Bilaam’s War
Among all the special seasons of the year — such as Pesach, Sukkos and Yamim Nora’im — the one we have the least feeling for, and understanding of, is the three-week period called Bein Hametzarim.
This time is a fundamental one for the Jewish people, and we need to grasp its meaning. So let’s focus on a certain well-known story in the Torah. It’s the seemingly simple story of Balak and Bilaam who unsuccessfully tried to curse the Jewish people. There is a lot of hidden content in Parshas Balak, much more than meets the eye.
Chazal say that Bilaam knew how to calculate the exact moment of Hashem’s anger. Bilaam thereby sought to cast his curse upon the Jewish people at that fateful moment, with disastrous results. But Hashem in His great mercy did not grow angry at all during those days on which Bilaam sought to curse.
So Chazal explain. Yet, as we look at the pesukim, we see that Bilaam used a lot of other strategies as well. Bilaam was the seat of all impurity and evil in the world. He went to war against the Jewish people; as a wily tactician, he did not put all his efforts into just one scheme. He tried every way possible.
Thus Bilaam did not just calculate the time of Hashem’s anger; he also sought to bring an ayin hara on the Jewish people. And he invoked Cheit Ha’eigel. He used all the forces of tumah at his disposal. Despite all the things he tried, he did not succeed in harming the Jewish people. Unfortunately, at the end of the parshah, the Jewish people harmed themselves, through their faculty of free choice. But without this, all the forces in the world were unable to harm the Jewish people.
Let’s take a look at one of the battles that Bilaam HaRasha fought against us.
Bilaam said to Balak, “Build me here seven altars, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.”
Rashi explains that Bilaam was saying to Hashem, “The forefathers of this people built You seven altars, and I have done as much as all of them.” Not only that, but Bilaam did this three times. Again and again, he set up seven altars and offered seven bulls and seven rams.
The Torah recounts this at length, and it seems that this was Bilaam’s main battle plan, into which he put great effort. What exactly was he trying to accomplish by offering these sacrifices to Hashem? How will it help him achieve his goal?
To answer this question, we need to know something about the general meaning of korbanos.
The Meaning of Korbanos
An animal of the type offered as a korban comprises all the four elements. Although technically it belongs to the animal kingdom, nevertheless it has a living soul that bears a resemblance to the human soul, thus it alludes also to the human element. Furthermore, just as a human being comprises also the vegetable element, so does an animal.
Furthermore, when the animal is burned on the mizbeach, it goes back to its source. It returns to Hashem. This is because everything goes back to its source when it is burned.
An animal of the type used for a korban has a form not so different from the human form. And a human being contains within him all the worlds (as Nefesh HaChayim explains at length in the first shaar). That is why we take such an animal and place it on the altar to be burned. This act is like bringing the whole world and all it contains back to Hashem.
Offering a korban with the proper intentions is called reiach nichoach. This means that the korban ascends in a way that pleases Hashem’s Will. So to speak, it enters the realm of Hashem’s profound Will. Hashem is pleased that the person who offered the korban has “brought back” the whole created world to Him.
In this way, korbanos are greater than all the mitzvos. Every mitzvah has a certain specific effect, but offering a korban encompasses everything. It includes all the 248 limbs and organs and all the 365 sinews and nerves.
In olden times, there were pagans who sought to offer up their own children, something which entails an even greater sacrifice to G-d. However, the Torah forbade this. Avodas hakorbanos alludes to certain concepts but does not actualize them in a literal sense.
Korbanos is such an exalted matter that the Vilna Gaon said if we would just offer one korban with proper kavanah, the world would come to its ultimate goal.
In short, korbanos express an extraordinarily profound idea: bringing everything back to Hashem. When we offer a korban, we expressing the idea that the whole world and everything in it is Hashem’s.
Hashem’s Connection to the World
Now that we have explained what korbanos signify, we will explain something even deeper.
In this world there is a whole system of denying Hashem and His true nature. I am not talking about modern atheistic ideas, which are totally baseless. I am talking about the fundamental kefirah of the Greek philosophers, whose arguments the Rambam addressed. Also the Rema wrote a special book about korbanos (Sefer Toras HaOlah) in which he refutes these arguments.
The basic idea of the Greeks was actually very simple. They reasoned as follows: Since G-d is so very great and exalted, since He is way above anything physical and far beyond all we can conceive, what connection could He possibly have to our lowly material world? Why should it matter to Him what a person does?
