Kommentar zu Bamidbar 22:5

פתורה HE SENT TO BALAAM פתורה because he was like a money changer before whom everyone lays coins; similarly all the kings used to send him their letters, asking for his advice. However, according to the literal sense of the text, this was the name of the place (Midrash Tanchuma, Balak 4).

THE LAND OF THE CHILDREN OF HIS PEOPLE — “[the people] of Balak, for he [Balak] came from there [i.e., from Pethor which is by the river], and this man [Balaam] had prophesied and told him, ‘You are destined to be king.’” This is Rashi’s language, taken from an Agadic explanation.²⁹Tanchuma, Balak 20. But the plain meaning of Scripture is [that the land of the children of ‘his people’ is a reference to] Balaam’s people’s land [and not Balak’s], for there he [Balaam] was born and there was his family background. The reason for [Scripture] mentioning this is [to indicate] that he [Balaam] was a diviner, from the land where all the people were diviners, similar to that which is written, for they are replenished from the east, and with soothsayers like the Philistines.³⁰Isaiah 2:6.

וישלח מלאכים אל בלעם, He sent messengers to Bileam, etc. The Torah, or rather Balak, specified the name of Bileam's father and his place of residence in order to expedite the mission. He did not want to leave any doubt as to which Bileam he had in mind; similarly, he stated the location where Bileam was to be found so that his messengers would not lose valuable time tracking down the right person. In the event that there was another place called פתורה, he added that the one he had in mind was situated on a great river,אשר על הנהר. He added further that the land in question was his homeland, ארץ בני עמו, a place where everybody knew who Bileam was and that in the event he was not presently at home, surely the people could tell his messengers where Bileam could be found at this time.

ארץ בני עמו, the people Balak himself belonged to, not Moav.

ארץ בני עמו, “the land of his compatriots.” According to Rashi who holds that Balak was of Midianite descent, the words ארץ בני עמו refer to Balak’s people, i.e. the Midianites. Nachmanides writes that according to the plain meaning of the text the words ארץ בני עמו refer to Bileam, informing us that Balak had been born in the same land as Bileam. The point of the Torah providing this detail was that Balak was a sorcerer, coming from a land full of sorcerers, a land in which Bileam was the High Priest of all the sorcerers. (Compare Isaiah 2,6 where the prophet denigrates the Jewish people for having forsaken their tradition in favour of relying on sorcery etc, something which was the domain of the ancient backward nations)

Like the money changer. Since פתורה ["to Pesor"] has the meaning of שלחן ["table," in Aramaic. The term for a money changer (שולחני) is derived from the table at which he conducts his business].

V. 5. וישלח מלאכים, er sendet daher in die uralte Heimat des gefürchteten Wundervolkes, nach Aram, in die Euphratgegend hin, wo die Wiege der Urväter dieses Volkes gestanden, in das Land des Morgens (Kap. 23, 7), wohin auch aus des Urvaters Haus wieder Sprößlinge versetzt worden waren (Bereschit 25, 6; siehe daselbst), wo daher mit heidnischem Unwesen und Zauberwahn (Jes. 2, 6) gemischt sich auch reinere monotheistische Gedanken erhalten hatten, so dass dort selbst noch ein Hiob und seine Freunde (Hiob 1, 3) ihre Heimat gehabt haben konnten, dorthin, wohin er auch selbst nach Abstammung gehörte, schickte er zu Bileam, um diesen Völkerseher zu sich zu laden.

ארץ בני עמו, “the land of his people,” the people of Bileam.

Behold. The emissaries belittled Bnei Yisroel in the eyes of Bil'am so he would not fear suffering the same fate as Pharaoh; they did not mention Bnei Yisroel by name. Likewise, they belittled the miracles that occurred when they came out of Egypt by saying they “came out of Egypt, as if they came out on their own without a strong hand. In addition, so that Bil'am would not console them that Hashem instructed Bnei Yisroel to pass by Moav and not harm them, the emissaries told him that they are located across from me, permanently.

