Commento su Numeri 24:8

אל מוציאו ממצרים GOD WHO BROUGHT THEM OUT OF EGYPT — Who was the cause of all this greatness? God who brought them out from Egypt; by his strength and his sublimity HE EATS UP (יאכל) THE NATIONS (גוים) who are (צריו) HIS ADVERSARIES.

יאכל גויים צריו, a promise that will be fulfilled in the distant future. Moses repeats this in Deuteronomy 32,43 ונקם ישיב לצריו, “G’d will take vengeance on their oppressors.”

א־ל מוציאו ממצרים, "The G'd who has taken them out from Egypt, etc." We approach this on the basis of the tradition that when the Israelites left Egypt they had isolated all the sparks of sanctity which had been trapped inside Egypt by the forces of the קליפה, spiritually negative forces. We have explained already that holiness possesses the power to seek out and identify its branches (which had been lost temporarily). When Bileam speaks about מוציאו…כתועפות ראם לו, the subject is the Jewish people. [The word א־ל then is not to be translated as plain "G'd," but as "the divine power possessed by Israel." Ed.] These Israeliteshad taken out the sparks of sanctity previously trapped inside of Egypt by dint of their own holiness. The words: "he consumes nations which are its enemies" refer to the process which liberates the sparks of sanctity trapped inside the bodies of the pagans. These "sparks" will be absorbed by the collective "Soul" of the community of Israel. This is the mystical dimension of Proverbs 13,25: צדיק אכל לשבע נפשו, "The righteous eats in order to satisfy his soul" [as opposed to his body. Ed.]. ועצמותיהם יגרם, "and he crushes their bones." Bileam means that Israel crushes even the strongest parts of its opponents.

תועפות, strength, as in Psalms 95,4 ותועפות הרים לו, “He possesses the strength of mountains.”

With his power and exaltedness, shall consume. The intention of this verse is not to say that the God who brought them out of Egypt has power like His [own] exaltedness and loftiness, and that with this power and exaltedness Yisroel will consume the idolaters, who are His enemy, and crush their bones. For the verse does not come to inform of Hashem’s strength; for this was already mentioned above (23:22). Furthermore, it would leave the statement, “He will consume His enemy nations” without any reference, either before or after. Therefore, the explanation of the verse is as follows: Hashem, who took them out of Egypt, has power like His [own] exaltedness and loftiness, and with this power and exaltedness, Yisroel will consume. Rashi adds the word את [which denotes the object] and the hei denoting the definite article to the word גוים ["nations"] saying את הגוים ["the nations"] because with this it is understood that the nations will be consumed, not that they will consume [Yisroel]. He also adds the word שהם ["who"] because with this the word צריו ["his oppressors"] is an explanation of the word גוים ["nations"]. Furthermore, he adds של צרים ["of the oppressors" to the comment “their bones”] to indicate that those who are their oppressors will be crushed, but not all of the nations. This is why it states צריו ["his oppressors"] rather than צרים ["the oppressors"].

V. 8. אל מוציאו וגו׳. Oben 23, 22: מוציאם. Allein eben diese keusche Sittlichkeit der Geschlechter, dieses Freisein von גילוי עריות und jeder Peorunsittlichkeit, war schon in Mizrajim der gemeinsame Erbadel der Söhne und Töchter Israels, und diese Gemeinsamkeit des sittlichen Geschlechtscharakters bildete schon damals ein starkes Band der "Einheit", als noch äußerlich jede andere Bedingung einer Volksvereinigung fehlte. Der Gott, der um dieses ihres sittlichen Grundcharakters willen sie erlöste, der ist es auch, der ihnen diesen mächtigen Aufschwung ferner verleiht, weil eben durch sie sein Sittengesetz wieder eine Stätte im Kreise der Menschen gewinnt. Sie besiegen Völker, oder vielmehr Gott lässt Völker vor ihnen schwinden, weil diese Völker צריו sind, weil sie Feinde seines Sittengesetzes sind und ihm den Boden auf Erden streitig machen. Wird doch wiederholt (Wajikra Kap. 18) in dem עריות-Kapitel darauf hingewiesen, dass die kanaanitische Bevölkerung eben um ihrer sittlichen Ausschweifungen willen dem göttlichen Verhängnis erlag!

יאכל גוים צריו, “they shall devour its oppressors.”

וחציו ימחץ, “piercing them with his arrows.” He (Israel) will use its arrows to pierce its opponents. There are numerous words in the Torah where the letter ב that we would have expected has been omitted. The word וחציו instead of ובחציו, is one of such examples.

