Musar zu Bamidbar 24:1

Now we understand what is meant by the Talmud that "Moses wrote his own book and the book of Bileam." Do not err to think that only because G–d taught him did Moses reach levels Bileam had reached, and that his learning was vicarious, second hand. Rather, Moses had attained the levels Bileam had attained by his own independent intellectual and spiritual efforts. The Talmud tells us that Moses learned all this as an experience, not like we learn history, i.e. from books describing what happened once to someone else.. Whatever Bileam had been able to work out by himself concerning Israel's future, Moses had been able to work out without special assists from G–d. What the Talmud means is that actually the whole portion of Bileam could just as easily have been recorded by Moses without instruction from G–d. There would have been no need for Bileam to pronounce blessings to enable us to learn all the lessons that our sages derive from them. The only "novelty" in the whole phenomenon is the fact that the קטיגור, "counselor for the prosecution," turned into a סניגור, "attorney for the defense." This is something that could only have occurred through Bileam, since he was Moses' counterpart among the nations. We have now illustrated the statement we set out from. The סטרא אחרא is bound to become a source of blessing if one only traces it far enough towards its holy source. We have described this earlier as "blood turning into milk." It follows (again as we have tried to describe earlier) that it is the Gentile nations who are in reality the source of Israel's refinement and consequently of its redemption.

Why does Bileam keep changing the terms he uses for curses such as קבה, ארה, זעם, and does not conform to the request made of him by Balak his employer? Furthermore, what do קסמים, charms, have to do with prophecy? Once Bileam boasts of employing his prophetic powers, why does he consult קסמים?

There follows פרשת קדושים which deals with how to sanctify oneself, how to get rid of the residual pollutant of the serpent. The very purpose of the legislation in this פרשה is alluded to in 19,26: לא תנחשו, "do not indulge in practices reminiscent of the נחש, the serpent." The Rekanati comments on this verse as follows: "Do not commit the error of following the path of the original serpent which is known as the spirit of impurity, whose actions are known as ניחוש. We know about this from Bileam of whom the Torah reports in Numbers 24,1 that he discontinued consulting נחשים as had been his practice. Such consultations involved calling upon the assistance of impure spirits by swearing some kind of allegiance to them. These spirits are presumed not only to know the future but also to be able to reveal it to man. Anyone who prefers to rely on these spirits will find that G–d withdraws from him, and delivers him up to the mercy of those spirits. This is the meaning of Pessachim 110: כל דקפיד קפדינן בהדיה, "The more one is worried [about the influence of negative forces, מזיקים, Ed.] the more power these forces will have over such a person. When such a person dies, the aforementioned forces will accompany his body in accordance with the statement of our sages: בדרך שאדם רוצה לילך בה מוליכין אותו, "One leads man along the path he has chosen for himself" (Makkot 10). There are other commentators who see a warning in the verse exhorting us not to be מנחש, not to do something similar to what the serpent did when it upset the equilibrium of the Celestial equivalent of Eve by seducing Eve on earth.