In this parsha, Numbers 22:2 to 25:9, we have one of the most unusual sections of the entire Torah. So unusual, in fact, that the Rabbis of the Talmud at one point called it a separate book from the Torah. In Bava Batra 14b, we read “Moses wrote his own book and the portion of Balaam and Job.” (Soncino translation.) The parsha is named for a non-Jew, Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, and the central figure is another non-Jew, Balaam son of Beor, who is some kind of soothsayer or magician with prophetic powers. There is a lot that has been written about this parsha, and I will skip most of the details; a good synopsis is on the Wikipedia page and the Hebrew and English text, along with the commentary of Rashi can be found here and in the following pages. Briefly, Balak hires Balaam to curse the Children of Israel; Balaam is quite willing to but is prohibited by God, who changes his curses into blessings — repeatedly. Balaam then tells Balak how to corrupt the Children of Israel with sexual and religious immorality, and Pinchas ben Eliezer stops the resulting plague by killing two of the immoral perpetrators.
Balaam is considered a non-Jewish prophet. The Talmud, in Sanhedrin 105a reports that “Seven prophets prophesied to the heathen, namely, Balaam and his father, Job, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, Zophar the Naamathite, and Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite.” Bible experts will recognize Job, and that the last four names were Job’s “friends” who appear in the book with his name.
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And Balaam may in one respect be considered the greatest of all prophets. He seems to be able to talk to God at any time, something even Moses could not do. And in the Talmud (Berachot 7a) it is reported that he may have understood God better than anyone in history, being able to determine the exact 1/58,888 of an hour (approximately 6/100 of a second) that God is angry each day — presumably Balak may have known of this unusual ability when he hired Balaam in attempt to turn God away from His People.
Despite the positive attitude towards Balaam’s talent, one wonders how anyone who could treat his donkey as he does could be a good person. In fact, it is very clear from the Rabbinic tradition that he was a profoundly evil man. The Torah itself says (Numbers 31:16)
טזהֵן הֵנָּה הָיוּ לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל בִּדְבַר בִּלְעָם לִמְסָר מַעַל בַּיהֹוָה עַל דְּבַר פְּעוֹר וַתְּהִי הַמַּגֵּפָה בַּעֲדַת יְהֹוָה
“They were the same ones who were involved with the children of Israel on Balaam's advice to betray the Lord over the incident of Peor, resulting in a plague among the congregation of the Lord." (Judaica Press translation)
The Talmud, Sanhedrin 106a, gives more details of how the “incident of Peor” that is described at the end our parsha was triggered. After being forced to praise rather than to curse the Children of Israel, Balaam told Balak how to corrupt them:
He [Balaam] said thus to him [Balak]. 'The God of these hates lewdness, and they are very partial to linen. Come, and I will advise thee. Erect for them tents enclosed by hangings, in which place harlots, old women without, young women within, to sell them linen garments.' So he erected curtained tents from the snowy mountain [Hermon] as far as Bethha-Yeshimoth [i.e., right from north to south], and placed harlots in them —old women without, young women within. And when an Israelite ate, drank, and was merry, and issued forth for a stroll in the market place, the old woman would say to him, 'Dost thou not desire linen garments?' The old woman offered it at its current value, but the young one for less. This happened two or three times. After that she would say to him, 'Thou art now like one of the family; sit down and choose for thyself.' Gourds of Ammonite wine lay near her, and at that time Ammonite and heathen wine had not yet been forbidden. Said she to him, 'Wouldst thou like to drink a glass of wine?' Having drunk, [his passion] was inflamed, and he exclaimed to her, 'Yield to me!' Thereupon she brought forth an idol from her bosom and said to him, 'Worship this'! 'But I am a Jew', he protested. 'What does that concern thee?' she rejoined, 'Nothing is required but that thou should uncover thyself' — whilst he did not know that such was its worship. 'Nay', [said she,] 'I will not leave thee ere thou hast denied the Torah of Moses thy teacher,' as it is written, They went into Baal-peor, and separated themselves unto that shame, and their abominations were according as they loved.
(Soncino translation)
Earlier on the same page of the Talmud there is an even more horrible event recalled, one involving Job, one of the other Prophets to the Non_Jews:
Balaam said to Jethro, 'Thou Kenite, wast thou not with us in that scheme? Who then placed thee among the strong ones of the world!' And that is what R. Hiyya b. Abba said in R. Simai's name: Three were involved in that scheme, viz., Balaam, Job, and Jethro. Balaam, who advised it, was slain; Job, who was silent, was punished through suffering; and Jethro, who fled — his descendants were privileged to sit in the Hall of Hewn Stones, as it is written, And the families of the scribes which dwell at Jabez, the Tirathites, the Shemeathites, and Suchathites. These are the Kenites that came of Hemath, the father of the house of Rechab; whilst elsewhere it is written, And the children of the Kenite, Moses' father in law, went up out of the city of palm trees.
(Soncino translation)
The “scheme” was Pharoah’s plan to exterminate the Jewish people by drowning their children in the Nile. (Exodus 1:22-2:10). And in a more personal sin, Balaam is also recorded not just as having beaten his donkey but as having engaged in beastiality with her in Sanhedrin 105a.
What was Balaam’s end? He is killed by the Children of Israel in their revenge war with Midian (Numbers 31:8). The Mishnah in the last chapter of Sanhedrin lists him as one who has no share in the World to Come. And in a somewhat bizarre passage in the Talmud, Gittin 56b-57a, Onkelos, presumably the same person credited with translating the Torah from Hebrew into Aramaic, was considering converting to Judaism and engages in necromancy with past historical figures to get advice on whether it was a good idea to do so. Balaam is one of the three he conjures up and, and Balaam reports that he is condemned be punished for his sins by being immersed in boiling hot semen!
I believe that there is a lesson here for all of us: We all have gifts from God but we have to determine what to do with them. Balaam was made a prophet in order to carry the message of ethical monotheism to non-Jews. Instead, to put it into contemporary terms, he sold out for wealth and a lifestyle without constraints. While none of us have the extraordinary gifts Balaam had, we still face moral choices; Balaam is an example of everything we should be avoiding and what we can turn into if we don’t keep this in mind.
Shabbat Shalom!