Комментарий о цитате к Дварим 3:27

הר נבו, “Mount Nebo.” This mountain is identical with the one called: הר העברים in Numbers chapter 27. It is also known as Rosh Hapisga (here, as well as in Deut. 3,27 and Numbers 21,20 and 23,14).

And it further appears to me, that He mentioned the name of Shaddai to the forefathers in the promise of the land, to hint to them that the purpose of the land is in both this world and the world to come. For the letters “yud-shin” [י“ש] from the name ”Shaddai“ [שדי] hint at the reward of the world to come, as it is said To bequeath substance [יש - ‘yesh’] to those who love me (Proverbs 8:21). And the letter ”dalet“ [ד] from ”Shaddai“ hints at the reward of this world which extends to the four [ד’ - dalet represents the number 4] directions of the world, as it is written And you shall spread out to the west and to the east, etc. (Genesis 28:14).
And regarding this it was said to Moses And You shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen (Exodus 33:23). The Holy One, blessed be He, showed Moses the knot of the tefillin, because the letter ”dalet“ from ”Shaddai“ is in the knot of the tefillin at the back, through which the Holy One, blessed be He, showed him all the reward of this world hinted at by the four directions, as it is said to Moses, Ascend to the top of the summit and lift Your eyes westward and northward, etc. (Deuteronomy 3:27).
But My face — meaning the letters ”yud-shin“ which are in the tefillin in the front, alluding to the reward of the world to come, namely the ”shin“ in the head tefillin and the ”yud“ in the hand tefillin — shall not be seen. He told him that the reward of the world to come cannot be seen, as it is written No eye has seen God besides You (Isaiah 64:3). Therefore, He mentioned here the name of Shaddai to say that they [the forefathers] did not question why they did not find a burial place in the land, which is meant for the purpose of resurrection, even though they were also promised resurrection with the name of Shaddai.

“What do these people want of you?” [22:9]. The Holy One, who knows all secrets, asked Balaam, who are these men with you, expecting, that the Holy One wanted to mislead Balaam in order to destroy him. Balaam said: God does not know who these men are, then God does not know everything. Thus, I will seek a time when God will not know and I will curse Israel. The Holy One said to Balaam, do not go with them. Balaam responded: then I will curse them at home. The Holy One responded: do not curse them. Balaam responded: then I will bless them. The Holy One responded: they do not need your blessing; they are already blessed. Balaam came and said to the nobles of Balak, go home. God has told me not to go with you, but with important ministers. Balaam was haughty and did not want to show that he was in the power of the Holy One. Balak immediately sent important ministers and had them say to Balaam: I will honor you greatly, but curse Israel. Balaam responded: if you will give me your whole house filled with silver and gold, I cannot do other than what God tells me. From this we learn that Balaam was someone who desired much money and goods. Balaam said: it is just to give me all of his silver and gold. He must have many people to wage war, and it is a question if he will win. However, he will certainly win with my cursing. Soon afterwards he had to admit that he was in God’s hands. He said: I cannot do anything without God’s will. He said to the ministers: spend the night and you will also hear what God will say to me, that I should not change from blessing to curse. Who wants that he should not continue to bless Israel? He had prophesied that he would bless Israel in the end. Balaam called the ministers, servants. He said: you are servants of a person and you must do what he orders, even though,with regard to God, I must also do what God orders. God said to Balaam: if they will give you money as a payment, go with them. However, in any event, do what I will tell you. Nonetheless, Balaam went with them. He thought to himself: perhaps I will convince God. He girded his donkey himself, even though he had many servants, out of the joy of cursing Israel. The Holy One said: Abraham is the father of Israel. He woke up early to gird his donkey to slaughter Isaac, his son, as a sacrifice to God. Israel benefited from this merit. You will not be able to do anything to them. He angered God that he went with them. However, the Holy One only told him to go and not to curse. At first, God said: you should not go and afterwards, you should go. This teaches us that the way the person understands which way he should go, God guides him. One can ask. Why did the Holy One forbid him from cursing? Let him curse all day and let God bless them. His curses