Commento su Numeri 23:7

ארה לי יעקב ולכה זעמה ישראל CURSE JACOB FOR ME AND COME EXECRATE ISRAEL — by their two names did he bid him curse them, for perhaps one of them was not distinctive enough to point them out beyond all doubt as being the people against whom the curse was directed.

וישא משלו, he explained in parable form what he had seen in a vision.

וישא משלו ויאמר, And he began his parable and said: When Bileam noticed that G'd had neither told him what to say nor had He told him not to speak, he thought he had been given permission to speak. This is why be made ready to say what he had in his mind. At that moment G'd twisted his mouth and tongue and forced him to say something quite different. What Bileam said is introduced by the word ויאמר. We may also understand the verse to mean that Bileam abandoned his prepared parable and instead said what the Torah has recorded here. According to Bamidbar Rabbah 20,19 the words מן ארם ינחני בלק must be understood as "Balak dragged me down from a spiritually high level so that I now face destruction." According to this the word וישא may be understood to mean "he raised his voice lamenting that he had become למשל ולשנינה, an example of someone who used to be of lofty stature and now had become an example of how the mighty had fallen."

ינחני, meaning the same as the past tense הנחני.

מהררי קדם, “from the mountains of the east.” The word קדם is reminiscent of the קדמונים, far earlier generations who had erected either a pile of stones, or a מצבה, a monument in the sense of an altar, (Lavan and Yaakov) and had entered into a formal pact of peace between them. They had promised each other that neither would cross these landmarks while intending to harm the other.

מן ארם ינחני בלק...מהררי קדם, “from Aram, Balak...led me, from the mountains of the east;” The word קדם here means “east.” When Bileam quoted Balak as asking him: ארה לי יעקב, “curse Yaakov for me,” he ridiculed Balak for even imagining that it would be possible to curse a nation of whom G’d had said that they were “part of Hashem” (Deut. 32,9). If it had not been for Yaakov, i.e. the Jewish people, i.e. Avraham who had saved Lot the ancestor of Moav, Balak’s nation would not even exist at all. Lot had been saved from the destruction of Sodom only by an act of kindness G’d performed on account of Avraham as we know from Genesis 19,29: “when G’d destroyed the towns of the valley, He remembered Avraham and sent Lot away from there.” Bileam also conceded that he himself was only on earth due to Yaakov who had served Lavan who had admitted that his blessings were due to Yaakov’s presence (Genesis 30,27). The Torah speaks of the sons of Lavan in Genesis 31,1. He, Bileam, was one of the direct descendants of Lavan. In view of the above, how could either he or Balak be so ungrateful as to curse the very people responsible for their existence on earth?

With both names. Though the verse only states (22:6) [that Balak told him], “Curse…” it is logical that he instructed him so, given that this was what Bil’am said. We find a similar instance in the verse, “And you said: Let us send men […to spy out the land]” (Devarim 1:22) even though this [request] is not mentioned in the Torah.

V. 7. משל .וישא משלו siehe oben Kap. 21, 27 und Bereschit 4, 7.

מהררי קדם, “from the mountains of the East.” This was a repetition as we know that Aram is in the East, (Isaiah 9,11)

ויאמר, after having related his vision (which has not been described in the Torah), he proceeded to interpret its meaning He described how Balak had brought him from a region far away.

מהררי קדם, these words are simply a repetition of the words מן ארם ינחני. We know that Aram is situated in the East. Bileam’s point is that Balak bringing him all the way to Moav was an exercise in futility, a strenuous journey which would accomplish nothing.

