The Jewish People’s Undying Connection to the Land of Israel
6 min read
Bilaam was a despicable person in many ways, yet he was granted prophecy and merited to see many miracles. This was not because he deserved, rather, as Chaza teach, that God wanted to avert an argument of the Nations that they did not have a leader like Moshe who had Prophecy.
It is instructive to observe Bilaam’s reactions to some of the amazing things that happened to him. Firstly, when Hashem appears to him in a dream to confront him about his nefarious plans, he shows no sense of wonderment or awe that he is being spoken to by the Creator of the Universe. Rather, he simply justifies his own wicked course of behavior and asserts his importance in the eyes of the Nations.
Even more astounding is his reaction or, ‘non-reaction’, to one of the most mind-boggling incidents in the Torah, the speaking donkey. This is one of the ten miraculous occurrences that were so incredible that they were created in the first 6 days of Creation. How does Bilaam respond when this one-off event takes place and the donkey speaks to him? He does not appear to be phased at all, and just answers back and has a dialogue with the donkey as if it is an everyday occurrence.
Rabbi Shimon Shwab asks how we can understand this astonishing behavior of Bilaam. He explains with a fascinating insight1: Most people are blessed with five senses. However, there is in fact a sixth sense. That is the sense of being able to be nitpael (impressed) by certain phenomenon in the world.
This sense of being nitpael is essential for our Divine service in a number of ways. One aspect of this is discussed by the Rambam. He speaks of a person becoming impressed and overwhelmed with the awe of creation, and of the wisdom and beauty of nature. This is a sense that one must develop within himself which will enable him to have emotions of love and reverence towards the Creator.
However, just like the other senses can be deadened and destroyed if they are abused, the same is true with the sixth sense. For example, Rabbi Yissachar Frand points out, if a person listens to loud music for long enough, he can lose his sense of hearing. If a person continuously eats very spicy foods, he can damage his sense of taste. Likewise, a person can lose his sense of being impressed by events. How does that happen? What costs a person his sense of being impressed?
In the words of Rabbi Yissachar Frand, citing Rav Schwab:
Rabbi Schwab suggests that a person can lose his sense of being impressed through gluttonous indulgence in every passion and lust in the world. If a person is obsessed with enjoying, taking, eating, consuming, and all he ever thinks about is indulging in the most obscene and gluttonous fashion, then after a while, nothing impresses him anymore. He is so consumed with just enjoying himself that nothing gets him excited anymore. If it seems hard to relate to this concept, all we need to do is to open our eyes and look at what has happened in the western world. Nothing makes an impression anymore. Movies have become more and more violent and explicit. Music has become more and more outrageous. The way people talk and the words we hear have become more and more astounding, because nothing makes an impression anymore. As a society, we have lost our sense of wonder. We have become coarsened. To quote a recent piece in the Op-Ed page of the Baltimore Sun, “America has lost its ‘shock value.’ Nothing shocks anymore.”
That is what happened to Bilaam. Nothing shocked him. His animal spoke to him and he took it in stride, because he was so engulfed in his lusts and desires. He was unable and unwilling to be moved by the most incredible occurrences.
This terrible trait of Bilaam also meant that despite everything he witnessed, he did not change one iota. This is demonstrated in his reaction to the wonderful blessings that God forced him to bless the Jewish people with, that emphasized many wonders about the Jewish people and Jewish history. How did Bilaam respond to all this? The Torah succinctly states, “And Bilaam rose up and went and returned to his place..."2 The simple understanding of this is that he went home, but that is obvious. Therefore, some commentaries suggest that the additional meaning is that he returned to his initial state, as if nothing had happened at all. He did not change at all, and remained the same wicked person as before.
Interestingly, almost exactly the same language is used with regards to Lavan, who was an ancestor of Bilaam3. After spending twenty years with the righteous Yaakov, and experiencing great success which he acknowledged was due to his nephew, the Torah states, “And Lavan went and returned to his place.”4 The Meshech Chachma explains that the Torah is teaching us that Lavan did not only return to his physical location, but also to his spiritual level – the same level that he had been on right from the moment that Yaakov came to live with him.5 He lived with one of the greatest tzaddikim of all time for twenty years and still failed to change in the slightest despite the fact that it is natural for a person to be positively affected by proximity to a great man.
The examples of Bilaam and Lavan should serve as a stark warning to avoid the pitfalls of becoming immune to the events that take place around us. We need to actively work on the sixth sense of being ‘impressed’ – moved by the wondrous occurrences that take place around us, and use this wonder to develop our closeness to God, and to improve our ways.
