Opinion & Comment
There Can Be No Blemish in the Sanctity of the Klal

"And Bolok said to Bilaam: Come, I pray you, with me to another place, from whence you may see them; you shall see but the utmost part of them and shall not see them all, and curse them from there" (Bamidbor 23:13).

Bolok realized that the glorious and awesome sight of the Jewish people encamped according to its tribes, with sanctity and grandeur, so stunned and moved Bilaam that this evil minister was forced to "answer Amen against his will," that is, admit its superiority. And so, instead of cursing the nation, a flow of blessings and praises burst forth from Bilaam's mouth. Bolok inferred that there was no chance of evoking any curses from his mouth unless he direct Bilaam's vision towards the weaknesses of the nation, the hind part, the laggards, marginal folk, the ones from whom Klal Yisroel has no nachas.

HaRav Aharon Levine Hy'd, rov of Warsaw, writes the following in his work, Hadrash Veho'iyun: Bolok sought to overlook or ignore the nation as a collective body. No, Bilaam, you must not gaze upon it as a whole, a complete entity. You must only regard its failings and shortcomings. Concentrate upon the weaknesses, highlight the outcasts. Draw conclusions that can be generalized and applied to the nation as a whole and point to these, saying: These are the Jews; this is what they are like. In order to achieve this, Bolok made it a point to stress to Bilaam: And do not look at them in their entirety. Don't focus your gaze upon the spectacular beauty of the corporate. Do not relate to the Jewish people as one homogeneous body but as a conglomeration of many single heterogeneous units. And with such a view, the marginal ones, the riffraff that hangs on but does not really identify with the main body, will take on a more conspicuous dimension that will obscure the beautiful panoramic view of the people as a whole.

The truth is the very opposite, writes Hadrash Veho'iyun. We know that the portion of, "You shall be sanctified" was said during the total national assemblage of Hakhel to teach us that any complete gathering of the mass body of Jewry must necessarily contain people of lesser degree, of lower stature, base sinners.

Sadly enough, Jewry is not lacking its wicked ones, its degenerates who defile and degrade themselves in evil. But when Jewry is regarded as a single unit, one body, a joined community, then it is holy. The very occasion and act of Hakhel, of the people gathering all together, generates the holiness that sanctifies the nation collectively. And in this composite state, the sins that are necessarily present because there will always be sinners, will not cast a shadow, or aspersion, upon the nation as a whole.

The Imrei Emes adds: Chazal say in maseches Rosh Hashonoh that when the time comes to pass judgment on the Day of Judgment, "All are scanned in one single look." When people are judged individually, their faults and sins are much more obvious.

This is not true with regard to looking at the entire nation in a single surveying glance, when only the good stands out. This is learned from what is written, "Who forms together their heart, Who understands all of their deeds." The understanding of the deeds is measured according to the yardstick of Jewry as a body, together as a whole.

The author of Beer Moshe of Ozhorov characteristically finds support for this idea from Chazal's words: The Zohar expounds upon the words, "And Your people are all righteous" -- Israel is more righteous than any of the nations, so much so that Hashem calls them tzaddikim. The Ohr Hachamo commentary on the Zohar explains that even if the body of Jewry includes people who are not righteous, still the nation as a whole is considered righteous.

There is a traditional homiletic explanation to the phrase "Vechulo machmadim -- and [he] is entirely delightful, precious" that links to the same word used here, "Vechulo lo sir'eh -- and you shall not see its entirety." When Jews are surveyed individually, one by one, there are deficiencies that can be picked out here and there. Everyone has faults and blemishes. But when they are all included as a whole and united together, with the sanctity that then binds them by virtue of their wholeness, then no shortcomings exist for they are all precious, virtuous, delightful and also righteous.

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