While looking into this week's parasha, I came across this beautiful insight from Rabbi Frand.

And God opened the donkey's mouth, and she said to Bilam, "What have I done to you?" (22:28)

           Bilam was not an ordinary person.  He was a famous wizard, a man who wielded extraordinary power with his tongue.  Those he blessed were blessed, and those he cursed were cursed.  He did not command armies and navies, but he was more powerful than generals and admirals.  His one word could lay waste an entire country.

            Balak, king of Moav, summons this famous and powerful wizard to employ his power against the Jewish people.  Bilam is fully aware that Hashem does not approve, but he goes nonetheless.  Along the way, his donkey stops and refuses to take another step.  Bilam strikes the donkey, and suddenly, miraculously, the donkey opens its mouth and speaks.

            Never in the history of the world has such a thing happen. A talking donkey?  A donkey holding a conversation with a man? Impossible.  And yet, there it was, happening right in front of him.  Did this stunning miracle give pause to Bilam? Did it make him rethink his travel plans?

            Imagine yourself driving on the highway, and suddenly, your car stops.  You pump the gas pedal again and again, and the car says to you, " Enough already! Can't you see that I don't want to go there?" What would you do? Would you keep trying to get the car started? Or would you sit back and reconsider your trip?  There is little doubt that all of us would be shaken to our very roots in such a situation.  But Bilam, the wise and extraordinary Bilam, the famous wizard Bilam, was nonchalant about it. 

            Sforno compares the amazing miracle of Hashem's allowing the donkey to speak to the verse (Tehillim 51:17), "O God open my lips and let my mouth speak your praises."  In other words, human speech is also a miracle.  The ability to communicate, to express, to articulate is no less a miracle than a donkey speaking.  This should have been clear to Bilam. 

            Bilam should have said to himself, "My strength is my speech.  Who gave me that power?  Hashem.  And the same God who can give me the power of speech just gave the power of speech to a donkey!  Jut as a talking donkey is a miracle, a human being talking is also a miracle.  This must be a divine message to me, a sign that I should not use my power of speech in a manner that Hashem does not approve.  I should turn back and abandon this evil journey." 

            Yet for some reason, all of this went right by Bilam.  He never stopped to consider the significance of what he had just seen and the ramifications of what he intended to do.  For all his skill and wisdom, he missed the clearest of all messages.  He was stricken with a strange myopia.

            What lesson does this hold for us?  It is that if it can happen to Bilam it can happen to every one of us!  If Bilam can be blinded, we can also be blinded.  When a person is driven by personal motive, whether it is money or power whatever else, he becomes blinded to reality.  He only sees what he wants to see.  He sees those things that will advance his purpose and is impervious to all else.

There are none so blind as those who will not see.

Reprinted with permission from the copyright holder-Artscroll/ Mesorah- from "Rabbi Frand on the parasha."

Amazing!  How often do we see Hashem's hand play a role in our lives and yet we continue in our nearsighted ways!! The trick is to seize the moment and improve our standing in Hashem's eyes.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Steve Haber

            Come join us on Mondays and Wednesdays at The Jesse Dweck City Learning Center 587 5^th avenue between 47^th and 48^th from 8-9:30 PM