would be for naught. If Balaam had the power to bless, why did he not bless Balak that Israel should not touch Balak and not injure him? All that Balak had desired from Balaam that he should be protected from Israel. When Balaam could not curse Israel, he should have at least blessed Balak that he should be protected, and Balak would have certainly paid him well. From this we learn that he could not bless. If he would have been able to bless, why did he not bless himself to be rich? Then he would not have needed Balak’s silver. We also find that he blessed himself that he should die a clean death, but his blessing was not fulfilled. He had an unnatural death, being killed by the sword. He made magic that he flew in the air under heaven. However, Israel caused, by means of magical names, that he fell down to the ground and was killed with the sword. This shows that his blessing was nothing, and his curse was also nothing. Why did the Holy One forbid him to curse? The Holy One did not want to have that he would curse, since the Holy One knew that many Israelites would fall in the plague, because they had sinned with illicit sexual relations. If Balaam had cursed, the people would have said that they died because Balaam had cursed them. Therefore, the Holy One forbade cursing them. However, Balaam could not curse or bless. He waited for a time when the Holy One was angry, and he cursed at that time. At this time, the Holy One was not angry. An angel placed himself in front of Balaam with his naked sword. The angel spoke: I can kill him without the sword. I will only blow on him and he will die and be burned. However, he undertook to curse with his mouth, which is something that has not been done before. He should have done like the other nations who war with the sword. Therefore, the angel said: I will also do something different and will take a sword. The donkey saw the angel and became very frightened, but Balaam did not see the angel. The angel stood in Balaam’s way, three times in three places. First, in a field that had no fences. This was for Abraham, who had ordinary children on both sides, the children of Hagar and Keturah. Therefore, he thought to curse them. The second place there was a wall on one side, and the donkey pushed Balaam’s foot against the wall. The wall was for Isaac, who had an evil son on one side, the evil Esau. The third place there was a wall on both sides. This was for Jacob. His children were all good and pious. Therefore, the third time he could not move on both sides. Balaam hit the donkey three times and God opened the donkey’s mouth and she said to Balaam. You have hit me three times because you wanted to go to curse Israel, who made pilgrimages three times in the year to Jerusalem, to praise the Holy One. Balaam said: if I had a sword, I would have killed you. The donkey responded: you are supposed to curse a great nation to kill them, and to kill me you need to have a sword? When you can curse with your mouth, put away the sword. He could not respond. The ministers of Moab were amazed, and saw his disgrace and the great miracle. The people asked him: why did you not ride a horse? He responded: I left a horse in the meadow. The donkey answered: I am your donkey. He responded: you are mine to carry a noble burden. She answered: you ride on me. Balaam responded: it happened once this way. She responded: you have been riding on me since your youth, and you lie with me like with your wife. The Holy One opened Balaam’s eyes and he saw the angel with a naked sword. Balaam bowed down and fell to the ground. The angel said: why did you beat the donkey? He said to Balaam: the donkey has no ancestral merit and no ancestral covenant and I have been commanded to respond because you beat the donkey. How much more so am I obligated to punish you because you were not supposed to curse Israel, who have ancestral merit and an ancestral covenant. Balaam responded: I did not know this. The ministers saw that he knew nothing and his disgrace before the ministers was very great. Balaam said: if God wants, I will turn back, since God told me to go with them. This is customary with the Holy One. He told Abraham to bring his son called Isaac as a sacrifice. Afterwards, He again sent an angel to tell him that he should not touch him. The angel responded: go with them. From here we learn, the person is led whichever way he wants to go. The donkey died, so that the nations should not make it a god. The Holy One had compassion on the evildoer so that the people should not remember his disgrace, what happened to him because of the donkey. Another explanation is that the donkey died because the Holy One created it during the six days of creation so that it should speak to Balaam. When it finished speaking with Balaam