In this week’s sedra we have the story of Bilaam’s blessings/curses which he gave to Klal Yisroel. Chazal say that Bilaam was a novi. Not only was he a novi, but Chazal infer from the pasuk: לא קם נביא עוד בישראל כמשה -” There did not arise again in Yisroel a novi like Moshe” (Devorim 34:10) that in Yisroel such a novi did not arise again, but a novi of that stature did arise among the nations of the world, and that was Bilaam.
At the beginning of the sedra, Rashi addresses the obvious question: Why did the Ribbono Shel Olam do this? Why did He give Bilaam profound prophetic powers? Rashi answers that Hashem gave Bilaam this gift so that the nations of the world not have a complaint against Him. Hashem gave Bilaam nevuah to preempt the claim — “If we had a novi (like Yisroel) we would have done teshuva.”
I saw an interesting approach to this question brought down in the name of Rav Yaakov Galinsky. Rav Galinsky advanced the following thesis: Any novi is no greater than the people for whom he prophesizes. Put succinctly, the nation makes the novi! An elevated people receive an elevated novi; in a depraved society, the novi will not be any better than the people are. Each generation gets the novi it deserves.
One example is when Klal Yisroel sinned with the chet ho’egel. Hashem says to Moshe: לך רד כי שחת עמך -” Go descend, for your people has acted corruptly” (Shemos 32:7). Rashi interprets “Go, descend” — go down from your greatness. The answer is that the novi is who the people are. When the people fall, the novi falls.
Rav Yaakov Galinsky offers an amazingly novel idea: Moshe Rabbeinu and Bilaam had the same potential. Bilaam did not have to become the person he became. It was all dependent on the people. Because of the inherent character traits of the nations of the world, he became a “Bilaam.” In effect, the nations of the world could not complain that they were given an imperfect novi, because the novi only reflects the spiritual essence of the nation to whom and for whom he prophesizes.