Bilam the tortured monotheist | Rabbi Ari Kahn | July 10th 2025

So this week is parhat balak. We already heard someone say here they don't like this week's parat. I'll tell you where. No, no, no. It's fine. It's fine. Well, you guys should talk about that then. Okay. So what we have over here is a couple of different nations who you know am Israel are such incredible people an incredible nation because we bring people together. We we cause anti-semites to come and to uh and to join and to work out work out their problems because because they find themselves with this uh common enemy. So instead of focusing right now on on Midian and on uh well the truth is we could go back a little bit even to uh to Sikhon and so on but what we have over here is Moab and Midian and we've noted I don't know how many years ago this was we noted that there is a certain commonality between the two of them. there's or even better than that there is a common denominator between the two of them and that is and and I'll say first in the most broad way to say it and that is that they are both Semites which means they're both from Shem. So one of the ways to keep track and safe for midbar is to note which of the nations you're dealing with are people who come from shame and which and which you is is not really involved right now but shame and kam absolutely are. And essentially those who are from shame get to stay where they are and those who are from kam are are sent away. So, and which again is part of the background of what's taking place over here. There was some real estate issues and they lost some of their land already to Sikhon and then Amisol took it from Sikhon and they think that they still have a right to it and then that seems to be the background. As I said just in terms of real estate but when it comes to the personalities there is another personality who's brought into it which is probably the most dominant personality in the para and that is Bam. So what you have then is this really interesting combination between bam and balak. And I was thinking on the way here that I could have looked up what I'm about to say but I didn't. Who I don't know who was the first one to say it. But what what they noted was that again Balak is a bad guy and Bam is a bad guy. Although they're not the same bad guy. There's there's different bad which is actually what we're going to be looking at today. But when you put them together they become very bad. And the way it was articulated at least you know in in some sources was that if you look at the name Balak and you look at the name B and you look at the last two letters in each and you put them together you end up with Amalik. So the am from Bil and the lake from Balak you put them together you end up with Amalik. And that's interesting again it much more interesting in terms of that together they want to wipe out all of Israel. Now again I'm not asking you to take this literally in any kind of sense but it it is something which nonetheless there is it's it's again it's an interesting comment but it leads you also to another place that bil without that balac part of him or balak without the bil part of him would would either of them been able to go about on this kind of a mission. Now, on top of all that, the strange thing about the para is that there there's most likely anti-semmites who are muttering bad things about us every single day, right? So, why does God have to get involved? Which means, is there really a threat over here? Is there something which God really had to get involved with? Which means it's it's almost to ask had there not been the end of the para which then the whole thing which happens with the benote and now you can also be careful but Moab on the on the one hand and then this princess from Midyan on the other hand would we really care about this whole thing about these uh these guys who are you know muttering about we're also going to separate between a more shot read versus what some of the midrashim are just telling us as a fact and we'll see because part of those midrashim rashi is going to adapt and we're going to or adopt and and and we'll see. So enough of an introduction and let's start reading and I'll tell you what I'm really looking for and I'm going to point out as we do this is I would call right now I would call Bum a monotheist but he is a tortured monotheist. He he he's a monotheist which it seems to be that there is this relationship with God and again you can pick on the word monotheist. You can say hold it. Is he willing to do a deser also? Is he open to other things? Which means also note along the way how often God is on his lips. And then it gets more interesting what he calls God, what he says about God. Does he listen to God? Does he try to fool God? Which means when I call him a monotheist, I do then so at some point have to then hesitate and say does he really believe in a a a god who is infinite and and good and so on and so forth because he seems to be somebody who knows of the power of God but and it's that but that leads us with uh all kinds of question marks but when it comes to bum sorry when it comes to bullock from the beginning of the para and I would ask you okay so it's his orientation in terms of God and your best answer would be well if you want you can say I don't know or you can say well just doesn't seem to be a factor doesn't seem to be an issue and that itself already sets off the differences between the two excuse me said fever but just because all of the nations around seen what he did right no but he's not afraid of God he's afraid of Israel which means Let's just start then with Balak. Is Balak a monotheist or is he apoltheist? So uh it seems to be that he has various gods that he's interested in and uh and it's very hard to say that there's any kind of relationship