Why curse when a blessing would achieve the desired result? (Parshat Balak)
וַאֲבָֽרְכָה֙ מְבָ֣רְכֶ֔יךָ וּמְקַלֶּלְךָ֖ אָאֹ֑ר וְנִבְרְכ֣וּ בְךָ֔ כֹּ֖ל מִשְׁפְּחֹ֥ת הָאֲדָמָֽה׃
I will bless those who bless you and curse the one who curses you; and all the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you.”
Bereishit/Genesis 12:3
וְעַתָּה֩ לְכָה־נָּ֨א אָֽרָה־לִּ֜י אֶת־הָעָ֣ם הַזֶּ֗ה כִּֽי־עָצ֥וּם הוּא֙ מִמֶּ֔נִּי אוּלַ֤י אוּכַל֙ נַכֶּה־בּ֔וֹ וַאֲגָרְשֶׁ֖נּוּ מִן־הָאָ֑רֶץ כִּ֣י יָדַ֗עְתִּי אֵ֤ת אֲשֶׁר־תְּבָרֵךְ֙ מְבֹרָ֔ךְ וַאֲשֶׁ֥ר תָּאֹ֖ר יוּאָֽר׃
Come then, put a curse upon this people for me, since they are too numerous for me; perhaps I can thus defeat them and drive them out of the land. For I know that whomever you bless is blessed, and whomever you curse is cursed.”
Bamidbar/Numbers 22:6
The parallels between God’s promise to Avraham in Bereishit 12 and Balak’s understanding of Bilam’s powers in Bamidbar 22 are hardly coincidental. Clearly Balak is aware of the risk he would take were he to curse Avraham’s progeny. He hopes that by subcontracting the cursing to Bilam he would harvest the benefit of such a curse without paying the consequences.
Furthermore, Balak assumes that Bilam, as a believer in – and prophet of – the very God who made that orignal promise, would have the power to override that decree.
Bilam surely knows that cursing the descendants of Avraham is a non-starter. Who better than himself to understand the consequences of such an act? And yet he demurs:
וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֲלֵיהֶ֗ם לִ֤ינוּ פֹה֙ הַלַּ֔יְלָה וַהֲשִׁבֹתִ֤י אֶתְכֶם֙ דָּבָ֔ר כַּאֲשֶׁ֛ר יְדַבֵּ֥ר יְהֹוָ֖ה אֵלָ֑י וַיֵּשְׁב֥וּ שָׂרֵֽי־מוֹאָ֖ב עִם־בִּלְעָֽם׃
He said to them, “Spend the night here, and I shall reply to you as יהוה may instruct me.” So the Moabite dignitaries stayed with Bilam.
(22:8)
What could Bilam possibly be thinking? More importantly, what is in it for him to even attempt to get God’s green light to curse the Israelites? True, the rewards promised by Balak and the Moabites are tempting – great wealth and honor are Bilam’s for the cursing. And what man can be impervious to such blandishments? At the very worst it is a Faustian bargain whereby the rewards would be immediate while the punishment – eternal though it may be – is hopefully deferred.
Surely Bilam’s ostensible reason for his overnight procrastination has nothing to do with consulting God. He knows the answer. Rather, it is to wrestle briefly with himself as is the case with the fictitious Dr. Faust.
And yet, there is a much deeper question that needs to be asked of both Balak and Bilam:
Regarding Balak: Even if the Israelites “are too numerous,” there is a far sweeter and more benign way to thwart any threat they might pose. After all, as both Bilam (from Bereishit 12) and Balak, by his own admission here in Bamidbar 22, know that they could just as easily mitigate any danger posed by the Israelites through a blessing.
Indeed, Balak would not even have to bless the Israelites. All he would need is for Bilam, the prophet of the Lord, to bless him and his Moabite people and they would be safe; “For I know that whomever you bless is blessed” (22:6). Hence, if Balak believes in Bilam’s powers, he understands that a blessing by this prophet would render him and his people immune to any danger. So why resort to a curse – which is an inevitable boomerang – when a blessing would serve the purpose benignly?
