PARASHAT BALAK

Parshat Balak 2024 – Thankful for the Villian.

By Dan Cohen

One of the most famous tropes in Hollywood is when the good guys hire the bad guys for their expertise. This dynamic is mirrored in the Parshat Balak, where Balak, a seemingly negative figure, is used by Gd to reveal the strengths and vulnerabilities of the Jewish people. Just as in the Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio film Catch Me If You Can, where a successful check forger is hired to work for the FBI to root out others, sometimes, it takes a 'villain' to see the vulnerabilities and the positive elements.

This week, we meet Balak and Bilaam. They are leaders of two adjacent peoples who worry about the proximity and arrival of the Jewish nation. Balak reaches out through emissaries and convinces Bilaam to come to place a curse on the Jewish people. Bilaam eventually agrees by saying that he will only utter what Gd allows.

I am sharing two simple and quick ideas this week, one from the Rebbe and the second from Rav Hirsch.

The first explores why the Parsha is named for Balak. After all, isn’t he the villain? And a non-Jew? The Rebbe’s Chumash presents a few ideas which resonated with me.

First, he says the Torah reveals that evil exists only to be transformed into good. He quotes Proverbs 16:4, saying, “Gd has made all things for Himself, even the wicked on the day of evil.”  In the Tanya, the Alter Rebbe says, “The wicked man will repent from his evil and turn his evil into ‘day.’”  Balak, as he is described, represents the good that will eventually rise from the evil when transformed.

The second idea is that the parsha of Chukat and Balak (this week and last) are often read together.  Last week, we focused on the supranatural law – observing mitzvot we don’t fully comprehend.  This week, it’s a focus on Balak’s representation of anti-semitism and hatred against Gd’s wishes, who eventually repents.

These ideas represent two complementary paths to serving Hashem. One is from a position of righteousness, like in Chukat, where we are all-in with our Emunah, a term that signifies unwavering faith, without question. The other is like Balak, where a journey of teshuvah, a term that signifies repentance and transformation, brings us back to a place of goodness.

The second notion I wanted to explore echoes how, in the movies and TV shows, the villain, who is on the path of teshuvah, is challenged to explore and even exploit the vulnerabilities he identifies. It's no different in this Parsha.  Balak takes Bilaam to three different overlook points to try to get Bilaam to curse the Jewish people.  At each height, Bilaam, who has agreed to say only what Gd has told him, offers parables highlighting the Jewish people's positive elements rather than exploiting their weaknesses.

Rav Hirsh shares insights based on the names of the three mountaintops that Balak took Bilaam to for him to curse the Jews (unsuccessfully).

The first mountaintop was Ba’al.  Ba’al was the Canaanite deity whose focus was as a force of nature who held sway over material prosperity.  From Balak’s perspective, Israel’s vulnerability was apparent. Yet Hirsh replies that material wealth is not a national priority as his “curse” focused instead on identifying the Jews as a nation that stands apart. (Chapter 23, Verse 9).

The second mountaintop was Tzofim. Here, Balak and Bilaam would oversee the nation from the vantage point of the “Seers and Watchmen.” (Chapter 23, Verse 14).  Balak asked Bilaam whether the Jewish nation had an intellectual elite that could predict the future and control the shape of events.  Balak responds with a parable saying, “Gd is not a man that He should deceive…that He should change his mind.” (Chapter 23, Verse 18).  In doing so, Bilaam points out a vast gulf between the spiritual level of Israel and the wisdom of Tzofim/nation of Aram. The Jewish nation recognized that Hashem runs the world, not us.

Hirsh points out that by the time of the third peak, Balak had recognized that the Jewish nation wasn’t vulnerable from the physical and material standpoint nor the spiritual, Gdly standpoint.   He adds that a nation with material wealth and spiritual health may still be devoured from the inside by a worm and turn all these blessings into a curse.  That worm, Hirsch says, is immorality.

Thus, the third hill Balak takes Bilaam to stand upon overlooks Pe’or.  We talked last year about the cult of Pe’or and its focus on the animal side of human physicality, where modesty gets tossed out the window. From this hill, Balak asks Bilaam to question the nation's principles of modesty. After all, Balak may have been wiser and more deeply in tune with our vulnerability.  Therefore, he focused Bilaam on our weak point…the nature of immorality.

The curse was unsuccessful. Bilaam draws his eyes towards the encampment and highlights the modesty of a nation camped in tents with doors that do not face each other.  A nation where “every child knows who his father is” and the people's morality was whole.

The story continues after these three failed curses, and many in the Jewish nation fail to meet the challenge of sexual and immoral exploitation by the Moabites. Yet, Hirsch’s analysis of the three mountaintops remains a lesson and a warning for us all if we are to understand our vulnerability as a nation and individuals.

Challenges in life will come at us from three distinct vantage points. First, there will be the material challenges of wealth and the lack thereof. Second, there will be challenges to our spiritual engagement and Emunah. Third, there will be challenges that exploit our animal instincts and challenge us to rise above them.

The lesson here builds on what the Rebbe said above about why the parsha is named for Balak. There are two distinct pathways here to serve Hashem. The first is a life of Emunah, and the second is the life of Teshuvah.  Each is available to us, and every decision we make offers us both paths. This brings me immense hope to contemplate that we are never more than one decision away from a connection with the Divine.