מלבי"ם במדבר כ"ב:כ"א
ויקם בלעם בבקר – בלעם היה לו להבין שה' לא יתן לו רשות אף לקבות את ישראל, והיה לו להבין שיצוה עליו בהפך שיברך אותם והיה ראוי לו למנוע מלכת אחר שזממו אל יפק וישוב בחרפה לביתו, וה' אמר לו קום לך אתם, וכבר בארנו בפ' קדושים (סי' לב) שיש הבדל בין אתו – ובין עמו – שעמו מציין השווי, ואתו מורה שאחד הוא העקר, וה' הודיע שלא ילך עמם בשווי רק אתם, שיהי' דעתו נפרד מדעתם שהוא לא ילך על הכונה להרע לישראל, והוא לא כן עשה כי הלך עמם, ואמר במדרש שמח בפורענות של ישראל כמוהם, ולכן השכים בבקר וחבש בעצמו את אתונו מרוב חשקו אל ההליכה ואם כן היה בדעתו שאם יצוה ה' לברכם לא ישמע לו שאל"כ היה לו לחדול מלכת אתם:
The episode of Bilaam and talking donkey is pure humor. One thing provokes Divine laughter, namely human pretension. Bilaam had won renown as the greatest prophet of his day. His fame had spread to Moab and Midian. He was known as the man who held the secrets of blessing and curse. God now proceeds to show Bilaam that when He so chooses, even his donkey is a greater prophet than he. The donkey sees what Bilaam cannot see: the angel standing in the path, barring their way. God humbles the self-important, just as He gives importance to the humble. When human beings think they can dictate what God will say, God laughs. And, on this occasion, so do we.
Some years ago I was making a television program. The problem I faced was this. I wanted to make a documentary about teshuvah, repentance, but I had to do so in a way that would be intelligible to non-Jews as well as Jews, indeed to those who had no religious belief at all. What example could I choose that would illustrate the point?
I decided that one way of doing so was to look at drug addiction. Addicts develop behaviors that they know are self-destructive, but they are part of their lifestyle. To break these habits involves immense reserves of will. An addict looking to address these self-destructive behaviours must acknowledge that the life they have led is harmful to them and to others, and needs to change. That seemed to me a secular equivalent of teshuvah, which could illustrate the message to viewers.
I spent a day in a rehabilitation center, and it was heartbreaking. The young people there – they were aged between 16 and 18 – all came from broken families. Many of them had suffered abuse. Other than the workers at the center, they had no networks of support. The staff were exceptional people. Their task was mind-numbingly difficult. They would succeed in getting the addicts to break the habit for days, weeks at a time, and then they would relapse and the whole process would have to begin again. I began to realize that their patience was little less than a human counterpart of God’s patience with us. However many times we fail and have to begin again, God does not lose faith in us, and that gives us strength. Here were people doing God’s work.
I asked the head of the center, a social worker, what it was that she gave the young people to make a difference to their lives and give them the chance to change. I will never forget her answer, because it was one of the most beautiful I ever heard. ‘We are probably the first people they have met who care for them unconditionally. And we are the first people in their lives who cared enough to say “No.”‘
“No” is the hardest word to hear, but it is also often the most important – and the sign that someone cares. That is what Bilaam, humbled, eventually learned and what we, too, must discover if we are to be open to the Voice of God.
