וַיַרְא בָּלָּק בֶּן צִפּוֹר אֵת כָּל אֲשֶּר עָּשָּה יִשְרָּאֵל לָּאֱמֹרִי : (כב :ב)
Balak son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorite. (22:2)
We must understand the intent of the Torah when it writes ‘and Balak saw’, because simply, Balak did not see with his human eyes the battle between Israel and the two kings, Sichon and Og, he only heard about it, if so, it should have said, ‘and Balak heard’.
To understand the intent we must first explain that just as the ‘body’ of the person has the ‘sense of sight’ and the ‘sense of hearing’, these two senses are also found in the ‘soul’ [nefesh] of the person. The nature of these two senses is explained in the holy sefer ‘Bnei Yisaschar’ (Chodesh Adar Maamer 3 Drush 4): ‘The Emunah that comes to a person by way of investigations of the mind is called ‘sight’, because the sight of the mind corresponds to the actual sight of a person... If so, this is called emunah comparable to the actual sight of ‘eyes’, and emunah that comes from kabbalah is comparable to ‘ears’.’
These words of his explain to you that just as the actual sight and hearing of the body direct the person to the physical and the practical, for through them he knows how and when to do what is incumbent on him, so does the sight and hearing of the soul of the person direct the person to the spiritual, for through them he merits to recognize his Creator and to cling to Him.
To explain, the’ sense of sight’ of the ‘soul’ is ‘intellectual understanding’, for just as the person is able to explain the reason for the ‘sense of sight’ of the ‘body’, so too, he can explain the emunah as the ‘sense of sight’ of the ‘soul’. The ‘sense of hearing’ of the ‘soul’ is the ‘pure faith’ that he received from his fathers, and since it is comparable to the ‘sense of hearing’ of the ‘body’, since the person cannot always explain how the ‘sense of hearing’ works on the body, for sometimes he does things that he himself cannot explain why and how he did them, he just relies on the hearing that he received from the chacham, and he did what he did based on his say so. It is similar with the ‘sense of hearing’ of the soul, since he is not wise enough to attain the emunah rationally, rather, he believes what he hears and received from his fathers, and with the light of this emunah, he goes in the ways of Hashem Yisbarach.
With our limited understanding, were we able to compare the intellect to the body, we would be able to say, that just as the physical senses, the ‘sense of sight’ which sets the way is better than the ‘sense of hearing’, for this shows that he is wise and understands what he is doing. It is similar with the senses of the soul, that even one who is wise an recognizes his Creator on his own and is able to answer questions about his choices and his emunah, is better that the person who is not wise on his own and cannot give a good reason to explain his conduct.
However, this is not so with Torah knowledge. Regarding emunah the Torah commands us (Devorim 18:13), 'תמים תהיה עם ה' אלקיך' – ‘You shall be wholehearted with Hashem, your G-d’. Included in this is the commandment to believe wholeheartedly in Hashem Yisbarach as he received from his fathers, and not make it dependent on investigations, for the investigation shows that you have a time when the emunah is still not clear to you, but the truth is you should have no time when the person will be without emunah...
Additionally, we see that those who make their Emunah dependent on investigation are left with an impression from the time of laxity even after they have already stood for the truth of the faith, and as the ‘Bnei Yisaschar’ continues, ‘HaRav HaChassid Mahari Yaavetz wrote that he saw in the decree of Spain that those scholars who insisted on the study of Emunah based on investigation of the human mind lost their honor on the day of wrath, but the women and the simpleminded whose Emunah was based only on what they received, sanctified the honored and awesome Name, and were tested together. We said the reason for this as is known that those who come in the secret of Hashem, the secret of being broken, the sense of sight is what causes their breakage, as opposed to the sense of hearing which is the secret of the complete correction. This is not so with Emunah which comes from hearing, and one does not receive nullification and breakage, and this is the meaning of 'שמעו ותחי נפשכם ' – ‘Listen, and your souls will live’ (Yeshaya 55:3).’ You see from his words that the sense of the intellect is better than the sense of hearing which is better than the sense of sight.
We also find hints to this in our holy Torah, for when the Torah tells us something based on Emunah, if it is of firm good faith, we call it ‘hearing’, and if it is of lax faith which causes mishap, we say it is sight. When the Torah tells us about the Emunah that was aroused in Yisro and because of it Yisro wanted to join the Jewish Nation, it begins with 'וישמע יתרו' – ‘and Yisro heard’ (Shemos 18:1). And when it tells us about the mishap of the spies which was caused by a laxity of Emunah it mentions sight (Bamidbar 13:18) 'וראיתם את הארץ' – ‘and you see the land’, Their very stumbling came about because of ‘sight’ for they followed their normal sight, and this was a proof that the sense of sight affected their faith. Even the matter of Korach was bound to the challenge of faith, since his jealousy of the prince Eltzafan ben Uziel caused a lax in his faith, for he could not believe that this was a decree of His wisdom, Yisbarach, and so Rashi hints there (16:1) as expression of sight, ‘his eye deceived him'.
In light of what we have said, we can say that this was the intent of the Torah by saying 'וירא בלק' – ‘and Balak saw’, for when Balak was informed of all that Israel did to the Amorites, even though this was a proof that there was a G-d above Who rules the world and it fulfills His decrees, as this was a supernatural victory. Until that time, no army was able to defeat the two kings, Sichon and Og, because of their immense strength. Still, Balak did not want to acknowledge this and chose to make their victory dependent on magic. Since this was so, it uses an expression of ‘sight’, and ‘sight’ teaches ‘investigation of faith’, and with this the Torah testifies that even after Balak saw what he saw, he was still doubtful if this came from Hashem, and for this reason he wanted to go to battle against Israel utilizing the power of Balaam, since he also knew great magic. He even made his speech dependent on magic. However, then it became clear without a doubt that everything is dependent on the decree of Heaven, since HaKadosh Baruch Hu did not let Balaam speak as he wished, and even forced him to say what he did not want to and to bless them...