ארץ בני עמו THE LAND OF THE CHILDREN OF HIS PEOPLE — of Balak's people, for he came from there, and this man (Balaam) had prophesied saying to him, “You are destined to be king”. — And if you ask: Why did the Holy One blessed be He, let his Shechina rest upon so wicked a heathen, I reply that in order that the heathen peoples should have no excuse to say, “If we had prophets, we would have changed for the better”, He raised up prophets for them. Yet they (these prophets) broke down the moral fence of the world, because at first they (the heathens) were fenced in against (they refrained from) immoral living, but this man (Balaam) counselled them to freely offer themselves to prostitution (Midrash Tanchuma, Balak 1; cf. Rashi on Numbers 24:14).

Dispatched their correspondence to him. To take advice from him.

לקרא לו, to call him. Balak was astute enough to tell Bileam immediately that what he wanted was something that would be of benefit to Bileam, i.e. לו. He, Balak, wanted to give Bileam a chance to earn a fat fee. He assumed that this would be sufficient incentive to persuade Bileam to come at once.

הנה עם וגו׳ הנה כסה וגו׳. Das wiederholte הנה zeigt, dass mit עם יצא ממצרים ein selbständiger Gedanke zur Erwägung gestellt ist. Dass עם יצא ממצרים, dass eine in Mizrajims Macht und Volkstum politisch und sozial untergegangene Menschenmasse aus Mizrajim als sozialeinheitliches Volk zur Freiheit und Selbständigkeit hinausziehen konnte, kennzeichnet dieses Volk als ein Unikum, auf dessen bewirkende Ursache dein Sinn gerichtet sein möge, wenn du der Erreichung meines Zweckes dienen willst! — הנה כסה את עין הארץ (vergl. Schmot 10, 5). Da das folgende והוא ישב ממלי notwendig eine räumliche und somit auch eine Zahlbeschränkung einschließt, so kann das כסה את עין הארץ nicht wohl eine seine Anzahl vergegenwärtigende Hyperbel sein sollen. Vielmehr dürfte es seine bereits bewiesene Machtgröße und somit das veranschaulichen sollen, was von ihm noch in der Zukunft zu erwarten steht. Es hat schon das Auge der Erde bedeckt, d. h. soweit unser Gedankenblick reicht, hat es sich bereits aller uns nahe liegenden Länder bemächtigt. Wohin wir unsere Augen richten, sehen wir nicht mehr die alten Staaten, sondern es: יושב ,והוא יושב ממלי ist keine drohende Stellung. Es dürfte daher wohl sagen sollen: es ist zweifelhaft, ob es mich angreifen wird, allein seine Nähe beängstigt mich, ist mir zuwider, und ich habe jetzt, wenn es mir gelänge, die beste Gelegenheit, im Interesse des Allgemeinen ihm entgegenzutreten.

לקרא לו TO CALL HIM — the call was for him, for his benefit; for he (Balak) fixed for him (agreed to pay him) a large sum.

This was the name of the place. Thus the meaning of פתורה is “to Pesor” like לפתור. For any word that should have a lamed at the beginning [Scripture often] places a hei at the end. According to the Midrashic interpretation the hei was part of the word, given that the translation of “table” is פתורה.

הנה עם יצא ממצרים, Here there is a people who have come out of Egypt, etc. Why did Balak say הנה "here?" Why did he say that the people "left" Egypt? The whole world knew that the only people who had ever left Egypt were the Israelites. Bileam would certainly have been aware of this. Why did Balak say הנה כסה את עין הארץ, instead of the customary ויכס את עין הארץ?

עם יצא ממצרים [THERE IS] A PEOPLE COME OUT FROM EGYPT — and if you ask: What harm does that do you?

Prophesied… “You are destined to be a king.” Meaning that Bil’am prophesied about Balak, for though he was one of the chieftains of Midian, the land of his birth was Pesor.

