Parshat Balak
One Name, Many Readings
I have an unpublished manuscript with my understanding of how tradition interpreted the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy. I gathered commentators’ readings of the key terms for how God acts in this world, and showed what that means about tradition’s view of how God affects this world, and, therefore, how we should. It’s unpublished (although available by email) because I hit unyielding resistance from reviewers who refused to believe that was what these words meant. When minds are closed, there’s little to do.
R. Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg gives an example of the challenge in finding tradition’s view of God when Bilam refers to himself as one who sees a vision of Shakkai, 24;4. Some think the Name Shakkai is rooted in dai, enough, Hashem suffices to support/sustain all creatures, with the shin saying “that” (I’m leaving out supporting texts for this use of shin). Shakkai for this view means “that is enough.”
Others saw the core of the word in the shin-dalet, similar to shoded, rips apart, God overcomes all natural or astrological forces with His great power. Bereshit Rabbah 46;2 presents two more options, Hashem said dai, enough, to the world, to stop it from continuing to form, or it refers to the world being unable to contain God’s greatness.
A God of Bounty
Yet others related the word to shadayim, breasts, a reference to God’s nurturing, such as in Mechilta de-R. Shim’on bar Yochai Pekudei. R. Saadya Gaon and the kabbalist R. Yosef Gikatila took the idea of God being enough to mean Hashem will give so much, all creatures will say, “enough.”
There are more, too, but let’s go to R. Mecklenburg’s own idea. He focuses on how the various sides cannot even agree on the root of the word. He adds Rashi from Miketz (Bereshit 43;14), who combined two possibilities, Hashem is “enough” in the compassion He gives, as well as powerful enough to do all.
R. Mecklenburg suggests we can combine all the ideas, Kel Shakkai indicates a God Who gives each creature what it needs, so bountifully their lips wear out from saying enough, and is the source of all bounty, as Yitzchak says to Ya’akov when he sends him to Padan Aram to find a wife—Kel Shakkai should bless you, cause you to be fruitful and multiply.
Shakkai isn’t one of the Thirteen Attributes, but with R. Mecklenburg’s help, it does show us how hard it can be to know what each of God’s Names mean to teach us.
Numbers Don’t Tell the Story
Closing his first blessing of the Jewish people, Bil’am says “who can count the dust of Jacob or the number of rova Yisra’el (translators offer many options for rova; R. Samson Raphael Hirsch relates it to birth, because the verb for animal copulation uses those same letters; it’s not significant for the rest of the comment). R. Hirsch thinks Bil’am is pointing out a fundamental error Balak is making regarding his upcoming confrontation with the Jews.
Balak thinks numbers determine and demonstrate the success of a nation; the more citizens/soldiers it has, the better it must be doing. [Plenty of people think that way still; I don’t know if R. Hirsch knew of Darwin, but this sounds like he did, with the idea that survival of the fittest is determined by how many offspring a species produces.]
The fortunes of the Jewish people, neither in their physical, earth-based version, Ya’akov, nor in their more spiritual aspect, Yisrael, do not depend on numbers. Small as they may be, even if/when they die, the determinant of success is how well they have lived. It is why Bil’am expresses a wish to die as they do, a celebration of a life lived will.
The points resonate today: fifteen million Jews in a world of almost eight billion still make their mark, and our country, with only close to half that number, a center of world attention, because everyone knows we matter, however they would articulate it. Out there, numbers count, China and India vie for supremacy. For us, righteousness does.
A lesson Bil’am understood, although he did not manage to act on it, not Balak.
Types of Curses
Balak’s original request to Bil’am was to arah li, curse for me, the Jewish people, 22;6. Five verses later, Bil’am tells Hashem Balak had requested kavah li. Malbim teaches us the kinds of curses there are, what Balak wanted, what Bil’am was saying to God.
Aror (the root of arah) refers to the consequences, the loss brought upon the target of a curse, me’erah (in Devarim 28;20, translated as calamity, ruin, blight). Kalol or nakov focus instead on the words spoken, regardless of impact. Hashem’s “curses” always use arur because they always hit the target.
In reverse, we never find arur used when a person blasphemes, since, obviously, nothing a person says affects God (God forbid). Within the two other options, kalol is the bare fact of the curse or the attempt, where kavo/nokev indicates the speaker made his intentions public, declared a curse for the notice as much as for the curse itself.
Bil’am’s Curses
Commentators differed about Bil’am and his powers, Malbim notes. Many thought he had some kind of dark magic/powers, tapping into witchcraft, or knew the workings of the stars well enough to bring their influences in negative ways. [To translate to modern terms, we would say he knew how to tap into micro and macro forces of the universe—knew, let’s say, how to build an antigravity device and make someone suddenly fly/fall off a roof, or to manipulate the body’s workings to start a cancer.]
Malbim suggests, based on Abarbanel, this latter version might be what the baraita on Berachot 7a meant when it said Bil’am knew the moment of God’s wrath. Bil’am knew the patterns of the negatives of the world, could manipulate them to his purposes.
Ibn Ezra limited him further, said Bil’am only knew how to foresee impending tragedies, and would then accordingly curse, making it look like his curse had worked.
What Balak Needed
Balak’s problem was twofold, the Jews’ prowess in battle, shown in their defeat of the Emorites, and his own people’s fear, their unwillingness to even try to fight. He wanted Bil’am both to arur the Jews, in fact hamper their fighting abilities, and kavah them, do so publicly, before the Moabite leadership and masses, to restore their self-confidence. Balak would value even if Bil’am were to only do the latter, because at least his people would be ready to enter the fray.
He doesn’t want Bil’am to know all that, though. He speaks of the Jews as some nation that came out of Egypt, is encamped opposite him, asks only for a way to defeat them, aided by Bil’am’s arur, hurtful curse. Bil’am sees through the ruse, of course, and in verse eleven, when he reports Balak’s goals to God, mentions only the kavah part, because he is well aware Hashem will not let him actually hurt them. For Malbim, he wants the right only to playact a curse, instilling confidence in the Moabites,.
[His idea of Bil’am shaping his report to better fit what might be possible still has him thinking he can manipulate God in some ways, but Malbim doesn’t address it here.]
A week to think about Who God is, who the Jewish people are (and what affects them), and the reasons and ways people try to bring catastrophe on others.