לכה ארה לי יעקב, “come curse Yaakov on my behalf!” In this verse Bileam mentions both names of Israel, i.e. Yaakov and Israel. This is proof that when one curses one must mention all the names of the person to be cursed in order for the curse to have any effect. Also, one needs to use the two attributes of the name of G’d representing the attribute of night and the attribute of day. This is why Bileam mentioned both the attribute י-ה-ו-ה and the attribute א-ל in verse 8. [Bileam would not have needed to change the name of G’d’s attribute and could have said: מה אקוב לא קבה א-ל ומה אזעם לא זעם א-ל. You will note that in Psalms 7,12 David does combine זעם with the attribute א-ל, i.e. the problem is not with the type of curse but with the attributes of G’d invoked. Ed.].
In fact, Job did something similar when he cursed the day he was born and said (Job 3,8) יקבהו אררי יום. He had already cursed both the day and the night separately in the earlier verses of that chapter. According to our traditional sources the separate mention of day and night in verse 3 of that chapter was heretical, suggesting that separate powers are in charge of day and night respectively. Concerning that statement our sages in Shemot Rabbah 30,8 claim that this was heresy, (although Nachmanides points out that Jeremiah (20,14) appears to have been guilty of the same offense and no one accused him of heresy).
It is also necessary to see the intended victim of one’s curse with one’s own eyes as the curse will then be far more effective. This is why Balak went out of his way to take Bileam to the tops of surrounding hills and mountains. The same principle applies to blessings. In order for blessings to be fully effective the person to be blessed must be within an area that the one bestowing the blessing can see with his eyes. All his names should be mentioned just as Bileam did in 24,5 when he spoke of the goodness of the tents of Yaakov and the dwellings of Israel.
When Balak is quoted as having said to Bileam: “curse Yaakov for me,” the question is why he did not simply say: “curse Yaakov?” Actually Balak had not added the word לי “for me.” Bileam had added it to point to the incongruity of Balak’s request. By adding the word לי, Bileam hinted that Balak’s request to curse the Jewish people was equivalent to Balak asking that he himself be cursed seeing he could not have existed but for the Jewish people. We find support for this in Tanchuma Balak 12 where the Midrash says: “whoever curses these people curses himself seeing G’d had told Avraham that anyone cursing him or his descendants would be himself be cursed by G’d” (Genesis 12,3). Every type of curse Balak mentioned in connection with his attempt to have Israel cursed (22,11; 23,13; 23,27) always is accompanied by the word לי, the Torah’s way of saying that such a curse would boomerang on himself.

We may also understand the verse in terms of the different levels of prophecy we discussed in Beha-alotcha on Numbers 12,6. We had stated there (page 1436) that there are some prophets whose powers of perception are not strong enough to be able to cope with a direct effusion of G'd's message. Such prophets receive the message in the form of a parable. Even Jewish prophets had to receive their prophecies in this fashion. It is not surprising therefore that Bileam, a Gentile, received his prophetic inspiration in the form of parables. When the Torah describes Bileam as וישא משלו, the idea is that he considered prophecy as a burden, משא. The reason for this is the extraordinary emotional stress experienced by the prophet.

מן ארם וגו׳. Darin hat Balak selbst bekundet, wie er eine Ahnung davon habe, dass diesem Volke von seinem Ursprunge an ein Eigentümliches innewohne, auf welches zurückzugehen wäre, wenn man über dieses Volk und seine Zukunft sich ein Urteil bilden wolle, hat vor allem darin bekundet, dass dieses Volkes Geschick von dem Gott abhänge, von dem ein Bewusstsein sich noch bei den Weisen Arams erhalten und der von dort her, der eigenen Heimat Balaks, diesem nicht unbekannt geblieben. ארה לי יעקב וגו׳, nach seiner materiellen Erscheinung ist es: Jakob, das Machtloseste unter allen Völkern, nach dem Göttlichen in ihm und seiner geistigen Bedeutung: Jisrael, die Gottesherrschaft auf Erden ankündigend. Balak will, dass durch Bileams Wort Jakobs Zukunftshoffnung in der Wurzel getroffen werde, es soll ארור, von dem Segensquell abgeschnitten werden, und als Jisrael: זעמה ישראל. Während die anderen Ausdrücke des Zürnens: בעס, קצף ,אנף, intransitiv den Gemütszustand des Zürnenden ausdrücken und daher nur mit einer Präposition על־ ב־ konstruiert werden, ist זעם aktiv und hat das Objekt im Akkusativ. והעם אשר זעם ד׳ (Maleachi 1, 4), יזעמוהו לאומים (Prov. 24, 24) usw. Daher auch passiv זעום ד׳ der von Gottes Zorn Getroffene (daselbst 22, 14). Durch Bileams Wort soll das göttliche Wohlwollen, von welchem Israels Blüte bedingt ist, in das Gegenteil umwandelt werden. ת׳׳א übersetzt es: תריך, das chaldäische גרש, also: machen, dass sein Gott es von sich weise. — זֹעֲמָה die seltene פועל-Form, wie: למשופטי (Job 9, 15).

זעמה, I believe that the vowel patach here is indicative of the imperative mode. On the other hand the word zoamoh as it appears in our verse is a feminine construction meaning “being angry.” The construction is similar to the word ochlah in Deuteronomy 4,24 אש אוכלה or שופטה את ישראל in Judges 4,4.

לכה ארה לי יעקב, "come and curse Jacob on my behalf." Inasmuch as there were two categories of Israelites, the righteous and the average ones, Balak had expressed his hope that he could smite at least the average Israelites, the ones described as Jacob as opposed to the righteous who are described as Israel. As to the righteous ones, Balak had expressed the hope to at least drive them out of his proximity. Bileam took his cue from what Balak had requested from him. The word ארה represents a curse of greater intensity than the word זעם, which Bileam reserved for the righteous Israelites. Even Balak had realised that it would be difficult to effectively curse the righteous Israelites.