Regarding Bilam: Of course, Bilam knows very well that by blessing the Moabites and/or by blessing the Israelites on behalf of the Moabites, he would be able to deliver the solution to Balak’s concerns.
So what gives?
We all know the parable of the scorpion and the frog, whereby the toxic scorpion – unable to swim, and needing to get across the river – begs the frog to transport him on its back. Understandably suspicious, the frog refuses, telling the scorpion that it would surely sting him and he would die. The scorpion allays the frog’s concerns by telling him not to worry. After all, should he sting the frog, he, the scorpion, would drown as well. So the frog agrees to ferry his poisonous passenger. Midway, the scorpion stings the frog. As they are both drowning, the frog asks the scorpion, “Why did you do this?” To which the scorpion replies, “Because that’s my nature.”
The nature of a Jew hater is to instinctively curse the Jew even if he knows that this will ultimately hurt him even more. And he will never opt for the obvious alternative, namely to bless the Jew, even if the result would be the same or even better for himself, and minus the punishment.
Both Balak and Bilam are haters of the Israelite nation. Balak is less interested in any benefits for his people than he is in seeing the Israelites get harmed. The same is true regarding Bilam. He knows very well that blessing the Israelites would mean bounty for himself. And he surely knows that blessing the Moabites would provide them with the umbrella of protection they claim to need while yielding the reward and honor he craves.
And yet, it never occurs to either man to consider such an option. Their desire to hurt the Children of Israel is so great, it blinds them to even considering the alternative – and damn the consequences. Bilam is less tempted by Balak’s promises of lucre and honor than he is by the opportunity to harm the Israelites. This is his primal drive.
We see this throughout history. The classic case is 15th-century Spain, then at the height of its power, wealth, and glory. Spain, which benefits so greatly from its Jewish community – and understanding the risks of expelling them – nevertheless chooses to murder and exile its Jews. It then dives into an eclipse from which it has barely emerged until recently. And even now, as it regains its economic and political footing after half a millennium of irrelevance, it is once again spearheading a European drive to destroy the State of Israel.
Countries like Germany, Austria, and Holland (among others) used the Shoah to eviscerate themselves of their most productive and accomplished citizens, knowing full well what the consequences of such annihilation would be for themselves. Yet, such is the nature of the scorpion.
Today we see it happening in real time. Western Europe has willingly opened its floodgates to an invasion by Muslims with whom they have only one thing in common – a shared loathing of Jews. Indeed, the Europeans are playing both frog and scorpion, allowing in an unassimilable population to pollute their countries with noise, trash, unemployment, a massive birthrate and unbridled crime. But at least they can march together, and bang drums togethers, and chant “Death to Israel” on the streets of Berlin, Paris and Amsterdam.
And, of course, we all know how Israel’s immediate neighbors behave. On October 7th the Arabs of Gaza launched a murderous attack on Israel knowing full well that this would result in massive death and destruction for themselves. Because such is the nature of the scorpion.
Instead of opting for the blessings that would accrue from welcoming Israel, the Palestinian scorpion invests in terror tunnels and poverty for itself just in order to enjoy the momentary thrill of killing and raping some Jews. Meanwhile, after 77 years of whining and terror, the Arabs who now call themselves “Palestinian” have zero to show for themselves besides poverty and devastation.
And, mind you, this truism is no less true regarding Jews who hate Jews. Right here in Israel we have characters like the Haredi Lithuanian leader Dov Lando, who recently pronounced his preference for an Arab government in Israel. Or the haredi journalist who, this very week, after five Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza, declared the world a more beautiful place with those soldiers gone.
Indeed, as poverty-stricken and benighted as haredi Jews are simply by disassociating themselves from the Jewish State, they are hoping for their own total destruction by praying for an Arab regime. Because such is the way of the scorpion, and tragically we Jews have scorpions of our own – Jewish Voice for Peace in America, the Slabodka Yeshiva and its nonagenarian chief right here in Israel. They are a nuisance. But they will not prevail; “For I know that whomever you bless is blessed, and whomever you curse is cursed,”
For my past remarks on Parshat Balak please click on these two links:
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http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/parshat-balak-the-evil-poet-whose-verse-we-pray/
