From the time the world was created, God’s blessings are manifest. The midrash describes the development of blessings over time. The very first to offer blessings was God, Who blessed Mankind. After the sins of the generation of the flood, that blessing was nullified and it was replaced with a new blessing, bestowed upon Noah by God. With the appearance of Abraham, God added a blessing on him, as well. From that point onwards, those who were blessed passed on God’s blessings to others.
In the early generations, blessings were personal, and often led to controversy and strife. Noah blesses Japheth and curses Canaan. Isaac blesses Jacob, leaving Esau feeling cheated. Jacob blesses Reuben while offering rebuke to Simon and Levi, causing a barrier of jealousy among the tribes. Jacob was also the first to perceive the need to bless all of his children together, leading him to add a blessing that includes all the tribes of Israel. Two more such universal blessing would be forthcoming in the future – one bestowed on the Israelites by Balaam and the other by Moses just before he dies.
The midrash in Devarim Rabbah (VeZot HaBerakha) includes Balaam’s blessing in the same list together with the blessings given by God over the generations, and with the blessings of Isaac, Jacob and Moses. This is the traditional Jewish perspective: The fact of the matter is that we were blessed by him.
In his homilies on the Torah, the Spanish sage, Rabbi Joshua ibn Shuaib offers his view of Balaam by means of a metaphor:
This can be compared to a man who entered a barn with the intention of stealing and slaughtering the owner’s fattened cow. Once he was there, the owner came and discovered him. Realizing his predicament, the thief began to scrub and groom the cow. In the case of Balaam, as well, his intention was curse them, but when he realized that their Protector was there, he decided to bless them.
Homilies of Rabbi Joshua ibn Shuaib, Parashat Balak, 14th Century Spain
According to the parable, the surprising encounter with the owner forces the thief to pretend that he had come to work in the cowshed. This leads him to care for the cow and tend to its needs. Balaam is waiting for the moment when God hides His face from the Children of Israel. His reputation is that he knows how to time his pronouncements, and he is planning to seize the moment when the opportunity presents itself. Every time he is ready, however, it becomes apparent to him that God is with His people, and he has no choice but to offer them a blessing instead of a curse.
The Gemara in Sanhedrin (105b) clarifies the train of Balaam’s thought. Not only are Balaam’s curses turned into blessings, but the blessings themselves reflect Balaam’s original plans for curses. When we hear Balaam blessing the synagogues and study halls, we understand that he had planned to curse these structures and wish for their destruction, in the hope that a withdrawal of God’s presence from the Israelite people would bring to an end their unique status.
The gap between the midrash in Devarim Rabbah and the homilies of ibn Shuaib can be construed as a description of the same matter from two distinct perspectives. On the one hand a historical, results-oriented approach would view what Balaam did as positive, for he blessed the Israelites; on the other hand, a test of the action itself would lead to the conclusion that he had no intent to bless, only to rescue himself by murmuring some words of blessing.
We find two ways of reading Balaam's words as they appear in the original. While the midrash offers to read Balaam's words literally, as blessings, ibn Shuaib, based on the Gemara, discerns a different tone in those same words. It is as if Balaam filtered the blessings through his teeth using a melody of irony and sarcasm. Throughout, his only intention is to curse and not to bless.
The fact of the matter is that we have is a series of curses that appear before us as blessings. When Balaam says: “How fair are your tents, O Jacob, Your dwellings, O Israel!” he is bemoaning the fact that the children of Jacob are immersed in their tents and dwellings, closed up in their houses of study and engrossed in a theoretical world. Their virtue is nothing more than isolation, and, in any case, their chosenness is only temporary and is dependent on their actions. We find that the teaching of Rabbi Shmuel bar Nahmani quoting Rabbi Yonatan (Sanhedrin 106a) hints to this idea. He suggests that when Balaam compares the Israelites to a cedar tree his intention was to say that they are tough and inflexible. In contrast with a reed, the cedar appears solid and strong, but a southern wind can come and uproot it.
A careful reading of Balaam’s “blessings” can uncover the latent criticism upon which each of them is based. His point of view shines a spotlight on an element that we are unable to recognize because we are captives to a concept. Only Balaam, a stranger, can present the perspective of an outsider and offer a full perspective on the Jewish people. Only a person like that has the ability to recognize their superiority together with their shortcomings. He is able to recognize that seclusion may lead to success and spiritual achievement, but it also has the negative outcome of inflexibility, of falling into too rigid patterns.
We recognize this as a critique and as a curse, but, at the same time, it also has elements of a blessing. We are well aware of the reality of Israel in the world. On one side stand our opponents, some of whom are willing to murder in cold blood simply because their victim was born a Jew. On the other side stand Jews, who are insistent on offering prayers and thanks for both good and evil. They stand before the Creator with humility and accept His judgment, recognizing that even at a moment when He hides His countenance, there is no doubt that He is with us.
This is the picture presented in our parasha, Parashat Balak. Evil mercenaries make use of many different methods, attempting to destroy us. Israel’s enemies actively attack the pseudo-passivity of private tents, of Jewish families, of the routines of life. The Torah places in Balaam’s mouth the silent campaign of the Israelites as the active enterprise of the people of Israel. The Torah needed an outside observer to point out their strengths, even as their voice, which extends across the entire world, is not heard. This strength is the very existence of Jewish life, it is the ability of Jews to gather in synagogues and study halls and to stand and offer a silent cry to God. Please Father, we need Your blessing!
