Comentário sobre Números 24:23

וישא משלו וגו׳ AND HE TOOK UP HIS PARABLE etc. — Because he mentioned the captivity into Assyria he exclaimed, אוי מי יחיה משמו אל, who is able to save himself alive, so that He who decrees (God) should not place upon him (משמו) these things (אל, the equivalent of אלה) — for Sannacherib, king of Assyria, shall rise up and bring all the nations into confusion. And further, there will come —

מי יהיה משמו א־ל "Who shall live after G'd has appointed him?" Our sages in Sanhedrin 106 offer two interpretations on this verse. I recommend that you look at them. Personally, I prefer to understand this verse with the help of an introductory comment by the Zohar which I have referred to frequently. The purpose of exile is to enable the Israelites to isolate and rescue "sparks" of sanctity which are trapped in the land in which the Jews are exiled. This concept is alluded to in Kohelet 8,9 את אשר שלט האדם באדם לרע לו, "a time when man rules over man to his detriment." Solomon means that such rule will boomerang to the detriment of the pagan ruler himself. This will occur when the spiritually valuable element trapped within the ruler will be taken from him so that he will be exposed exclusively to the spiritually negative forces within him. We have explained repeatedly that the only factor which keeps a wicked person alive is the presence of a spiritually positive force trapped within him. Having said all this, we may now turn to our verse. Having previously referred to the fact that the Kenite would be exiled, the Torah (Bileam) continues the theme of exile, referring to the Israelites themselves experiencing exile. Bileam bewails the future of the nations who host Israel during its exile, predicting that all of these nations will be laid waste by G'd. The word אוי refers to the nations with whom G'd will deal by means of retribution seeing that most of them have hosted Jews as exiles. The Jews in these various countries will extract all the spiritually positive forces which alone have been reponsible for such people remaining alive.

אוי מי יחי, who will be able to survive on account of the King Messiah when G’d will orchestrate all these events which will disintegrate all the descendants of mankind.