Questions for Balak

  in 2025, asked 1, 3, 6, 8, and 9.

☆1. Targum Yonasan and the Gemara in Sanhedrin 105a say that Bilaam was Lavan, or he was a gilgul of, Lavan. Lavan gave Rivka a bracha אֲחֹתֵ֕נוּ אַ֥תְּ הֲיִ֖י לְאַלְפֵ֣י רְבָבָ֑ה. How could a curse to destroy them be effective if he already gave them a bracha?

 2. Our parsha says that Balak was not interested in getting a bracha that he should be strong and great. He wanted a klala on the Jews. Are we misunderstanding something? Can it really be that an enemy of the Jews would be totally reject the option of becoming a great nation on their own and instead use all their strength and everything they have to try to destroy us.

3. Unless you are under examination in a courtroom, a question means that the speaker does not know the answer. Where do we find that Hashem asks a question and implies that He needed to hear the answer or that He wants to establish a fact. Extra credit: find three other such cases, all in Sefer Breishis.

 4. Who claps his hands even though he is not happy.

 5. When chasidus began, misnagdim believed that some chasidim had a faith in their rebbes that was close to worship. Tell me two of the most famous early leaders of Chasidus whose names begin with the name of an avoda zara. This is a joke. This is true for plenty of other gedolim, but it's funnier in this case.

6. Six times weapons appear in the parsha.

7. Find a bird and a nest in the parsha.

☆8. Chazal say that when the tzadikim of the generation saw what Zimri was doing, they gathered to say Krias Shema at the entrance of the Mishkan. How does this relate to the unusual name of Pinchas’ weapon, which appears only this one time in Chumash.

☆9. Chazal tell us that Bilaam knew the daily instant when Hashem invoked Middas Hadin and planned to use it for the klalah. In fact, the word he was going to use was כלם, kaleim, which are the first three letters after alef through yud, which represent the ten maamaros of brias haolam. To prevent this, Hashem rearranged the whole spiritual world and did not have that moment.  How does this relate to an otherwise inexplicable change in the behavior of Klal Yisrael that followed immediately after?  How did this show Bilaam’s brilliant strategy?

10. Pesachim 111a, do not walk between two women, nor allow a woman to walk between two men, probably because of Kishuf problems. If you have no choice, you should say a passuk that begins and ends with אל or a passuk that begins with לא  and  stop with the second or third time it says לא in that passuk.

 מאי תקנתיה אמר רב פפא נפתח באל ונפסיק באל אי נמי נפתח בלא ונפסיק בלא

Both are in our parsha,  the first with Lo, and the second starts with Eil and the third ends with Eil.

1. Targum Yonasan and the Gemara in Sanhedrin 105a say that Bilaam was Lavan, or he was a gilgul of, Lavan. Lavan gave Rivka a bracha אֲחֹתֵ֕נוּ אַ֥תְּ הֲיִ֖י לְאַלְפֵ֣י רְבָבָ֑ה. How could a curse to destroy them be effective if he already gave them a bracha?

The bracha to Rivka could be fulfilled through Eisav. All the havtachos to Avraham and to Yitzchak could have been fulfilled through Eisav. That's why it says in the Hagada that there was a Gzeira on Avraham's descendants at the BBhB, and  ואתן לעשו את הר שעיר ויעקב ובניו ירדו מצרים.  It could have gone the other way.

Alternatively, that the klalah was only to scare them and chase them away, not to kill them.  22:6-

ועתה לכה נא ארה לי את העם הזה כי עצום הוא ממני אולי אוכל נכה בו ואגרשנו מן הארץ

But that was just Balak. Bilaam wanted kilayon. So it's not a good answer.

  2. Our parsha says that Balak was not interested in getting a bracha that he should be strong and great. He wanted a klala on the Jews. Are we misunderstanding something? Can it really be that an enemy of the Jews would be totally reject the option of becoming a great nation on their own and instead use all their strength and everything they have to try to destroy us.

No, that’s the mesorah of the Arabs, all the way down to the Arabs in Gaza. They could have built a magnificent country, extending through Sinai, if they had focused on personal success instead of murdering Jews.

 3. Unless you are under examination in a courtroom, a question means that the speaker does not know the answer. Where do we find that Hashem asks a question and implies that He needed to hear the answer or that He wants to establish a fact. Extra credit: find three other such cases, all in Sefer Breishis.