between him and what we can call the God of Israel. So again it goes backwards to memory are very different. Why are the Mor different? because they're so I'm just saying is right there there's there's a difference mo and to remind ourselves moav comes from lo which means there is some vote over there going back to being raised in Abraham's tent and so on but they're afraid of the people who because there are so many of them Israel so therefore there is this fear or loathing perhaps of the people. Va moav elzikn name midyan. So again here is our wonderful merger which is unexpected. Midyan of course is where does midyan come from? Midyan is one of the ben cura. Their father is au is au. That's also something which is interesting which means they also should have received some kind of so one of the things we note about this is that way back when when the moraglin were all afraid they said then we're like grasshoppers in their eyes well guess what we're like in the eyes of these people we're like some we're like this enormous power but uh but we still identify as grasshoppers which also potentially leads us to the conclusion that he used this sense of fear to catapult himself to become a leader but so notice by the way God is not in the picture at all Israel are coming Israel are powerful Israel are there's many of them but there's no mention of God bin a alaharit amo and they send a message to bring this fellow bil now why exactly do they want to bring bil so they tell us why they want to and that's the next continuation of the plear is saying he you love the passivity of that a people happened to leave Egypt they didn't say the way that we would say ones night that God took us out. There was God took us out rather. [Music] So I again I will note that there is a total lack of expression of any kind of acknowledgement of God so far. curse these people because they are so many there's so much more more of them than us and then perhaps I can strike them and chase them away or you are so again I'm going to because whoever you bless is blessed or you cursed is cursed so I just want to pause there that's the message that's what was sent and do you notice what's missing God is not here at Rather, Bum has this power. Bum is able to do this. They're not saying let's go to Bum because Bum is a prophet of God because Bam has a relationship with God. No, that it's it's totally resultoriented. We know that Bum has these ability to do this thing and they don't really care how it happens. So in order apparently in order to show their own credibility in the occult, they take with them. They show, listen, we we we also know how to do certain things and we're coming as it were from a place of knowledge of the occult and we're asking you to use your capabilities or they called and and I'm going to say it again now. It sounds like they have their capabilities and he has their capabilities, but what's the whole trick of all of this? You put them together. You put the two of them together and then the power becomes that much greater. But as of this moment only only thing that we know about is this curse them, right? We have our magic as well. And they come over and they give over this message. It's at that point that we get our surprising response. And we're going to try to break it down a little bit, but first I want you to pay attention. What was it that was said? The message that was sent because we're told they just said it. What did he say? Whoever you bless is blessed and whoever you curse is cursed. So the whole capability is within. What else are they told? There are these people and they're numerous. But yim and bum's response is and perhaps for us it's surprising. po spend the nightm [Music] and I will run to you what God says to me. So the only one who brought God into the story now is bum. Also notice that he says that God will speak to me and he uses the yud the bilam and they spend the night. By the way we will also note as we go further do they believe in God? Do they believe that it was God who who's going to do all these things? So, let's pay careful attention as we continue as opposed to him saying that God will speak to me comes and says to God asks. You always have to be careful when questions are asked and answers are given. If the answers are related to the question, who are these people to you? By the way, what's the answer are? That's that's a fair question. Who are these people to you? Which God is giving him an opportunity to say they have nothing to do with me. Or you can say, well, we may go into business together. I'm saying that's the question. The question is, what is your relationship to them? which actually God cuts through everything and says are you with them or not and his ability now to respond is yes I am with them there's an important thing to do over here or I'm an opportunist I see my way of making some money over here you know thank you and rashin for parasa and you're helping me out so he could say again we're partners he could say I have nothing to do with them so notice his answer who are these people am I was that a Fair way of translating, who are these people with you? Again, it's asks, he answers, he sent these people. Do you like his uh non-committal? I mean, he could have been a lawyer, right? You like his non-committal response? He doesn't answer the question that he was asked. By the way, God did not ask this question. God knows who they are. He's asking what is your intention? And then he and then and then and then again this is why you have to question what he really believes or doesn't believe. And he says, why is that interesting? Is another term for cursing. So, so what was the question? No, no. One second. One second. He's describing the situation. He says, "These people have left Egypt and they are and they are covering up