it died. He built seven altars. He said; seven elders of Israel made seven altars – Adam, Cain, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses. Each one did not make more than one altar. I will make seven, in relation to all of them. Balaam said: it is Your honor that You should receive sacrifices from many nations. However, the Holy One informed him that He did not desire his sacrifices. Balak led Balaam on many mountains expecting that he would see Israel with his eyes and would cast an evil eye on them. God went toward Balaam. He did not want that he should come to the Holy One’s house. A parable. Two people knock on the king’s door; one of them is his friend and the other is a leper. The king says, let my friend come in to me, and let the leper go home. Balaam limped on one foot and blind in one eye. The verse calls him “gever” [24:3].⁹The term “gever” means man, in the verse. It is also used as a term for a rooster and this is the basis of the play on words here. This means, a rooster, since Balaam was like a rooster in that a rooster engages in much sex. So too, Balaam engaged in much sex, even with his donkey. Another way in which he was like a rooster who shows the people when it becomes day, and when it will be midnight. So too, Balaam knew the time when the Holy One was angry, and he would curse Israel then. In addition, Balaam had only one foot. At the time when the Holy One is angry with the people, the rooster closes his eyes and stands on one foot. Similarly, Balaam was blind in one eye and stood on one foot, since he limped on one foot. The rooster crows seven times in one night. So too, Balaam erected seven altars. When he crows, the demons fly away. Therefore, every day we recite the blessing “who gives the rooster intelligence.”¹⁰It is one of the blessings at the beginning of the morning prayers. This means, You have given intelligence to the rooster that he knows the time of the demons. Balaam shouted very loudly, expecting that all the nations would hear and be envious of Israel. Balaam said to Balak from the city of Aram: if you want that I should curse Israel, their ancestor Abraham left Aram with nothing but blessings. Jacob also went to the city of Aram with nothing but blessings. He ran away because of Esau. Furthermore, if not for Abraham who protected Lot from Sodom, Lot and his daughters would have perished and you would not have come into the world, since Balak was descended from Lot’s daughters, the daughters of Moab. I, Balaam, would also not have been, since before Jacob came to Laban, Laban had no sons. When Jacob came to Laban, the Holy One blessed him and gave Laban a son. I, Balaam, am descended from that son. Therefore, how should both of us curse Israel? Their fathers brought us into the world. Balaam said: if you tell me to curse Jacob, I cannot do this. However, if you should tell me to curse Abraham and Isaac, that I could certainly do. However, I cannot curse Jacob, since Jacob is called God’s guarantor to his beloved people, more than any other nation. Balaam said to Balak. Whoever curses Israel curses himself. Even when they are worthy of being cursed, they were not cursed, as we find when Jacob lied to his father, Isaac, and took the blessing. It would have been just for Isaac to curse Jacob, but he blessed him even more than before. So, how should I curse him? Even when they made the Golden Calf, it would have been just for them to be cursed by God. Yet, God gave them everything good, and gave them the manna, the well, and the clouds encircled them. Balaam said: God is not angry at Israel now. Therefore, I cannot curse Israel, since I know well the time when God is angry. Our sages say: if the Holy One got angry at the same time, there would not be many of Israel left, heaven forbid. Even though the Holy One gets angry at Israel, this does not happen for more than the length of an eye blink, as long as it takes to say the word, second. However, Balaam was smart. He wanted to say the word khulam in Hebrew, which means corrupt them. However, the Holy One reversed his evil thought and made the word melekh, from the word khulam. This means that God is king. Balaam said: Israel is one people when they are happy and have a joyous occasion. This is why they do not mix with the other nations. However, all the other nations, when they have a joyous occasion, they drink with all the nations. They also have many commandments. Who can count all the commandments that they do with the ashes of the red heifer, and the ashes that they made the woman drink who secluded herself with a strange man, and the ashes into which they put the foreskin of the circumcision when they circumcised their children? Balaam asked God that he should die with the death that Israelites died, and his end