ועצמתיהם AND THEIR BONES — those of the adversaries.

וחציו ימחץ, again words paraphrased by Moses in Deuteronomy 32,42. אשכיר חצי מדם “I will make My arrows drunk with blood.”

Leaving the bone על ערמימותו ["exposed"]. In the sense of ערום ["naked"].

וחציו ימחע, "and smashes their arrows." We may best understand this by referring to Tanchuma Beshalach 15 where Isaiah 24,21 is explained. The author of the Midrash understands the words יפקד ה׳ על צבא המרום במרום that G'd does not annihilate the army of a nation in the terrestrial world until after He has vanquished that nation's "protector" in the celestial spheres. If the nation is only "weakened" and not destroyed in battle on earth, this is a sign that its שר, "protector or representative" at the celestial court has not been vanquished. G'd only humbled such a representative prior to this representative's "client" on earth suffering a defeat. When a nation experiences what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah, this meant that the celestial representatives of these kingdoms had been liquidated by G'd. Bileam refers to these celestial representatives of the various nations as "their arrows", the ones who carry on the fight on behalf of their clients in the celestial spheres. The word ימחץ may be understood as similar to Psalms 110,6: מחץ ראשו על ארץ רבה, "He crushed its head in the land which is "great" i.e. in the celestial spheres." It is a reference to the "protectors" of these various nations being vanquished. If we were to understand the word מחץ as meaning immersion or washing, then Bileam alludes to all these arrows as having been soaked in the blood of the enemies of the Jewish people.

ועצמתיהם יגרם. Wir haben zu Bereschit 19, 14 bemerkt, wie גרם die Knochen nicht als das Feste, Starke, wie עצם, sondern als Glied und Gelenk bedeutet. גדם in Piel dürfte daher das Aufhören, Trennen der Gelenke, oder ihnen die Gelenkkraft nehmen bedeuten. עצמתיהם יגרם hieße daher: alle ihre Stärke nützt ihnen Israel gegenüber nichts, vor Israel verlieren sie ihre Gelenkkraft, "es macht, dass ihnen ihre עצמות nicht mehr als גרמים, als Mittel der Weiterbewegung dienen."

ועצמותיהם יגרם, “and it will cause their bones to be crushed.”

יגרם — Menachem ben Seruk explained it in the sense of “breaking to pieces”, similar to, (Zephaniah 3:3) “who have not broken to pieces (גרמו) in the morning”, and similar to, (Ezekiel 23:34) “and thou shalt crunch (תגרמי) the sherds thereof”. I, however, say that it has the meaning of “bone” (גרם in Aramaic corresponds to Hebrew עצם) — it means that one pulls away the flesh with his teeth from around the bone, and the marrow from inside, and brings the bone into its original bare condition (i.e., as it was before flesh grew upon it).

Like בעלי חצים [translated as] מרי פלגותא. This is [Onkelos’s] translation of בעלי חצים, thus the verse is saying as follows: And [he shall apportion the land of] the חלוקה ["division" corresponding to פלגותא – "portion"] that came after the Flood, and from [this division] emanated all of the nations, who were [all] descended from Shes.

וחציו ימחץ: und als Gottes Pfeile verwundet Israel, d. h. Israel ist die Waffe in Gottes Hand in seinem Kampf gegen צריו, gegen die Feinde der Herrschaft seines Sittengesetzes auf Erden, und eben nur als Gottes Pfeil hat Israel die Völker besiegende Macht.

וחציו ימחץ AND PIERCE THEM THROUGH WITH HIS ARROWS — Onkelos translated this as meaning, the חצים of the adversaries, taking it in the sense of “their postion of land”, similar to (Genesis 44:23) בעלי חצים, which he translated by מרי פלנותא “those who part (differ) from him”. So, too, according to the Targum ימחץ denotes “dividing” having the same meaning as in (Judges 5:26): “She divided (מחצה) and struck through his temples”. The meaning therefore is, that they will divide amongst themselves their (the adversaries’) land (Hence the translation of Onkelos: “they shall take possession of their land”). — But it can also be explained as meaning חצים literally (i.e., arrows): the arrows of the Holy One, blessed be He, He will ימחץ in the blood of the adversaries — i.e., he will dip and thus dye the arrows in their blood. Similar is, (Psalms 68:24) “In order that thou mayest colour thy foot (תמחץ) by the blood”. However, even in this sense it does not lose the usual meaning of “wounding”, as in (Deuteronomy 32:39): “I wound (מחצתי)”, for what is dyed by blood, looks as though it were wounded and stricken.