the land now. Let me right. He is asking God to curse them." So what he's doing is he he's relaying the message that he received from Balak. Here is these people. By the way, does he say it exactly or not? Now you can go back and look at the words that that were said. I mean the main thing I want to focus at is that he said and now when he's saying it over he says to. So that's interesting because what does the word versus the word mean right first do not go with them do not join them right he's in a sense God is answering the question that he had asked initially you notice what God did over here he went back to what the original question was and he ignores the way that bum decided now I'm going to say to pretty it up because there's going to be a little bit of tension here. What is the relation between Kava versus Auror? Which one is worse? And Rashi is going to tell us something and others will disagree. If I had to read it right now, what my sense is my sense is is that Bum, as I said before, he's trying to pretty things up and therefore Kava is not as bad as Auror. Again, Rashi will say the opposite soon. He it's not as bad. So therefore, he's trying to say to God, you know, let's just do this, you know, kind of attack upon them. And God's response is going back to the original request. No, you cannot curse these people, for they are blessed. Which means in a certain sense, God is going back to he's going back to the covenant that was forged all those years ago. These people are blessed people and uh don't curse them. Guys, go back because God does not allow me to go with you. Now, you notice, of course, how he is selective in his response. God actually says two things. God says don't go with them because you No, no, even better than don't they're blessed and the curse is just not going to go refuses to come with me. So I want to go back and ask in terms of this god quotient or the god consciousness among the moave of midyan side the the elders of both you know they're the ones of the bayad are are are they people who see the god of Israel as something which is significant apparently not at all not at all because it's again they don't even process it and what they do is they say bum wants to come doesn't want to come is part willing to join us not willing to join us And the way that they process what he said is again, it's interesting. Bam is selective in terms of relaying over what God said. He also could have said, "God said you will not succeed." But I don't even know if that would have worked because the way that they're receiving what he had said is that um no, he doesn't want to come with us. Which by the way, they translate this as being negotiations. But they send even a better contingent. Don't refuse to come. By the way, he never refused to come. And that's God's first question to him. You know, who are these people to you? And you know, do you are you with them? Are you not with them? And he relays the message like kind of wanting God to say, "Yeah, go. That's good good opportunity for you." which is interesting because now it switched to the from the it's almost as if okay you're not going to curse them at least and again I'm I'm trying to be consistent. So again, he sounds very much like a uh monotheist and he says, "You can pay me all the money you want. I can't go against the word of God." Again, he uses the shame. Unless he gives them hope. Let's see. I'll see what else God has to say to me. Once again, instead of Hashem speaking to him, If they came to call upon you, by the way, they didn't really come to call upon him. They came for them to be cursed, which means God's calling him on his selective response before. If he would have said that, no, they can't curse, but that's not what they're doing because they think that the cursing is on the table and he never said that he can't curse. So if they're coming for you, which is interesting because God is actually being strict with him because he is being disrespectful in terms of the way that a he talks to God and be the way he talks to others. You know, if he is a prophet, let's just go back there for a second. If he is a prophet, one of the things of a prophet is to say over the prophecy that they've received. Over here, what we find over here, he doesn't exactly say things over precisely. rather he says he says things constantly selectively if they just wanted you but whatever I tell you is what you can do and he goes okay I got permission to go but he really didn't get permission to go because they really didn't come just for him they came for him to curse and he wasn't given permission to curse so I'm just going to say over here there is this whole web of confusion which has taken place over here and it all goes down to Bum's unwillingness to say over with precision exactly what was said to him, exactly, you know, again, what they say to him, what God says to him. And it goes back and forth. And that whole lack of precision is creating the situation right now, which actually leads over to the next three words who and God is upset with him because he went. Why is God upset? Didn't God just say to go because of his inability of saying over what he should be? Yeah, only at night. Is that only by him or others? So that's that that that's a part of this as well. It's very typical when we find various non-Jews who have been told I mean think about braces told don't do anything bad to the Jews. I mean yeah we were told the same thing about aime and we find the same thing about lavan and we can and we can keep going. By the way, there are there there are there are midrashim in the target if I'm not mistaken who identifies him with lavan. Why? Because lavan and you know kazal loved to work with the theory of conservation of characters if you want to call this. So, however you want to process it, but