should be like the end of Israelites. However, the Holy One allowed him to be killed in an evil death. He did not live more than thirty-three years and he was killed with the sword. One can ask, what did Balaam mean when he said that Israel keeps the commandments with the ashes of the red heifer, the ashes of the suspected woman, and the commandment of the mixed seeds? This is that one should not sow grain or wheat in a vineyard. Why did he not mention more important commandments that Israel keep? Balaam was an evil genius. He saw that one could do nothing to Israel with war or with curses. He thought that Israel continues to exist because they are very pious. We find three transgressions that are considered severe by the Holy One. He killed the whole world because of these three severe transgressions, as we find by the Flood. They are, worshiping foreign gods, illicit sexual relations, and stealing. God brought the Flood because of these three transgressions. Now, Balaam said: Israel was warned about these three transgressions. Concerning worship of foreign gods, they made the Golden Calf, for which the red heifer atones for the Golden Calf. When they will think about the ashes of the red heifer, they will guard themselves against making foreign gods. Concerning the transgression of illicit sexual relations, they have the ashes of the suspected woman. As soon as a woman is suspected of having illicit sexual relations, even if there are no witnesses, yet she is given water to drink with the ashes in the Temple. She became swollen from that water. Therefore, each woman was careful not to engage in illicit sexual relations because of the ashes of the suspected woman. Therefore, Balaam said: one can do nothing to them; they have no illicit sex among them. They were even commanded that their animals should not engage in illicit sex, that they should not harness an ox with a donkey. The Flood occurred because the domestic animals, wild animals, and birds became intermixed by lying down with each other. Therefore, Balaam also said that they have commandments by the ashes. When they want to plow the field, they should not plow with an ox and a donkey, expecting that they should not lie together. If the ox and donkey plowed together, they would then come into one stall and would have relations with each other. Balaam said: therefore they are commanded to even protect their animals from illicit sex and even more so themselves. Israel has more commandments with the ashes. They are commanded not to sow grain or wheat near the vineyard, and four cubits from the vine, expecting that the grain or wheat should not take away the strength from the vine. When they are sown close to each other, then one steals the strength of the other. Balaam said: they are commanded concerning the vineyard, so that one should not steal from the other, so how should they steal from each other? Israel are further commanded with the ashes. They have their children circumcised and cover the foreskin with ashes, because they keep circumcision, they do not engage in illicit sex. The ashes with which one covers the foreskin causes them to be protected from illicit sex, and the commandment of circumcision is because of this. Balaam saw all this, that they have the commandments. Therefore, Balaam and Balak thought and said: we must think how we can make Israel sin with these transgressions. These are worshiping foreign gods and engaging in illicit sex, as I will write below in this portion. The evil Balaam shouted very loud when he blessed Israel. Rabbi Joshua son of Levi said: Balaam’s voice was heard seventy miles away. Rabbi Eliezer the Kapar said: the Holy One gave Balaam the strength so that his voice was heard from one end of the world to the other end. Therefore, because He saw all the nations of the word bowing down to the sun, moon, and stars, wood and stone, He caused that his voice should be heard in the whole world. Balak said to Balaam: I called you to curse them and you bless them. Balaam responded: I must do what God ordered. “Go up to the summit of Pisgah” [Deuteronomy, 3:27]. Balak had seen that Moses Our Teacher would die at the “summit of Pisgah.” Therefore, Balak led Balaam to that place to curse. As soon as the ministers saw that he was blessing Israel, several of the ministers left and only a few ministers remained with Balaam. Balak pressed Balaam and asked him, what did God say, since you do not know anything alone, without God? Balaam became angry and said to him: you Balak, you sit. You might also stand on your feet because of the honor of the Holy One. Balaam said: God is not like a person who says something. Afterwards, he thought more and said, God forbade me to curse and he does not repeat.¹¹The primary source is Tanhuma, Balak, 5–14.