Musar sobre Números 31:8

Now we shall explain the greatness of the merit of one who guards his mouth and his tongue from speaking forbidden things. First, he amends and sanctifies thereby the distinctive "tool" of the Jew, which is speech. So that all the words that he speaks thereafter in Torah and in prayer ascend to the source of its root on high. For not in vain did Chazal compare this [faculty] in many places to a "tool of the trade" [see Rashi, Bamidbar 31:8], to teach us that just as a tool is necessary for the making of new, beautiful vessels, [so is it with the "tool" of speech]. Even if one be the king's craftsman, the greatest of all the artists, whose intellect is extremely subtle, and who can conceive of the finest way of fashioning vessels, still, he cannot make them without tools. And, more than this, even if he has the tools, but they are defective and damaged, and he is "pressured" to make some vessels, there will be recognized through them the defect and the imperfection of the tools, inside and outside, because he will not be able to smooth them [the vessels] out correctly and they will remain like formless blocks of wood, unfit for use even by commoners; how much more so, for a king. But that craftsman whose tools are polished and shined as they should be — the vessel that he fashions with them will emerge perfect and beautiful. It is exactly the same with the faculty of speech given to the Jew for the service of the awesome King (blessed be His name) for Torah and prayer, and for blessing, glorifying, praising, and exalting Him. For it [(this faculty)] is the great tool whereby the complete man can build heaven and earth, as it is written (Isaiah 51:6): "And I have placed My words in your mouth to plant the heavens and to lay the foundations of the earth." And this is to be understood literally. For with the words of holiness that a man speaks here in this world before the blessed L-rd, there are created on high holy worlds and angels, who will afterwards be protagonists for and defenders of his soul. And the quality of the worlds and the angels created through his Torah and mitzvoth depend on several factors: 1) his mind-set at the time. That is, his having readied himself at that time with all his powers to fulfill his task according to the Torah, in all of its requisite parts and details. 2) his tools, by which his Torah is fashioned. That is, the tools of speech (and, likewise, in respect to the mitzvah, the tools required to execute it.) For if they are beautiful and elegant, being used always for the good, and the power of their sanctity being thereby strengthened, they will have the power to draw down the higher sanctity and great light on whatever he is doing. But if he renders defective and unclean, G-d forbid, his faculty of speech through lashon hara, rechiluth, levity, and falsity, and the like, and he does not repent, and then he speaks with his mouth words of Torah and prayer, what power will they have to draw down on that Torah and prayer the higher sanctity after his "tools of utterance" have been rendered defective and unclean in and of themselves?

Moses is known by seven different names, (Shemot Rabbah 40,4). Rabbi Yitzchak Luria writes that Moses used the 42-lettered Name of G–d when he killed the Egyptian in order to elevate that person's נפש. It is well known that the 42-lettered name incorporates seven different names. Yitro also had seven names (Shemot Rabbah 27,7). At that time, Yitro converted to monotheism and abandoned idol worship. Moses had not wanted to kill Bileam by using the 42-lettered name of G–d, but he had wanted him to die by the sword which is the symbol of defilement, טומאה. This is why Bileam did not die the מות ישרים, the "death of the righteous." He had not said אמות מות ישרים, I want to die the death of the righteous, but had said only "my soul will die the death of the righteous, using the word נפש to describe his soul. His נפש then was redeemed, not his body. So far the Ari zal (compare Numbers 31,8).

Let us now explore the mystical dimension of the name יעקב. In Genesis 27,35 Isaac says to Esau: בא אחיך במרמה, "Your brother came with wisdom to take the blessings." This means that Jacob came to outwit Esau. Isaac referred to Jacob having outwitted what Esau stands for, i.e. Satan, the pollutant of the original serpent, seeing Esau is also Edom, the classic symbol of all that is polluted and cursed. This original serpent had been described in the Torah as ערום, sly (Genesis 3,1). This being so, Jacob had to resort to a wily strategy to outwit such an opponent. He had to counter with ערמה, slyness, in order to defeat the serpent or its representative at its own game. We find something similar when Rashi explains (Numbers 31,8) that the reason the Torah stresses that Bileam was killed by the sword was because the sword was his stock-in-trade. He should have stuck to his trade. Isaac had told Esau that he would live by his sword (27,40), whereas the traditional weapon of Israel is the mouth, i.e. prayer. Since Bileam perverted his function by using Israel's weapon, the mouth, Israel used his own traditional weapon against him. In order to best him absolutely, he had to be killed by the weapon that he had once considered himself a champion of. The Zohar goes as far as to say that the only way it was possible to kill Bileam was by the sword. Onkelos explains the meaning of יודע ציד in 25,27 as being "Esau was shrewd." The Tziyoni derives from that word נחשירכן (the word Onkelos uses to explain יודע ציד), that the mystical dimension of the serpent is contained in the ירך, reproductive organ, thigh, and that Esau had the likeness of a serpent tatooed on his thigh. This was the reason that Samael, or the spiritual representative of Esau, tried to injure that organ of Jacob's during the nocturnal confrontation. The reason he did not succeed was that Jacob did not contain any residual pollution of the serpent. Bileam alluded to this when he said in Numbers 23,23: כי לא נחש ביעקב, that Jacob was not infected by the serpent. Esau is rooted in the cursed serpent. Jacob and his descendants ירך יעקב, are of blessed origin. Jacob had to come with עקבה, trickery, the craft of the serpent, and he wrested the blessing from the clutches of the unworthy. We know from Proverbs 8,12 that חכמה and ערמה are used interchangeably, i.e. אני חכמה, שכנתי ערמה, "I, wisdom, am neighbor to ערמה.” Later on, when he had established a hold in the Celestial Regions, the source of all blessings, he is referred to as ישראל, since he had ascended to these "higher" regions. The level of ישראל in those regions is very high, seeing that Israel surpassed the level of the angels during his ascent. He occupies a position there that is not even accessible to the angels. He proceeds to rise higher and higher until he even surpasses the region of the ministering angels, the most highly placed angels. It is this that Onkelos referred to when he described Israel as "you are a great lion before G–d and men."