An Insight from the Gra regarding Bavel and Amalek
We will begin to shed some light on the subject by examining the two reshaim involved in this nefarious plot—Balak, the King of Moav, and Bilam, the son of Beor. They joined forces to curse Yisrael to exterminate Yisrael spiritually. As we are taught in the Torah, HKB”H, in His infinite mercy and kindness, intervened and thwarted their efforts by coercing Bilam to bless Yisrael. We will endeavor to explain what prompted Balak to wage this war against Yisrael specifically by engaging the services of Bilam.
We find an incredible insight from the brilliant Gra, Rabbi Eliyahu of Vilna, zy”a, in Aderes Eliyahu (Bamidbar 22, 11). The names בל"ק בלע"ם are an anagram for בב"ל עמל"ק. As such, Balak hoped to elicit the powers of these two formidable klipos to defeat Yisrael. Both of them are considered heads of the klipah.
Of Amalek, it states in our parsha (ibid. 24, 20): "ראשית גוים עמלק"—Amalek is the first among nations. Similarly, when Nevuchadnetzar, the King of Bavel, saw an idol in a dream with a head of gold, Daniel informed him (Daniel 2, 38): "אנת הוא ראשה די דהבא"—you are the head of gold. And regarding Nimrod, the King of Bavel who rebelled against Hashem in the generation of the dispersion, it is written (Bereishis 10, 10): "ותהי ראשית ממלכתו בבל"—the beginning of his kingdom was Bavel. Both references infer that Bavel represents a leader of the klipah. Thus, Balak and Bilam joined forces to invoke the klipos of Bavel and Amalek in their war against the head of kedushah—Yisrael.
We also find in Likutei Torah (Ki Seitzei) that our mentor, the Arizal, teaches us that the four galuyos—Bavel, Madai, Yavan, and Edom—form the complete body of the klipah. Since galus Bavel was the first galus, it represents the head of galus. Hence, it says: “You are the head of gold.” Madai and Persia represent the two arms; Yavan (Greece) represents the body; Edom (Rome) and Yishmael represent the two legs.
This concurs fantastically with what the great Rabbi Tzadok HaKohen, zy”a, writes in Pri Tzaddik (Shemos 10): All the galuyos are included in the galus of Bavel. It appears that he learned this from the teaching of the Arizal cited above. For, as the head of the klipah, galus Bavel encompasses and influences the entire body, since the brain controls all of the body’s limbs and functions.
For this reason, when the generation of the dispersion gathered in Bavel to mutiny against Hashem, their initial declaration was (ibid. 11, 4): "הבה נבנה לנו עיר ומגדל וראשו בשמים"—let us build a city for ourselves and a tower, whose head reaches the heavens. They specified "וראשו"—its head—because they intended to elevate and empower the head of the klipah—“the head of gold.” Similarly, when the Gra asserts that Amalek is a head of the klipah, in keeping with the description: "ראשית גוים עמלק"—this is confirmed by Moshe Rabeinu’s pronouncement before the skirmish with Amalek (Shemos 17, 9): "מחר אנכי נצב על 'ראש' הגבעה"—tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill (literally: “on the ‘head’ of the hill”). As the head of Bnei Yisrael, the head of kedushah, it was his task to oppose and subdue the head of the klipah, Amalek.