There are many different levels to this kefirah. Some claimed that G-d doesn’t even know what happens in this world. Others claimed that G-d knows but doesn’t care what happens in this world. This is actually the subject addressed in Sefer Iyov. Iyov spoke eloquently and at length about Hashem’s greatness, but he argued that for this very reason, He doesn’t care about us, chas v’shalom.
How do we answer them? How do we refute this idea?
We answer that if G-d was only as great as they say, then He would indeed be unable to connect with us tiny creatures on earth. He would not be able to lower Himself to such an extent. However, Hashem is far greater than they think, and for this very reason, He indeed is able to connect with us.
The following allegory explains how extreme greatness enables connecting with the very small.
Shlomo HaMelech was the wisest of all men, and he understood the language of animals. Now, when we encounter an animal, we don’t understand its language. This is because we are distant from animals. We are much higher and greater than them. Yet, Shlomo did succeed in connecting with lowly animals; he understood their language. Why? Is it because he was smaller than us, and closer to animals? On the contrary! His tremendously great wisdom, which placed him very far above, granted him extraordinary powers. Shlomo HaMelech was so great that he was able to comprehend animal language. It comes out that his greatness was the very reason for his ability to connect to the small.
Thus it is written: Who is like Hashem our G-d? He dwells on high, and lowers Himself to see heavens and earth.
Hashem is so great and high that He is able to “lower” Himself to see what takes place in heaven and earth.
Hashem’s Love for the Jewish People
This is what Emunah is all about. Emunah means believing that Hashem connects to our world and has a relationship with it. Whereas kefirah means believing that Hashem does not relate to our world.
Someone who doesn’t even believe that the world has a Creator is not called a kofer. He is just plain stupid. Someone who claims that this table created itself is not a kofer. He is called a “modern thinker.” The Greek kofrim of old believed that the world has a Creator, but they denied that He is connected to the world and runs it.
Actually, all major world religions believe that G-d connects to the world. So what is unique about Jewish faith?
The Torah teaches that Hashem doesn’t just relate to the world and direct its events. It’s much more than that: Hashem has a personal relationship with us. He loves and cares for each one of His children!
Let’s say a person has an aquarium. He looks with interest at the colorful fish swimming to and fro. He feeds them. And despite the distance between him and them, if he notices a fish that doesn’t eat, he tries to find a solution. Nevertheless, it doesn’t disturb him deeply. There is no personal relationship of love between him and the fish, because the distance between them is too great to enable this.
Now, even when love exists, there are different levels of it. There is the love that a mother has for her child, and there is the love that the lady at the daycare center has for a child. The lady at the daycare center is devoted to the children. She loves them and takes good care of them. But this is nothing like a mother’s love, which is much deeper and internal.
R. Yisrael Salanter tells the allegory of a righteous, illustrious rosh yeshivah who has a son who went off the derech. He also has a brilliant, promising talmid whose behavior is exemplary. The rosh yeshivah devotes all his time and energy to the talmid, while he has hardly any contact with his wayward son. The son just pains him and breaks his heart.
However, when a fire breaks out in the middle of the night and there is no time to waste, to whose rescue does the rosh yeshivah run first? He first rescues his son, not the talmid.
This is because of the deep inner love that a father has for his son. I know someone who has twelve children, and one of his children died fourteen years ago. Until this day, he and his wife have not recovered from that loss, because it’s not just a matter of “another” child. That is not how parents feel about their children.
Hashem’s trait of goodness is so powerful that He doesn’t just know us, He doesn’t just oversee our affairs, He is “Habocheir b’amo Yisrael b’ahavah.” He chose to establish a relationship of love with the Jewish people.
The first word that Hashem said to the Jewish people was: I am Hashem your G-d Who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
He did not say, “I am Hashem your G-d Who created you.” Rather, He communicated to us the following: I am Hashem Who went into Egypt to take you out of there, and Who took care of you and bore you on eagles’ wings. Hashem’s first message to us is that He has a personal relationship of love with us.
This is the principle on which the whole Torah stands. And this is how Shlomo HaMelech in his great wisdom describes the Giving of the Torah: May He kiss me with the kisses of His mouth.
Thus when we pray for Torah we begin with the words: With a great love, You have loved us... abundant and excessive compassion You have shown us...
What was the key to Bilaam’s approach? Bilaam knew that Hashem loves the Jewish people, but he assumed there is a limit to this love. He thought there is a point where this love comes to an end, that deep down, there is a place where Hashem says to us, so to speak: True, I do love the Jewish people. But after all, I am the Creator, and you are mere created beings, and the distance between us is infinitely great.
