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The Black Affair

שו”תThe Black Affair
asked 6 years ago

I wanted to ask the Rabbi why Balaam’s advice is mentioned only in Parasha Matot, “Behold, it was to the children of Israel in the matter of Balaam,” and not in our Parasha?
Thanks in advance.


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מיכי Staff answered 6 years ago
These are the kinds of questions I can think of with different interpretive suggestions, but they will all be an expression of my own perceptions. There is usually no way to confirm or refute them from the verses themselves. Such explanations are usually vapid and therefore I do not deal with them. I will suggest something to you, and it all goes under what I wrote above. It is possible that the Torah wants to say that what Balaam did was wrong and should be opposed regardless of his motives. The act itself is wrong and we should not get into motives when judging an act and behavior. Judging motives is relevant when it comes to judging a person for their actions, and this is what the Torah does in Parashat Matot. Here, you have a wort for the upcoming Sheva Blessings or Shabbat meal 🙂

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חיים replied 6 years ago

Another question regarding the Balak incident:

How did Moses know all the details of what happened between Balak and Balaam, so that he could describe it and pass it on to the Israelites?
Even regarding “Behold, his bed is a bed of iron,” Ibn Ezra wrote that it was a later addition, probably because Moses was not supposed to know about Og’s bed among the Ammonites.

מיכי Staff replied 6 years ago

The Holy One spoke the Torah. Moses only wrote. Therefore, I see no difficulty. The sages say that Esther was spoken by the Holy Spirit because the scroll contained things that were in the hearts of people.
And regarding Ibn Ezra's assumptions, it is worth asking him about their source. If Moses can know how the world was created and what God said to Abraham, why can't he know what Og's bed was made of?! These are strange words.

חיים replied 6 years ago

There is a big difference between the stories of the patriarchs and the story of Balaam.

The events that happened before Moses' generation were apparently accepted in tradition among all the people of that generation or at least among the educated class (the elders of Israel), so it turns out, and so it appears in the Sages. Therefore, even if Moses was the one who formulated and put it in writing, he still does not tell about things that no one knows.

Regarding most of the things that happened during his time, he does not retell them, because everyone was a partner in their occurrence.
The Balaam story is different, as mentioned, because it happened at a geographical and cultural distance.

If we accept the matter of writing in the Bible, of course, the Bible is true. The question is only why the patriarch did not accept the matter of the Bible in the Bible, "Behold, they have laid a cradle of iron," and here he ignored it.

The Chath (Yod 4:6) already noted this, and he said:
And I have to raise one thing: there is nothing in the entire Torah that we ourselves are eyewitnesses to, except for Balaam, for every miracle and prophecy of Egypt our eyes saw and it was done before the Lord, etc. We have seen the entire Torah with our own eyes, except for Balaam. Who can tell us what happened between the king of Moab and a magician named Balaam who came to him in his land, and why he came, and who brought him, and who knew that he built altars and wanted to curse and turn them into blessings? Who came in their secret? And Israel was They are in the desert, and if they stood in the land of Moab at the top of the peak and looked down into the desert far away, how could the inhabitants of the desert know that they were looking at them from the top of this mountain and that they were guessing about them? And even the Lord did not know. Only from here, the Holy One, blessed be He, the Lord, wrote the words and the prophet cried out, "Remember, please, what Balak and the others advised."

And here:
https://forum.otzar.org/viewtopic.php?t=27998

מיכי Staff replied 6 years ago

I have already written to you that I have nothing to answer about Abe”ez. His words are words of terror.
And if you accept that there was a tradition about what happened with Abraham, I don't know why Moses couldn't know about Og's bed. It is certainly possible that this was famous in the world and everyone knew.

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