Balak’s Urgency and Bilam’s Curse
במדבר פרק כג, ז אָ שִ יַו מְש ָלוֹ רַמאֹ יַו מִן-אֲרָ ם יַנְח נִי בָלָק ךֶלֶמ-מוֹאָב מ הַרֲר י-קֶדֶם לְכָה אָרָ ה-יִ ל יַעֲקֹב ו לְכָה זֹעֲמָה יִש ְרָ א ל : “Go and curse for me this people”
We must ask the question, why was Balak so anxious that Bilam should be brought to the place of Balak to curse the Israelites? He sent messengers two or three times, and offered money and got angry. Why didn’t Balak simply ask Bilam to curse the Israelites from where he was?
We find many curses and cursers who were able to do damage without seeing the object of the curse. For example, when the Jews came into Israel they gave the curses and blessings on the two mountains of Gerizim and Eival [despite the fact that the people they were cursing – those who don’t keep the mitzvos– were not present]. Similarly, in Koheles it states, “even in your tears don’t curse a king and even in your private room don’t curse a rich person” (10, 2). This clearly refers to a curse not in the presence of the object of the curse.
Perhaps we can answer based on the Gemara (Brachos 7a) which explains the verse in Tehillim (7, 12) “G-d is incensed in every day”. How long is His anger? A ‘moment’. And a ‘moment’ lasts for 1/58,888th of an hour. Bilam was the only person who knew when this time was.
Tosefos asks, what could Bilam have said in that fraction of a second that would have any effect? They answer that he would have enough time to say the word(s) ‘destroy them’ (‘kalem’). More than this and he would have run out of time.
Therefore, we can understand why Balak had to bring Bilam to the place where the Israelites were encamped, so that he could point to them and say, ‘destroy them’. This could only be said when he could see them because otherwise there would be no ‘them’ for the curse to fall on.
We find a similar concept when praying for a sick person. The Halacha is that if one is praying in the presence of the patient there is no need to mention his or her name, only the request. We find the source for this with Moshe’s prayer for Miriam (which was in her presence) when he only said “G-d, please heal her”, without saying her name. In contrast, when Yaakov prayed that G-d should save him from his brother (and was not yet in his presence) he said “save me please, from my brother, from Eisav”.
However, Tosefos also gives another answer to his question in Brachos. He says that if Bilam could begin the curse in that moment, it would remain effective even while he finished saying the words of his curse. According to this answer we are back to our original question of why Balak was so desperate to bring Bilam to him.
Perhaps we can answer based on the Mishnah in Pirkei Avos (5, 19) that Bilam was known for his evil eye (as explained in more detail in the Zohar). His power was in his eye, and anywhere that he ‘put his eye’ was damaged. Therefore, he had to physically come to the place where he could see the camp of the Jews in order to put his evil eye on them.
