Komentarz do Liczb 23:16

וישם דבר בפיו AND HE PUT A WORD IN HIS MOUTH —And what was this “putting”? What would Scripture have lacked if it had stated “[And the Lord met Balaam and said,] Return to Balak, and thus shalt thou speak”? But the explanation is: When he heard that he was not permitted to curse, he said, “Why should I return to Balak to cause him annoyance?” Therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, put a halter and hook in his mouth as a person who pricks an animal with a hook to make it go wherever he wants. He said to him, “Despite yourself shall you return to Balak’ (cf. Sanhedrin 105b; Midrash Tanchuma, Balak 13).

AND THE ETERNAL HAPPENED TO MEET BALAAM. Now, in honor of Israel, this man ascended to [the level of] prophesying through the Divine attribute of mercy, by the Great Name [i.e., the Tetragrammaton — here translated as “the Eternal”] that had been revealed to Moses,¹⁴³See Vol. II, pp. 34-39. for until now it says about Balaam: and G-d ‘happened to meet’ Balaam,¹⁴⁴Above, Verse 4. and G-d ‘came’ unto Balaam.¹⁴⁵Ibid., 22:9. But now he knew that he would not be able to curse them under any circumstances, seeing that He [wanted] to deal graciously with them through the attribute of mercy. For until now, since he [Balaam] heard [the words of G-d] through the attribute of justice, [the Divine Name of Elokim, symbolizing the attribute of justice, is used in all the previous verses], he thought that he might find some pretext [to curse] them because of some sin that they had committed — so that G-d would consent to the curse falling upon them], as we find in [the verse saying]: Therefore He was to be their enemy, Himself fought against them;¹⁴⁶Isaiah 63:10. or [he hoped] that some evil would befall them from G-d, from which they would not be able to save themselves because of the attribute of justice [but now when G-d spoke to him through the attribute of mercy, he knew that he would not succeed in cursing the people under any circumstances]. This is the meaning of [the verse], And Balaam saw that it pleased the Eternal to bless Israel,¹⁴⁷Further, 24:1. for Yea, the Eternal will give that which is good¹⁴⁸Psalms 85:13. in the blessing. The student learned [in the mysteries of the Cabala] will understand.

ויקר ה' אל בלעם, ”Hashem happened upon Bileam.” Up until now G’d had manifested Himself to Bileam only in His capacity as the attribute of Justice; something that had kindled hope within the heart of Bileam that perhaps an opportunity would present itself to invoke this very attribute of G’d against the Israelites when he would recite some of their well known sins. Now that Bileam experienced a manifestation of G’d’s attribute of mercy, i.e. Hashem, he knew that there was absolutely no hope to be able to curse this people. This is why the Torah continues in 24,1 that Bileam saw that it was pleasing in the eyes of Hashem to bless the people.

What is this placing and what would Scripture have been lacking. Rashi is asking two questions: Firstly, “What is this placing”? For the verse does not explain to what it refers. Furthermore, “What would Scripture have been lacking”? Meaning that it should have written, “Hashem chanced to appear to Bil’am and He stated, 'Return to Balak…'." For surely the verse would not have been lacking anything if it had not said [the phrase], “And placed the word in his mouth.” Re’m explains: “What is this placing”? for it is impossible to say that the statement “Return to Balak” is what was meant by “and placed the word in his mouth.” For if so, why was it necessary to say “He said”? Instead it should have said, “And placed the word in his mouth: Return to Balak and say as follows.”

He said to him “You will be forced to return to Balak.” You might ask: Why did Rashi not explain this above (v. 5)? For there also it is written “Hashem placed the word in Bil’am’s mouth and He said: Return to Balak and tell him as follows.” The answer is that above one could say that “Hashem placed in his mouth…” was in response to “I have set up the seven altars…” (v. 4). However, here the difficulty is that Bil’am had not said anything.