nonetheless, it's a similar uh type of uh dynamic. Good. Good. And God's upset with him. It's interesting. So then comes and I'm not going to go through the whole rest of this part right here that carefully. Um he can't see it, but So essentially God is saying, you know, I can use all kinds of things as a cle. I don't need to use you, Bam. I can use a donkey as well in order to uh create situations. So the the dunkey sees what he can see. The dunkey speaks the same way that he can speak. He hits the dunkey and then he gets himself punished. But again, we have this other revelation taking place over here and him coming out of this somewhat wounded. And I'm going to, as I said, skip through most of that. I sinned, which again is really missing the whole point. I sinned because I didn't see you along the way. That's not where you sinned. You sinned by being selective. You sinned by joining them. You sinned by going. You sin by thinking you can curse. You sinned in this whole thing. The emphasis of the bear. So he's told he's going to fail and he goes. So now has been told that bam is coming. Moav. So he comes and meets him by one of the cities of Moab. [Music] So a border city. Essentially he's asking you know it goes back to the same first point. Why don't you come right away? my my honor isn't good enough for you. Why were you hesitating? Which means again this whole message that God said you can't and God questioning you know are you with him and uh Balak takes it as a given. By the way, it's interesting that now after this whole interaction with the with the dunkey and the dunkey seeing and the dunkey talking, he now actually said something which was accurate till now he kept on faking it. He kept on saying God will speak to me and Elohim speaks to him. Now he says, "So now now he had that first moment of honesty." Now the question of course is will be impressed with this. Nonetheless, he goes with him and they go to a place called So we'll keep that in mind for a moment. Then brings offerings. [Music] So these offerings that he brought, who is he bringing them to? Which means is he trying to serve God? I'm just going to point out that there's no you're shaking your head correctly. There's no reason in the world to believe that he is serving God. Correct. Right. Of course. Of course. I'm say of course of course of course even though there's a gar that says that he offered 42 corb the whole that says it says oh it assumes he's serving God. I don't know why the gumar is saying that. Well there similar. What strikes me is that it's similar. You know the same kind of animals and the same kind of times. It just sounds very Yeah, he's doing so. Well, well, that's the that's the that's the thing. That's the thing. That's the thing I've been trying to point out till this moment. He has never mentioned God. He doesn't seem concerned about God. God is a non-factor at all and therefore to say oh he's been serving God is somewhat imaginary because God has never been mentioned in all of this and quite the opposite but give me a second rashi and I already kind of told you that Rashi is going to say this kavali that goes all the way back to the request that bow makes of god instead of what was said he softened it rashi says the opposite to Say worse even what does it mean instead of from the land. So what Rashi just now did? Yes. And this is based on the midrash. It is turning bil into worse than balak which itself as I said based on is a very interesting question. Which one of these people is worse? And how do you judge what is better and what is worse? But what Rashi very clearly is doing is saying is that he is editorializing and he's saying you know wipe them out completely wipe them out from this world and so on and so forth and it goes back to almost this identification between bilam bilam as u you know those who want to say bala he swallowed up a whole nation he wants to kill everybody but again till this point in the kish itself I don't know how easy it is to say that and quite the opposite. When we look at all the other things that he's been saying, he's always been trying to soften things. I mean, that that's just the sense I get from what I'm calling and and there are those who uh who question. He he just doesn't understand how the continuation of the dialogue works. If if he said the maximum and God says no to the maximum, is he softening afterwards? So I'm not going to get into all of this. I am just going to note that there's an interesting really interesting oram in source number four where he takes the word oral which means to curse and he somehow connects it to source number five which is the end of the para. He relates the word with and as far as I can tell these words have absolutely nothing to do with one another but nonetheless there's a really interesting um approach over here of theamur who notes the rashi he also questions it he also thinks that it's difficult and what he prefers to say and again right in the middle of this and he thinks he can answer all the questions some of which I've raised. So as I said if you're interested in this Tom Sofur go take a look. He is doing one thing which is interesting and that that is what I want to focus on and then we'll get to the hopefully the main points and that is how do get cursed and and I think this is part of what we need to understand. How do they get cursed? Which means if I look at Israel and I really say, "Oh, wowish." That doesn't seem to be a really good introduction to be able to curse them. Why? Because look how successful and good and wonderful they are. Rather to be able to curse, I need to see through that. And I'll be terrible and mean now that facade. I need to look past all of that apparent good and see underneath it like to strip away the facade. Oh, look how bad they really are. Look