We may understand this in light of Shemot Rabbah 1,9 that when the Pharaoh who enslaved the Israelites and who wanted to "outsmart" the Israelites was on the throne he had three advisors one of whom was Bileam. At that time Bileam had invoked a magic formula which was designed to permanently prevent slaves from escaping from Egypt. Balak now informed Bileam that his magic had been invalidated, that a whole nation of slaves had fled from Egypt. [this was forty years earlier and at least 126 years after Bileam had invoked this magic. Ed.] By saying הנה, Balak suggested that Bileam owed him something seeing it was Bileam's magic the Israelites had managed to invalidate. Perhaps Bileam had previously assured Balak that the Israelites would never leave Egypt. Balak continued with: הנה כסה את עין הארץ to challenge Bileam whose advice had been based on reducing the numbers of the Israelites. By contrast, Balak pointed out, "look at them now!" They cover as much land as the eye can see. Instead of their males having been killed, their fighting men now number so many one cannot even see all of them.

הנה כסה את עין הארץ BEHOLD THEY COVER THE FACE OF THE EARTH — Sihon and Og who used to protect us stood up against them, but they slew them (Midrash Tanchuma, Balak 4).

Should you ask, why did the Holy One Blessed is He visit His Divine Presence… [One might ask why] Rashi did not wait to ask this question in its place (Bamidbar 24:2) “the spirit of Hashem was upon him”? The answer is that further on there is no difficulty, because perhaps it was in honor of Yisroel that the Divine Presence rested upon him, in order that he would bless them. However here there is a valid question.

והוא ישב ממולי, "and it resides across from me." Balak meant that Israel's general behaviour indicated it meant to disinherit the Moabites. According to Bamidbar Rabbah 20,7 it was the posture of the Israelites which frightened Balak. They appeared to be vctorious as soon as the opened their mouths. Balak mentioned all this in order to counter Bileam's expected response that he could curse them from his residence without bothering himself to travel all the way to Moav. Balak was also afraid that Bileam would become aware by means of his sorcery that the Israelites actually had no intention to harm or destroy the territory of Moav and that as a result of such knowledge he would refuse to come to him but simply reassure him that this people would not harm him. This is why he prefaced his invitation by describing how the people were spread out all over the area around Moav and that one could not rely on what Bileam's magic would tell him about that nation's intentions. The fact is that according to Bileam's magic sources, this people should never have left Egypt, nor should they have increased in numbers. This was reason enough for Bileam to come personally and convince himself of the true state of affairs.

והוא ישב ממלי AND THEY ARE STATIONED OPPOSITE ME — ממלי is written deficient in the ו (the full form is ממולי, so that it may be connected with מול “to cut off”) — they are near enough to cut me off. The word is the same as in (Psalms 118:10): “that I shall cut them off (אמילם)” (Midrash Tanchuma, Balak 4).

For his benefit. Since it is written לקרא ["to call"] why is it necessary to say לו ["to him"]? Surely afterwards it is written (v.6) “please come…” meaning that he should go with the messengers. Rather [“to him” must come] for us to expound [that the invitation was for his benefit]. Furthermore, one can say that since his intention was to [have Bil'am] curse [Yisroel], why did Balak call him to come to him? Why not have Bil'am curse them from where he was? Rather it is certain that the calling was for his benefit, and to make a money arrangement. With this we can answer the question of Re’m who writes: I do not know from where Rashi expounds this, for there is apparent superfluous wording here as [there is] in פסל לך ["carve for yourself"] (Shemos 34:1), עשה לך ["make for yourself"] (Bamidbar 10:2) or שלח לך ["send for yourself"] (Bamidbar 13:2). But לו ["to him"] is necessary here for it is in place of אותו ["him"] as in קראן לו ויאכל לחם ["call to him and let him eat bread"] (Shemos 2:20), where the word לו is in place of אותו.

You may ask: Why is this harmful to you. Rashi is answering the question: Why does Scripture write הנה ["behold"] twice? For הנה always implies an independent matter. With this comment Rashi answers the reason for the repetition, for now this is the beginning of an independent statement and the word הנה is required.

Sichon and Og. (Kitzur Mizrochi) Rashi is answering the question: How could he say “they have covered the face of the earth”? Surely the [breadth] of the Israelite camp was only twelve mil? Therefore, he explains that they killed Sichon and Og whom they were relying upon. Thus the meaning of עין [translated as "face" but literally meaning "eye"] is the same as “you will be our eyes” (Bamidbar 10:31).

This is written incompletely. Meaning that ממולי in the full spelling would mean “across from me,” however since it is written incompletely (ממלי) it is in the sense of “cutting down.”