13 Jul APPEARANCES ARE SOMETIMES DECEIVING

Bilam ha’rasha was

a novi, but at the

same time he is

always referred to

as Bilam ha’rasha –

the evil one. One

may wonder – was

his external appearance that of a

novi or that of a rasha? The

mishna in Pirkei Avos (5:19)

describes the contrast between

the talmidim of Avrohom Avinu

and the talmidim of Bilam

ha’rasha. The pesukim that

indicate the difference are

pesukim spoken by Bilam, not

by his talmidim. Why doesn’t the

mishnah draw a contrast

between Avrohom Avinu and

Bilam himself? Some of the

commentaries point out that

when one would look at Bilam

you could be fooled to believe

that he himself is the same type

of person as Avrohom Avinu.

Because he was a novi he

dressed the part, acted the part,

and spoke the part. You could

only tell the difference between

the two when you look at their

talmidim. According to the

haftorah of Parshas Vayishlach

the stranger who mugged

Yaakov Avinu in the middle of

the night was an angel. The

midrash explains that he was

soro shel Eisav – Eisav’s angel.

The gemorah (Chullin 91a) has a

discussion regarding what this

angel looked like. One opinion is

that his appearance was similar

to that of a talmid chachom.

Looks are often deceiving – soro

shel Eisav can dress up like a

talmid chacham. It is known that

the Chofetz Chaim used to dress

like a plain ba’al ha’bayis. In fact

there were those that referred to

him as the “ba’al ha’bayis”. But

we know from the influence that

he had on so many of his

followers that he was so much

more than a plain ba’al ha’bayis.

Unfortunately there are many

rabbonim who dress the part,

act the part, and speak the part,

but when we look at their

followers we realize that in

their inner core there is

something seriously lacking. In

a famous teshuva written by the

Maharshal he complains about

the fact that in his generation

there were many

honest-to-goodness talmidei

chachomim who did not have

the minhag to wear a yarmulke

all day long and the public

would frown upon them. But

any Torah scholar who would

wear a yarmulke would be

honored and respected even if

his Torah knowledge and yiras

shomayim were not up to par.

Looks are often deceiving. The

mishna (Pirkei Avos 4:20)

warns us, “al tistakel b’kankan

eleh b’mah sh’yesh bo – one

should not judge a person merely

based on externalities.” When one

is deciding whom to follow as his

rebbe, in fulfillment of the

instructions in the mishna (Pirkei

Avos 1:6), “asei l’cho rav”, one

must judge whether the rabbi in

question is the right person in his

inner core based on the rabbi’s

talmidim.