what's really going on in those tents. Look what's really going on in those communities. Look at the things that they're really doing. So over here kind of the shift between look how wonderful their tents and their families and they are and then I get to instead I get to and look at all them sinning with these girls over here. That is where the curse comes from. So therefore that's really what the is saying is that the use of the word here of what he's trying to do is look how unworthy they are because sooner rather than later they're going to end up sitting like that and that's how I'm able to attack them. they're unworthy of your blessing because look what they're real look what they really do. Look what really goes on. So I hope that makes a little bit of sense. But I'm going to say it again. That's really the direction that he's going. But once you understand this, I think we can understand some other things along the way. So we're up to source number six. Source number six is is going to be the taragum and then we'll look some others on puzzlet me and me olive. So that's back in source number one. They get to this place. That's where he brought these offerings. And then is the one you should pay attention to. Should we say this again? So where does he go in order to try to curse them? Again, that's what is you go to this bamote. What is a bama? It's similar to a misb and the bamote of bal is where he goes. Now ba those of us familiar is if we now take a look at the tarum on that it was called it's almost like it's to take a place that you can see from a place that you can take a good look. It then says that he brings these offerings in the morning which means kind of like the hill of his and from there he sees some of the people. Now again what was the problem? Look at all of these people that are so powerful. What does he see? He only sees some of the people. Question is which of the people he sees and what's going on? The midrash in source 7 says okay we need to also know what is it will come up in this para but he says is somebody who is capable in terms of you want to call it magic we can call it magic so that's that's just a fascinating comment and one wonders where this comes from is a type of idolatrous behavior which is not allowed for us as well. Excuse me. There's also two types of cursing. So I'm not right. So excuse me. Divination is a good word. Yes. Divination. It's not it's it's not the same word as snake. It's now what's interesting here. He says balak is actually more capable than bum. Which then just causes you to ask a question. So why so why does he need so why does he need bum? So the answer is going to be is it no it's just I I I know I know I know all of this actually there's a that comes out of this. The gummor says is the garra says that how what was the power of bum is that god gets upset with amus for one second like during the day and he knew how he knew how to pay attention to that one second. So toot asks how much can you say in that one second? So so there's two answers in tood. So you there's two answers in toot. So you remembered one answer. So one answer to is that he can say the word khen khen khen wipe them out. By the way it's the same letters as melik and and one of the responses later on will be truat is that we have the friendship with God. But there's a second answer in toot which is actually important for there's another to that brings a that we learned from that that makes its way to the which is crazy as well but there's a there's an interesting which is the learn out from this to the second answer that it gives is that that you have to start within this time. So where where is this argument used? It's used regarding creesma. Do you have to finish creat sorry that well bum that all that you need to do is you need to start by uh by that moment he knew that moment and therefore it's enough to start there and it's okay if you finish afterwards as if God is going to accept his prayer in order to curse Amisro potentially and that was the fear that needed to be stopped. So therefore certainly God is going to accept our fil as long as we started before the time. So let us get back to uh to this point what the what the Torah said over here again is well let's go back to this midash. It says that was so so then we were up to this question. So why do they need why does one need the other? So the answer is that just because you have power but it's not enough power. There's some meaning let's just say you have 70% power but you still need another 30%. So you still need you still need this other guy to help you. But nonetheless it's hard to read this back into the whole narrative over here. It sounds as if they send with but it doesn't necessarily sound like uh that Bum himself doesn't have the capabilities. Let's just read a little bit more of this midrash and it says no bum was like he was blind compared to So essentially what's he saying? He's saying is that again I want to put this together with the Pik we just now read. He says he takes him to a particular place. Where does he take him to? He takes him to a place of bal. So one thing the medish just now did is it joined together Bal and Por. And it says and we're right back to the end of the para again. What happens at the end of the para? Amisro is going to sin with Bal Por. is going to sin with the girls and that's going to lead directly to Balpa. So what it's saying is is that he understands this. By the way, you realize of course there's another way of reading this that Balak understands that's the weakness of Am Israel and therefore it's from that perspective is where he goes and he sees more than Bam sees. What's the other way of reading this? The other way of saying is that is his particular abodar. That's his home favorite and therefore of course he's going to