16 Jul PARSHAS BALAK: IF IT CAN HAPPEN TO BILAAM, IT CAN HAPPEN TO ANY OF US

Parshas Balak
contains an
incident which
teaches a
tremendous ethical
lesson. I personally
find it to be one of the scariest mussar
teachings in the Torah.
This incident involves Bilaam, who
had a tremendous power of speech.
Whoever he blessed was blessed;
whoever he cursed was cursed. He
was a very powerful man — a person
who did not command divisions of
armies, but had an almost magical
power of speech.
Bilaam is asked to employ this power
against the Jews. He knows that G-d
does not want him to go, but he
decides to go nonetheless. While on
the way, his donkey stops, refuses to
move, and then the donkey suddenly
opens up his mouth and starts talking
to him. A donkey never talked to a

man since the beginning of the history
of the world, and such a thing will
never happen again.
If a person had any doubts about
whether what he was doing was right
or wrong, and his car suddenly
stopped and told him “Don’t Go” (and
not just one of those recorded voices
saying “Your seatbelt isn’t
buckled…”) — would that not cause
the person to at least stop and wonder
whether he was doing the right thing?
We may ask this question even about
a person who is not perceptive. But
Bilaam was a wise person; he was a
perceptive person. How would a
perceptive person relate to his donkey
talking to him?
Bilaam should have thought, “My
strength is my speech. Who gave me
that power? G-d gave me that power.
The proof is that the same G-d who
gave me the power of speech, just
gave my donkey the power of speech!

‘Who gives a mouth to man or who
makes one dumb…’ [Shemos 4:11]
Where is my strength from? My
speech is no bigger of a miracle than
my donkey talking. It is the same
strength from G-d.”
What should Bilaam have concluded?
He should have concluded that he was
not using his power of speech
correctly, and he should turn back. Is
this not as clear as day? Is the message
not clear? Should it not that make an
impression? Yet it did not have any
impact.
This is the lesson to be learned: how
blind a person can be! When a person
has some type of personal motive —
whether it is money or power or
whatever it is — a person can literally
be completely blind. G-d can almost
spell it out to him… G-d CAN spell it
out to him, but he still will not see it!
That is what is so frightening.
Something can be as clear as day to

the objective observer, but the person
on his way to sin cannot see that
which is in front of his own eyes! This
is terribly frightening, because if it
can happen to Bilaam, it can happen
to every one of us! If Bilaam can be
blinded, we can be blinded as well.
This is the tremendous mussar to be
derived from the incident of Bilaam:
There are none so blind, as those who
will not see.