Who is Balaam? He’s a well-known figure in 8th century BCE Middle East. He lives in Aram, in what is now the northern part of Syria. A pagan Aramaean, he appears to be a Seer for hire. Indeed, independent of the Hebrew Bible, per Nathan Steinmeyer as well as the Torah: A Women’s Commentary, in a village just east of the Jordan River, a wall was found recounting the night visions by Balaam, son of Beor.
So Balak sends emissaries to speak with Balaam. After sacrifices and sleeping on it, Balaam says no to the emissaries. Balak is persistent though, and he sends more representatives of higher status asking for him to come back. They offer Balaam considerable wealth if he’ll come back with them. After sleeping on it, he agrees return with the emissaries.
He mounts his donkey to return with the emissaries. Now the word used to describe the donkey is aton, which means the donkey is a jenny, or female donkey. The Torah, Women’s Commentary questions whether as the insightful one on the journey, it reflects Lady Wisdom from Proverbs? Or perhaps in the patriarchy, was she a symbol merely of the lowest of low animals who still could see what our Balaam could not?
Balaam is riding his jenny, servants on each side, and the ass sees the angel with sword drawn and immediately veers into the field. Balaam beats the jenny and turns back to the road. A bit further, on a lane with fences on each side, and the angel is seen and the donkey veers into a wall. A second beating. Finally, a passage with nowhere to go, and the Jenny lies down under Balaam. A final beating ensues. This time HaShem opens the donkey’s mouth, and the donkey (or HaShem speaking through the donkey) asks, why is he beating her so? Balaam angrily responds back. The donkey says, have I ever done this before? Balaam must answer no, and then his eyes were opened and he sees the angel.
He offers to go back, but the angel says to go ahead, but he must use the words that HaShem gives him. Balaam follows the foreign gods of Aramea, but it is Hashem speaking to him and through him, and the donkey of course. Balak takes Balaam to three high spaces, and in each one, Balaam blesses Israel over Balak and Moab. He responds not in prose but poetically in the last two, and Balak is furious and sends Balaam home without payment. In parting, Balaam tells him Israel will dominate Moab, Edom, and Seir.
It is believed by many modern commentaries that this story about the donkey came from a different tradition and was woven into our narrative later. Balaam’s fame was known far and wide for his visions, and yet in our narrative, it is not the renown soothsayer who sees the angel, rather the lowly donkey. He goes on and HaShem puts the words in his mouth, and ultimately prophesies the defeat of Moab.
So ultimately, Balaam’s the hero, right? Well not really. Several chapters later in Numbers 31:16, he has encouraged the Midianite women to sleep with the Israelite men and lead them to worship their deities. Indeed, five kings of Midian and Balaam were slain for their actions.
As I read and questioned this parsha, I needed to understand just what is going on with Balaam. In a paper put out by Biblical Archaeology Society, there is a discussion regarding the attributes of a prophet. One receives divine inspiration in two ways, either unsolicited or solicited omens. In our case the omens were unsolicited and came from HaShem. But Balaam is a step above because it is clear he is a diviner. A diviner derived omens from the organs of animals that were sacrificed.
Balaam showed amazing skills and his abilities were known throughout the region. A genuine prophet whom the sages compared to Moshe himself. But he had a flawed character that led to his downfall and mention in the Mishnah as having been denied a place in the world to come.
What led to this outcome? I confessed a genuine brain fog when trying to explain what went wrong here. Finally, my own favorite source, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks of blessed memory offered suggestion that sounded right. Who was Balaam? Yes, he was a seer and diviner, a prophet of the highest order. But he was from Aram, in Northern Syria. He was for hire to the highest bidder, not a prophet in a moral sense, only for his own enrichment. He was loyal to no one, a loner, a gun for hire. Compare that to Moshe, who served his people, intervened for them to HaShem time after time. Indeed, in the Talmud they ask, what is the meaning of Balaam. It goes on to say it means “a man without a people.” Belo Am.
What does that mean for us today? In our own time we see those with incredible gifts, yet they fall short ethically, lacking integrity, honesty, humility, and loyalty. Using those gifts to serve self rather than a higher cause.
Earlier I spoke of omens. In today’s language, we might speak of an “inner voice”, discernment, perhaps intuition. These feelings may be informed by our history, our body of learning, but sometimes it derives from something we can’t quite place. Now as someone who was out as gay in the South long before I transitioned, danger was a real possibility, even in my gayborhood. One lesson I learned was to trust that inner voice or ignore it at my peril. I might be walking hand in hand with my beloved partner, and the feeling would rise, and I would let go of his hand. Half a block further, and I would see why. I worked in an inner-city welfare office. It was a high crime area in Houston, and in the proximity of just our block, four murders occurred. In my own office our security guard was held at knifepoint one day and a group of us approached from behind and took it away from the assailant. A representative of Houston PD came to talk with us on how to deal with such situations. He began by speaking of that inner voice, the same one I had come to know so well.
That inner nudge is there for reasons other than safety. Should I do this, or did I bring harm for doing that? If we listen to that voice, serving not only ourselves, but our community as loyal partners, we do not end up as Balaam, or Belo Am. You know, it was that inner voice that led me to Judaism, and in that journey, I became a person with a people. Loyalty, not a blind following, but rather an ongoing engagement, learning together underpinned by a system of ethics that continues to be refined over centuries. Not “belo am” but Am Yisrael chai. I feel such gratitude for that that quiet nudge, and for all of you. My prayer is that I, we continue to hear that whisper within, not from a talking ass, but from that inner voice that continues to point the way. Shabbat Shalom!
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