go from this particular place and later on when the the girls are going to try to get to sin, they're going to bring them to Balor. But it's interesting the way that this midrash phrases it. Look at again the hill of their aod shame a rashi makes sure that you know what ba means over here and he says this is a name of aod although rashi by the way kind of uh even though he said it in the draio bamote ba he stays away from using the name in his interpretation goes one step further what does bamote ba He says over that they built a vodar on all these like high places. So he takes him to church. He takes him to church and from there they're going to curse Am Israel. And again it goes back to this interesting thought regarding Bum himself our again our monotheist or tortured monotheist that he gets dragged into this place of a vodara and again he's uh he's okay with trying to curse from this particular place. The Moshe Zakim writes and they only see part of the people from there. This is a little surprising. He says, "How can he even see any of them? Weren't they surrounded and protected by the anakavode the come back to the same theme. This is only going to be the third time I'm going to note this theme. that they only saw the wicked because the anan kicked out the wicked. By the way, what should this remind you of? And I gave you a hint about this in the very beginning just to make you feel inadequate. Yes, it should remind you of Muhammed Amalik by the war against Amale. What are we told? That they fought against the weak and so on. the ones Rashi tells us that Anan Pan that the Anan kicked out those are the those were the ones that the war of Malik was about. That's really interesting because what he's doing over here again, you take I do again want to understand that teaching. You take Balak, you take Balam, you put them together and you end up with this power of Amalik and what are they doing? They're seeing the same thing that Malik saw. Why? Because that's what this combination is. And they see those who were kicked out. It's really interesting. the the word can mean the extreme you know that word as well. So it's it's the it's those who are the the the inadequate the disgusting ones from the which means just see all the weak ones see all the ones that they are nonpict and then you're going to realize you can curse them why because these are part of Israel by the way this is the way that you always attack any kind of group you look at the worst people in the group and then you say oh all of them are uh are this way and then you curse them all the taramon which is back in Hebrew in source 11 again the hill of the so if you remember again this just goes right back to is called they're the ones who gather everyone together the rav Right, I finally said it is there together and therefore essentially so what does Bam and Balak see? They see the edge those who are kicked out those who are not protected by the by the anayakavode and maybe this will take us and we'll understand a little bit more now the in source 12 again same how did he get to the because he just followed the same line of reasoning that I just now followed that who is there together with but now look what else he does because once you get to the air where else are you These are the people who caused the eagle to take place. Now you realize this theme once again. If you want to curse Israel, what do you do? You look at their worst possible moments. You look at their worst possible side. You look at the worst possible sins. Again, the opposite of saying, you say, "Look at all the people that sins with theel and and you're you're right there." Again, you you all see how we got there because it's like there were like three jumps in a row that took us there. You see the and the how can you see isn't anode. No, they're the ones who kicked out of the well who were the ones historically were told were kicked out. That has to do with Makadan. Now what did Makadan do the call? So all those who didn't have a place to be, they were there hanging outside of Makadan. And who's that? That's the Av. Once you got to the we got back to the and that becomes really easy. But that now thematically goes right back to the point again. Remember that katam sofur? He said, "Oh, that word took us to the sinning which is going to happen afterwards with the benote moav." And you notice the same thing we were told in terms of they're going to sin with bal. That's going to be later on same episode. They're going to sin with balor. Enough. Enough. Let's look at source 13. We have another stop to make. place again. He took him a place that you uh have a really nice view. So of course what is our question going to be now is what is exactly is this rosha piska that's going right that's going to be the question what is this rosha piska literally rosha piska means it's the head of this place which is on the the hill this place the top of the hill that's roshapiska tarumulus what does he tell us over here rashi roshapiska Once again, same direction. Once again, Balak took him there. Why? Because Balak knows what he's doing. He saw that Israel is going to suffer over here. What terrible things is going to happen? And here he tells you He sees from this place Israel losing it losing something profound. And by the way, this itself is interesting because of something which I'm going to try to get to still and that is this whole comparison between Bam and Mosher Rabenu. But what he sees over here is again Roshakiska. Now let's just first deal with this tradition that we've seen already a couple of times. It's interesting to me that he keeps saying that he was more of a kosim palak was than bam. So in source 16 say if Yeshua how is bam described this is when he's killed but bam benba or b isel. So I don't know why you keep saying that he's