Bilaam wanted to get to this deep inner point. Bilaam’s plan was to offer one korban after another, corresponding to all the korbanos that the Avos offered. He wanted to symbolically burn up the whole world on the altar, turning everything to total nothingness. There would remain just Hashem Himself, the One and Only. There would no longer be a Jewish people or anything else. And when Bilaam would come to that place where Hashem’s relationship with the Jewish people ends, there he would mention Cheit Ha’eigel. He would say to Hashem: There is a place where You don’t actually care about the Jewish people, and in fact they did sin against You by making the Golden Calf. Why not just wipe them out?
Hashem answered Bilaam as follows: You are so foolish! Are you trying to bring up My children’s sins to Me? That is like bringing up a child’s misdeeds to his father. It doesn’t undo a father’s natural love for his son.
Hashem’s love for the Jewish people is deeper than deep. In that innermost place, that is where the love is. That is where it flows from.
Another place where we see the depth of Hashem’s love for the Jewish people is the story of Mordechai and Esther. Indeed, Matan Torah was a great expression of Hashem’s love. However, Chazal say that the Jewish people accepted the Torah at Har Sinai under duress, with the mountain hanging over their heads. Only through the events of Mordechai and Esther did they tangibly experience Hashem’s love for them. This persuaded them, and they accepted the Torah out of love.
How did Hashem’s love express itself at that time? It is written in Megillas Esther: That night, the king’s sleep eluded him.
Chazal interpret that the sleep of the King of World eluded Him. So to speak, Hashem couldn’t “sleep” that night. What does this signify?
Imagine a doctor who works at a hospital. He is a very caring person and he dedicates himself unreservedly to his patients. But what happens when he comes home exhausted after a long work shift? He lays his head down on the pillow and falls asleep. When it’s after work hours, he doesn’t have a relationship with the patients in the hospital. It’s not his own child that is laid up in the ICU.
About Hashem it says, “The king’s sleep eluded him.” Hashem “can’t sleep,” so to speak. Why? Because His child’s life is in danger! This awesome love, this infinite caring of Hashem for the Jewish people, is what moved the Jews of that time to accept the Torah willingly.
When Hashem Cries
The relationship between Hashem and the Jewish people shows itself in all the holidays of the year. Pesach expresses the basic relationship: freedom from the Angel of Death, freedom from the yetzer hara. Shavuos expresses the Giving of the Torah. Rosh Hashanah expresses fear of Heaven, and Sukkos expresses joy. These are all aspects of our relationship with Hashem.
What about the period of the Three Weeks? It expresses Hashem’s caring, His deep personal relationship with the Jewish people. This relationship shows itself through tears. Chazal say that on Tishah b’Av, Hashem cried. Crying expresses the deepest type of connection.
And what about our caring for Hakadosh Baruch Hu? A person can dance and celebrate, eat matzah and maror, sit in a sukkah, but it is all external actions. Crying expresses an infinitely deep relationship of love.
We all have things we care about. If the air conditioner breaks down on a sweltering summer day, we care. If the fridge stops working and all the food inside is going to spoil, we are care. But there are deeper levels of caring.
Do we care just about ourselves, or does the pain go deeper than that? We are willing to forgo celebrations for three weeks, to refrain from bathing and laundering for nine days, to fast on Tishah b’Av. Yet, it is all deeds. The purpose of this whole system is sharpen, clarify and deepen our inner caring.
This is our main avodah at this time of year — how much do we care about Hakadosh Baruch Hu, about the anguish of the Shechinah?
Bilaam did not understand this. He was a “Greek philosopher,” a classic kofer. He tried to penetrate deeper and deeper into Hashem’s Will because he thought that deep down, there must be a point where Hashem’s relationship with the Jewish people stops. However, Hashem did not grow angry during that whole period. The message was: Hashem’s relationship with the Jewish people is infinitely deep, it has no stopping point. It is a relationship of love!
Our avodah on these days is to acquire true relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
Be Careful
These days teach us an additional point. This point, too, has to do with Hashem’s relationship with the Jewish people.
This time of year is when we recall and speak of the troubles that the Jewish people went through in all the generations. The destruction of Beis HaMikdash, the destruction of the city of Beitar, and everything else. All this comes to teach us an additional point, highlighted by the following Gemara.
