to choose to parent with patience and discernment, to choose to see the good in others. May our efforts pay off, making the world a better place, and may we merit the Ultimate Redemption with the coming of our righteous Moshiach speedily in our days. Amen.