you know he was the kosimain and he wasn't. He was a greater kosim. Again, every time they're doing that, it seems as if they really want to focus on the location that he's drawing some kind of power from the location. He's standing on sacred ground. And now you see for either what you see from that ground or what happens there. Let's just follow this a little bit more if we can. [Music] Source 17. here you have Balak speaking about Elohim. So again I want to note this he's been frustrated till this point and every time he's frustrated then Bam keeps coming back and saying I can only say what God puts in my mouth. So now he's finally saying okay let's play your this is the first time as far as I can tell that he articulates God and maybe God will curse from there. And notice and notice that it's just going to ask you, does he really believe that God is what is better? Well, God is going to let you curse there, but then where does he take him to? To Rosha Por. So, I'm I'm going to ask you again. Does Balac strike you in any way as being a monotheist? I hope you realize because he says that God will curse from here and then he takes him to par. So I'm going to say it again. I can't imagine that any of you would say, "Yeah, of course he's a monotheist." Look, he's talking about God. No, he's saying that God will do the opposite thing of what you said that he would do. Again, how far that goes, I'm not sure. But then he takes him to the place of poor. Why to the place of poor? So let's leave let's leave that for a moment. Why? Because he sees that is going to sin again. How do you curse the people? You curse the people by finding this weakness within them. Israel is going to sin with so therefore by is where you're going to attack. But he didn't know exactly what would be there. So he Sarashi is saying here is that Balak as well he's not a prophet he sees certain things and he tries to exploit the things that he sees but he does not see with uh with any kind of clarity source again he doesn't do any kind of divination so again theim doesn't work the doesn't work and uh we'll leave that as here as well rashi notes source 20 again. We've tried enough times. Again, it's the same thing. We're going to find the weakness of and then hopefully we'll be able to to curse them. Now, I just want to note something which is interesting about this rashi. Sorry. At the very end it says I just want to make sure we get the posi here in Rashi in Olive. Just want to make sure we have it right. Yes. Read Olive one more time in the itself 19. So what is Rashi writes at the end of source 20 it means what the taragum said. What's the problem? The problem is there's two versions of the taragum. So in source 21 I bring the first one. Now if you look at the second line I what's added in there in bold why to the and you can look at the English translation of that but he set his face towards the calf that the ben Israel had made in the wilderness which means once again even though he feels that there's this limit what could be done. The place that he's looking at is were they sinned with the golden calf? I'm going to say it again is that the subtext of all of this ability to curse amakness and find the sins and to exploit the things that we've done. So I don't know what Rashi means over here when he saysumo. I don't know if Rashi had in front of him the the text that just says they looked towards the midbar or he had the text in front of him that looked towards the midbar where they sinned with the golden calf. Of course, if it's the latter, then it's a little bit more interesting. The Tarumonatan adds in the igloo tam, right? But the place where they made the golden the ael, right? The only place again as far as I can tell that Balak speaks about God yud is when he parts ways with him. Source 24. Hashem, your God, I'm adding the word, your God, has prevented you from receiving any kind of uh of honor. And Bam double downs again and says, you know, I can only do what God tells me to do. Okay, I want to go backwards a little bit to one last thing that I left out before, and that was this thing about this Rosha Pisca. What we told about the Rosha Piskah, we're told that he sees that that's where Moshe dies. So, I just want to double down on that because I think that that's connected. In source 25, we find the place mentioned within this uh It's a place. You can see the desert, the desolate, the wilderness, the waste. That's what means writes. So they're singing about the bair till it's it gets extinguished and that's with the death of Moshe and source number 27 when God right this is paran Moshe pleads you know please let me go into Israel and God says no don't pray anymore right that's climb up again to the same place. Excuse me. Which means Moshe gets to see all of Israel from the same Roshis, which should be interesting. In uh source number 28, No, we'll skip that. In 29 is when we're getting towards Mosha's death. [Music] wholeits and he sees everything all the way to Dan by the way right he sees so also note that's where Moshe dies that's what they're seeing that's what they're feeling according to that again tradition and Mosha is going to be buried where he's buried mul which means all these places that we've been seeing in this week's para they all are connected with exactly where Moshe is going to be buried which you know is also connected to this week's para so first this free in source that he had some kind of power now this is really the most disturbing kind of teaching. First of all, because we know it's not true. I'm I'm sorry for saying that. We know it's not true that he that he was not a Na'vi like Moshe. So exactly what is it the wants to teach us? And again, there's many ways of explaining this. When it says that Moshe goes up and he sees, look at Rashi in source 31 heroban. He