22:9, מי האנשים האלה עמך

Breishis    3:9, אייכה.     4:9, אי הבל אחיך      18:13, למה זה צחקה שרה

 4. Who clapped his hands even though he was not happy.

24:10   ויחר־אף בלק אל־בלעם ויספק את־כפיו 

  5. When chasidus began, misnagdim believed that some chasidim had faith in their rebbes that was close to worship. Tell me two early leaders of Chasidus whose names begin with the name of an avoda zara. 

This is a joke. This is true for plenty of other gedolim, but it's funnier in this case.

Baal. The Baal Shem Tov and the Baal HaTanya.

 6. Six times weapons appear in the parsha.

Sword, Cherev twice, once Bilaam telling his donkey he would kill him if he had a sword, and once in the hand of the Malach.      

Arrows in 24:8,  וחיציו ימחץ.  

A staff, makel and sheivet, twice:  22:26, Bilaam hit the asson with a מקל, and 25:17  וקם שבט מישראל ומחץ פאתי מואב וקרקר כל בני שת.  

and Pinchas’ spear, romach.

 7. Find a bird and a nest in the parsha.

Ben Tzipor,

and 24:21,וירא את־הקיני וישא משלו ויאמר איתן מושבך ושים בסלע קנך

 8. Chazal say that when the tzadikim of the generation saw what Zimri was doing, they gathered to say Krias Shema at the entrance of the Mishkan. How does this relate to the unusual name of Pinchas’ weapon, which appears only this one time in Chumash.

. וַיַּרְא פִּינְחָס בֶּן אֶלְעָזָר בֶּן אַהֲרֹן הַכֹּהֵן וַיָּקׇם מִתּוֹךְ הָעֵדָה וַיִּקַּח רֹמַח בְּיָדוֹ. 25:7

Romach appears only here in Chumash, but several times in Neviim.

 Romach totals 248, the number of words in Krias Shema. The gedolim said Krias Shema, Pinchas took the lesson of mesiras nefesh of Krias Shema in his hands and did something about it.

9. Chazal tell us that Bilaam knew the daily instant when Hashem invoked Middas Hadin and planned to use it for the klalah. In fact, the word he was going to use was כלם, kaleim, which are the first three letters after alef through yud, which represent the ten maamaros of brias haolam. To prevent this, Hashem rearranged the whole spiritual world and did not have that moment.  How does this relate to an otherwise inexplicable change in the behavior of Klal Yisrael that followed immediately after?  How did this show Bilaam’s brilliant strategy?

In Mitzrayim, we lived for two hundred ten years with absolute tzniyus and chastity and total rejection of marrying a non-Jew. Now, after Yetzias Mitzrayim, and Mattan Torah, and forty years of eating lechem abirim, suddenly the men shamelessly start chasing shiksas???  The only explanation is that there was the sudden change in middas hadin, the absence of Zaam, caused a drop in yiras shamayim. That is why Pinchas is described as בקנאו את קנאתי, the Kinah Hashem would normally have had. 

Bilaam’s plan from day one was either Hashem would have that moment of anger and he would exploit it with a curse; or if Hashem would avoid that moment, then Klal Yisrael would be more likely to sin, and he would send in the Bnos Moav. 

I wonder if Bnos Moav was his main plan from the first moment. He knew that the RBSO was less likely to interfere with bechira, so all he had to do was weaken their yiras shamayim.

 10. Pesachim 111a, do not walk between two women, nor allow a woman to walk between two men, probably because of Kishuf problems. If you have no choice, you should say a passuk that begins and ends with אל or a passuk that begins with לא  and  stop with the second or third time it says לא in that passuk.

 מאי תקנתיה אמר רב פפא נפתח באל ונפסיק באל אי נמי נפתח בלא ונפסיק בלא

Both are in our parsha,  the first with Lo, and the second starts with Eil and the third ends with Eil.

23:19 

לא איש אל ויכזב ובן־אדם ויתנחם ההוא אמר ולא יעשה ודבר ולא יקימנה

23:22

אל מוציאם ממצרים כתועפת ראם לו 

23:23

כי לא נחש ביעקב ולא קסם בישראל כעת יאמר ליעקב ולישראל מה־פעל אל