At the beginning of this parsha, Rashi asks the
obvious question: "You may ask, why did Hashem bring His
divine Presence to rest upon such a wicked gentile? The
answer lies in the Midrash: so as not to give an
opening for the nations of the world to argue; `If we had had
prophets, we would have improved ourselves.' Hashem,
therefore, gave them prophets, who breached the rules of
accepted moral conduct in the world. For in the beginning,
people guarded themselves against licentiousness, but he
[Bilaam] gave them the counsel to go and be immoral."
Our original question still stands, as Rashi presented it.
Why, we still ask, did Hashem allow His divine spirit to rest
upon this wicked gentile? Why, precisely, was such an evil,
degenerate sinner — a man who came to symbolize
depraved traits like a base soul, arrogant spirit and evil
eye — chosen to become the mouthpiece of a divine
message, of prophecy? Could not the nations continue to
maintain that had they had decent, upright prophets, they
would have improved? Surely there are some moral men among
the gentiles. How, then, can one compare Moshe Rabbenu as a
prophet, to Bilaam the wicked as a prophet? They have nothing
in common! Bilaam was certainly not a good example, a role
model for them.
It is difficult for us to understand altogether, how such an
exalted state as prophecy could find a resting place on such
a degenerate character. Prophecy is a state of spiritual
vision and sublime sensation and experience that normal
people cannot even conceive. Daniel describes his prophetic
experience as follows: "I saw this great vision and no longer
had any vigor left in me. For my comely appearance was
horribly changed, and I retained no strength" (Doniel
10:8). We see that a body as holy and purified as Doniel's
could not bear to absorb this spiritual experience of
beholding a divine vision since a corporal vessel simply
cannot contain such holiness; it is stripped of all its vigor
and endurance. His comely appearance, his handsome
countenance, was demolished. The people who were with him at
the time did not share his revelation, but they could sense
that something awesome was taking place and they simply fled
in fear. From where? To where? "Even though they did not see,
their mazel saw" (Rosh Hashonoh.) They felt
that they were unfit to stand before such gushing,
overwhelming spirituality.
When we hear such a description, we are all the more
bewildered and incapable of understanding how a defiled and
disgusting body such as Bilaam's, that descended to an animal
level, could sustain and absorb such a vision of divine
revelation. He fell prostrate when the vision came upon him,
but it was while he was awake, not in a dream trance. It was
a conscious state of aspaklaria me'ira, just like
Moshe Rabbenu, as it were. Is this fathomable?
HaRav Elya Lopian zt'l asked these very questions and
replied with a single, deep and comprehensive answer.
When the nations of the world speak about prophetic
revelation, they are talking about a different phenomenon
from what is conceived by the Jewish people. This is not the
sort of prophecy which they sought — and it is not what
they received. They wanted a different type of revelation,
and they received it through the vessel receptacle of Bilaam.
They received exactly what they asked for.
In order to understand this, we must postulate that the
nations did not argue that had they had prophets they would
have converted to Judaism. Certainly they could have
converted at any time by going directly to the Jews and
benefiting from Jewish prophecy at first hand. But we do not
discredit them for not having converted; and they offer no
excuses for this, either.
Rather we challenge them why, as gentiles, they sinned,
transgressed and became corrupt. And they defend themselves
with the argument that had they been granted gentile prophets
to guide them, within the parameters of their gentile ways
— how to preserve truth, practice justice and be
upright, as is expected of them — they would have
become exemplary people.
In dealing with gentiles, we must bear in mind the iron rule
of Chazal: "If someone tells you that there is wisdom by the
gentiles, believe it. Torah by the goyim? Don't believe it."
It is axiomatic that gentiles can acquire general wisdom, but
gentiles cannot acquire Torah.
Knowledge is cerebral, intellectual, and is separate from the
psyche of its pursuers. Those who seek knowledge can absorb
it even if their very essence contradicts the content of the
knowledge they seek. Torah, on the other hand, includes the
practical application of wisdom; it is horo'oh,
instruction, living by what one knows to be right. One cannot
presuppose that because a person has acquired secular
knowledge, he has become a moral person. Do not believe that
Torah, a moral code of living, exists outside the Torah.
Torah cannot repose in a stifled heart and a base spirit.
Torah is the adaptation of wisdom to all of the kochos
haneffesh while subjugating them to it.
R' Elya continues, elaborating: the very act of prophecy is
different when exhibited by a Jewish prophet or a gentile
one. Jewish prophets, prophets of truth and justice, absorb
the prophecy in their very essence; it becomes part of their
very mind and heart. `With all your heart and all your soul.'
This is why it is so difficult to withstand the revelationary
experience. It is a total spiritual penetration into all the
nooks and crannies of a physically-bound soul. Tremendous
mental-emotional powers are required to contain and absorb
it, to withstand its tremendous impact.
Prophecy is not absorbed by a gentile, however. It skims over
him without leaving any vestiges. He experiences it
superficially without actually grasping it, like theoretical
knowledge, removed from him. In such an abstract form, even a
goy like Bilaam can experience prophecy and not become
affected. He is elevated, for a brief moment, to the ecstasy
of prophecy, and sees divine visions, but he remains the same
as before, unimpacted. And when he descends back to this
world, nothing remains of his exalted experience; he is the
same lowly creature as before.
If this is the case, there is no point in the gentiles asking
why prophecy was spent on such a creature as Bilaam. This is
how prophecy looks when it does not have the suitable
receptacle to contain it. It passes through him and makes
absolutely no impact on the receiver. Knowledge, in his case,
only compounded the wickedness and evil. And, we know that
knowledge does exist by the nations. But knowledge, know-how,
never prevented gentiles from doing evil. Technology did not
refine mankind, make them less animal-like. The
sophisticated, highly educated Nazi fiend was no less a beast
than his unlearned gentile counterparts. Worse, in fact.
Bilaam was not a one-time phenomenon. He represents a
symptom, a test case, an experiment, if you will. This is
what knowledge, science, technology — and prophecy
— look like by gentiles.