sees the Benedan worshiping a vod. Why? Why is that interesting? Because he sees the exact same thing where which Bam and Balak had seen that first time when they saw the Kaya who was kicked out of the Anaode who are the ones who are guilty of the the guilty of the agil and so on and so forth. But that is what Moshe sees right before he diesel, right? That's the whole thing with a few and so on. So Mosha's grave was prepared to be there almost as an antidote before the sin even happened. And Rashi here says again that Moshe is there to to be the counter of that kind of power. I'm going to read two more things and then I'm going to try to explain this. The 32 again setting up as as Moshe versus to negative mohe. So I hope that's enough of that and I'm just going to point out the in verse 33 and then I'm going to try to explain a little bit of this. That was the source that I skipped before. I told you I don't need to explain it now. That's in source 28 [Music] is where Moshe is teaching Torah. So Mosha teaches Torah from there and Moshe is going to be buried over there and there's something else I I hopefully to understand which is going on. And Torah could be explained in 49 different ways. Each thing we're told how it could be explained in various ways. Again, Kimyan 49 is the same numerical value of Moab. If you need the math, 40 and six and one and two is 49. Moave is 49 as well. So, let's try to go back a second. First of all, moave represents every single type of tuma. Where does moav come from? And again, just think about this battle between good and evil, right? Loaden is right. So, and moav comes from a place of tum which came from a place which potentially a place of kusha which is load in the tent of Abraham. But then this separation, Moab, of course, is one of these nations that we're contending with over here. But what it's saying over here is that Moab is a nation which somehow has and I'll I'll say how much deeper this is. It's not just that Moab and Moshe are are these uh opposites. Just like we saw that Bilam and Moshe are these opposites. Somehow out of Moab is going to come Ra Moavia and somehow out of root is going to come David and somehow Messiah is going to come from there. And that itself is completely perplexing how any of this happens. But all of but all of this is connected back to this point. What you have over here is this power of exploitation of negativity which Moav tries to do because that's how we can curse. Of course, if you can create the negativity with the benote moav which now is all the more interesting going back where they come from. Then if you can create this or you can create this power of par which essentially justifies every kind of behavior that's what por is and that's what lot were justifying as well. So then what you have is amrael guilty of all kinds of things and again you can go back to a core of this which is theel. So it's interesting that Moshe who was taught the entire Torah [Music] Moshe is buried right against are as it was to hold them back and be this counter of the counter. I hope that made some sense. They see Benedan and they exploit this and they see the av and they see the vodar they see the negativity. Moshe sees the exact same thing and then Moshe from the same perspective from the same place stands there as this ability to pray for Amrael to defend Amus because who defends Amy when they're guilty of the agel kesh right it's Moshe turns to Kesh and says well what do you expect of these people and so on and so forth so it's as if if you have this incredible the Hebrew would be perta how would you say that in English this uh break this it's an attack. It's this it's this weakness. It's this uh it's this it's this Yes, it is. It is this it's it's excuse me it was it was passed there already. It's this vulnerability that we have. So the vulnerability is exploited by some but it's being protected by Moshe. So therefore it's fascinating that Mosha's job again Moshe who receives the Torah he stands there against the T and Moshe somehow is going to know how to turn the T into something which is to that that is what's interesting they see the Benedan and they're attacking Mosha is able to see this and Moshe says no that itself could be uh somehow turned around and used in a positive way. It's Moshe who brings the heir of Rav out with him and that's something which you know everybody can question and say how can he do such a thing and I don't know if Moshe ever at any point ever says well that was a mistake quite the opposite quite the opposite in order for AmIrael to have any kind of significance what we need to have is an ability of taking things which are tame and making them that's ultimately what it is so therefore it becomes really interesting that all of the negativity and success and the way that we're susceptible to negativity which is trying to be exploited by Balak and he brings Bilah with them and the two of them together want to destroy Amni Israel. Moshe is right there in these same places essentially standing as a defense team in order to seeing the same things. But now how could we defend Israel and how could we now turn some of this negativity into something which is good? What it's saying is that Moab is the 49 of Tuma not not of not of Tahara of Tuma. Moshe understands both the 49 of Tame and of and of Tara. And that is really the the power of Torah, which is why Moshe can teach Torah over here. But part of teaching Torah also is is how do we take negativity and now turning it into something which is positive. And that's where Moshe remains again for most of history. That's where Moshe is buried and remains as it were in that exact same place that they tried to exploit. Moshe there. God chooses to bury him there in order to defend defend Ami Israel moving off into uh the future.