Thursday, July 3, 2014
Parshas Balak: Prophecy is not enough to change us
10:28 PM | 
Posted by
Rabbi Chaim Coffman |
"So he sent messengers to Bilaam the son of Be'or to Petor, which is by the river, to the land of the children of his people to call him saying, 'Behold there is a people come out from Egypt, behold they cover the face of the earth, and they abide over against me.'" (Numbers 19:5)
Bilaam is an complex and interesting character. On the one hand, he a prophet of the nations whom G-d speaks to and on the other hand, he is corrupt and goes to great lengths to curse the Jewish people. How are we able to reconcile this?
One thing we see from here is that even a direct communication from G-d does not guarantee that a person will act according to His will! Even though Bilaam at a certain level had this ability to have G-d communicate with him, nonetheless it seems the prophecy he had did not help his character development.
The nations complained that if they only had a prophet of their own, how they would be loved by G-d as well. They were given the prophet Bilaam but they could still say, we would have become even better but the prophet you gave us couldn't help us and raise us to a higher level like Moshe Rabbenu!
The answer that we would give the nations is that prophecy, although a tremendous level to reach, does not change a person. Just the opposite! Since the person had flawed character traits, the ability to reach prophecy did not help him!
This is difficult to comprehend. Could it really be a direct communication from G-d doesn't change a person? We see from what happened to Korach that even witnessing the miracles of Egyp and the crossing of the sea were not enough to stop him jealous rant against Moshe and Aharon!
This shows us that even seeing the greatest miracles and reaching high spiritual levels, if one does not work on them and harness this, they go lost. Bilaam had the ability to help his nation and influence them to do good.
G-d hear wanted to show that a person could even reach a level of prophecy which would not effect the corruptness of his soul. The lesson to be learned here is that no matter what spiritual level we are holding by, we need to continue to learn and grow. It is not enough to rest on one's laurels!
We have to learn musar (ethics) every day to continually work on those flaws that we have. We can't think we have learned everything or know everything or even to say that although most Jews know nothing about their heritage, what I do is enough and I can slack off here or there.
Everyone has unlimited potential and we need to try and maximize it in this world to the best of our ability.
Shabbat Shalom!
Bilaam is an complex and interesting character. On the one hand, he a prophet of the nations whom G-d speaks to and on the other hand, he is corrupt and goes to great lengths to curse the Jewish people. How are we able to reconcile this?
One thing we see from here is that even a direct communication from G-d does not guarantee that a person will act according to His will! Even though Bilaam at a certain level had this ability to have G-d communicate with him, nonetheless it seems the prophecy he had did not help his character development.
The nations complained that if they only had a prophet of their own, how they would be loved by G-d as well. They were given the prophet Bilaam but they could still say, we would have become even better but the prophet you gave us couldn't help us and raise us to a higher level like Moshe Rabbenu!
The answer that we would give the nations is that prophecy, although a tremendous level to reach, does not change a person. Just the opposite! Since the person had flawed character traits, the ability to reach prophecy did not help him!
This is difficult to comprehend. Could it really be a direct communication from G-d doesn't change a person? We see from what happened to Korach that even witnessing the miracles of Egyp and the crossing of the sea were not enough to stop him jealous rant against Moshe and Aharon!
This shows us that even seeing the greatest miracles and reaching high spiritual levels, if one does not work on them and harness this, they go lost. Bilaam had the ability to help his nation and influence them to do good.
G-d hear wanted to show that a person could even reach a level of prophecy which would not effect the corruptness of his soul. The lesson to be learned here is that no matter what spiritual level we are holding by, we need to continue to learn and grow. It is not enough to rest on one's laurels!
We have to learn musar (ethics) every day to continually work on those flaws that we have. We can't think we have learned everything or know everything or even to say that although most Jews know nothing about their heritage, what I do is enough and I can slack off here or there.
Everyone has unlimited potential and we need to try and maximize it in this world to the best of our ability.
Shabbat Shalom!
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