Balaam arose in the morning and saddled his ass (22:21)
Tasha explains that from this verse we see how hatred causes a person to break from convention. Balaam had many servants at his disposal; yet in his eagerness to go curse Israel, he saddled his ass himself. Said the Almighty: “Evil one! Their father Abraham has already preempted you when, to fulfill My will, he ‘rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey’ (Genesis 22:3).”
The Lubavitcher Rebbe comments: In order to place before man the “free choice” that is essential to his mission in life, G d so ordered His world that every positive force has its negative counterpart. Were there to exist a good element which cannot be put to corrupt use, then man’s potential for evil would be disadvantaged and would not present the equal challenge which makes for the choice factor in life. In the words of King Solomon (Ecclesiastes 7:14), “One corresponding to the other, G d created.” But this “equality” between good and evil extends only to the most superficial level of reality. When a person learns to look beyond the surface of things to their inherent purpose, he will see that only the good in the world is real and substantial. Good is an existence in its own right, while evil exists merely to provide the tension which imbues the positive acts of man with meaning and significance. Hence there cannot be anything “original” to evil, which is but a shallow, corrupted refraction of the good in the world. If Balaam was able to transcend the norm with the intensity of his hate, this was only because, centuries earlier, Abraham had done the same out of love of his Creator.
The people began to go astray after the daughters of Moab (25:1) MIdrash Rabba asks: how do we know that one who causes a man to sin is even worse than one who kills him? . . . Two nations advanced against Israel with the sword, and two with transgression. The Egyptians and the Edomites advanced against them with the sword, as is proven by the texts, “The enemy said: I will pursue, I will overtake . . . I will draw my sword” (Exodus 15:9), and “Edom said unto him: You shall not pass through me, lest I come out with the sword against you” (Numbers 20:18). Two advanced against them with transgression, namely the Moabites and the Ammonites. Of those who had advanced against them with the sword it is written, “You shall not abhor an Edomite . . . you shall not abhor an Egyptian” (Deuteronomy 23:8). Of those, however, who had advanced against them with transgression, endeavoring to make Israel sin, it says, “An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the assembly of G d . . . even to the tenth generation shall none of them enter . . . forever” (ibid. v. 4)
Prepared by Devorah Abenhaim
