Musar к Бамидбар 22:24

The Tziyoni explains it thus: Numbers 22,24, describes the she-ass of Bileam being hemmed in through גדר מזה וגדר מזה, "a fence on one side and a fence on the other side." Rashi describes these fences as ordinary fences. The Kabbalists, however, believe that the wicked also experience migration of their souls, re-incarnations, etc. They base this on both Jacob and Laban building a גל, stone heap, when they part from one another the last time in Genesis 31,52. The word עד used there is an allusion to עדות השם נאמנה, that the testimony of G–d is true, and that יד העדים תהיה בו בראשונה that "the witnesses have to be the first to carry out the judgment by their own hands" (Deut. 17,7). We have the example of the weasel and the pit in Taanit 8.[The story about the weasel and the pit: A young man had rescued a maiden from a pit, and they had promised to be married to each other, and had selected witnesses to confirm their agreement, namely the pit, and a weasel which happened to be passing at that moment. After a while, the young man forgot about his promise and married another woman and had children by her. His oldest son died by falling into a pit, whereas the second one was torn to shreds by a weasel. At that point the young man realized why this tragedy had befallen him and he returned to the girl whom he had promised to wed.] So far the Tziyoni. He means to say that Jacob and Laban concluded a covenant not to cross that pile of stones with hostile intentions towards the other, and that they would consider that pile of stones as witness to their covenant. The stone fence that the she-ass became aware of, was that very יגר שהדותא, as Laban had called that stone-heap in Genesis 31,47. The she-ass squeezed the leg of Bileam, the re-incarnation of Laban, since the "hands of the witnesses have to be the first ones to execute the judgment" if someone violated the covenant. According to Sanhedrin 105a, בעור, Bileam's father is not really Bileam's father but "בן" in that context means that he was also identical with כושן רשעתיים, who in turn is identical with לבן הארמי. Incidentally, the first letters of these names spell כלב, dog. בעור, is supposed to allude to the fact that that man בא על הבעיר, had sexual relations with a beast. He was also called כושן רשעתיים, to indicate he had committed two wrongs against Israel; one in the time of Jacob, the other during the reign of the Judges. What was his real name? לבן הארמי. So far the quote from Sanhedrin 105a. The Talmud then considers Bileam identical with (or rather a re-incarnation of) Laban. The other comments all pertain to the characteristics of Bileam, who had been accused on the same folio of having used his she-ass as his sexual outlet. When Rashi writes on that folio that the word בעור refers to Bileam's father, this is clearly some printer's error, since the same line of Rashi concludes by calling כושן רשעתיים as identical with Laban. The Targum Yonathan also hints in Deut.26,5: ארמי אובד אבי וירד מצרימה, "my father was a wandering Arami who descended to Egypt," that the meaning is that Bileam and Laban were identical, i.e. one was the re-incarnation of the other. It means that because of two wrongs committed by Laban, Jacob, i.e. the Jewish people, wound up in exile in Egypt. The two wrongs were that at first Laban tried to destroy Jacob and his family; later, having moved to Egypt, he became an advisor to Pharaoh advising him on how to harm the Jewish people. Sanhedrin there explains that Pharaoh had three such advisors, namely Yitro, Bileam and Job. Bileam was the one who advised killing Moses outright as a baby, since one could not be sure he would not be the saviour of the Jews. The Targum Yonathan spells this out on Numbers 22,5. From all the foregoing, we see that the entire family of Jacob originated with Bileam (the latter having been Laban the father of all of Jacob's wives). This lineage was reinforced further through Balak who as king of Moab was also the ancestor of Ruth who became the great grandmother of King David, who embodies everything that Israel is proud of and looks up to including the Messiah.

All this caused G–d to become angry at him. Rashi quotes a Midrash Tanchumah on 22,24: "The angel of G–d stood, etc." The Midrash explains the reason why the angel positioned himself in the three locations mentioned in the Torah, as being a warning to conduct himself as the patriarchs had done, and not in any other way. None of the patriarchs had ever relied on charms and similar sorcery-like manipulations. This is why Bileam himself acknowledges that neither Jacob nor Israel had ever employed such means in order to advance their fortunes (23,23). The reason that Bileam quoted Jacob/Israel as the example for not employing sorcery is that Jacob was the only patriarch who succeeded in training all his children to remain loyal to his teachings. The words משעל הכרמים (22,24), is a veiled reference to Abraham of whom it is said כרם היה לידידי, "My beloved had a vineyard etc." (Isaiah 5,1). The words והיה גדר מזה וגדר מזה, are a reference to the two unfit sons produced by Abraham and Isaac respectively (ibid). The purpose of the fences was to prevent attacks by the "serpent." Ishmael is understood to have emanated from Abraham's "right" whereas Esau emanated from Isaac's "left". The latter is referred to by the line describing the she-ass as ותלחץ אל הקיר, "she pressed herself against the wall." When the angel is described as "standing" in a narrow place (22,26), this is a reference to Jacob who did not deviate to the left or to the right, and who therefore represents the "central pillar" of the Patriarchs.