58
The Jewish Home | JULY 14, 2022
Torah Thought
Present Tents Lessons from a Blind Seer By Rechie Eisner
“O
h, my darling Eeyore! You can speak! It’s a miracle! …. I’m so sorry I lost it and
beat you…” Isn’t that what one would expect Bilaam’s response to his trusted donkey’s oratory to be? Imagine your pet suddenly opened a mouth to you? Would you be at all inclined to tell him he has made a mockery of you? Yet here we have Bilaam, prominent prophet, seer, esteemed council to kings, saying just that. Parashat Balak reads like a comedy with our visionary continuously oblivious. It is clear from the donkey seeing, what Bilaam was meant to see, that our seer is somewhat blind. Bilaam attests to this himself, “Vayomar…ne’um hagever shetum ha’ayin.” He said, Here is the speech of the man whose eye is…. Is what? Various commentaries translate “shetum” as both open and closed, with the Gemara telling us that Bilaam was, in fact, blind in one eye. Throughout the parasha, this blindness exhibits itself to be figuratively so. One cannot help but ask, “How can someone so smart be so stupid?” This question hits me, because I have been asking it in numerous contexts these past few years. How is it that people I consider bright and good, whose opinions I would expect to value, believe things that are so beyond the pale? How is it, that they act upon these beliefs in ways that are dangerous to society? This problem seems to be global. How is it that news commentators, despite the glaring evidence, cannot figure out who the good guys are and who the bad guys are? Who would expect the media to promote the cause of hooded thugs carrying submachine guns, advocating for mass murder, over that of those whose every song, dream, and action displays a yearning for peace? This, among an entirety of mind-boggling media distortion, hits close to home.
How is it that humans can be so deluded about reality? I believe it is in part because, as social beings, we are all perception impaired. In our morning brachot, when we acknowledge that “Hashem opens the eyes of those who cannot see,” we are not thanking Him for the cornea transplants of a minority but are acknowledging that, in fact, if we look at things only from our individual vistas, or only from a place of group think, we get but a sliver of a glimpse of all that is. (See Ted Talk “Can We Trust Our Own Brains” for an interesting account on the subject.) Knowing this, as my father, tz”b, would say, we have to do our best to think things through and then ask Hakadosh Baruch Hu who is chonen ha’daat, the Granter of perception, to “grant us knowledge, understanding, and intellect.” In this quest for truth, how can we enable ourselves to find more clarity? Perhaps we can look at our “Blind Seer” Bilaam, to notice what gets in his way and in doing so acquire some tools to help us see what gets in ours. The Tiferet Shmuel seeks to explain what Bilaam was trying to do in cursing Bnei Yisrael. He speaks about the three
primary organs which drive all of our human actions: Our Moach/brain, the source of our neshama, from which intellect arises. Our Lev/heart, the source of desire/ taavot. Our Kaved/liver, the source of middot/character traits. It is our purpose to elevate our sechel in our moach, over our lev and kaved, so as to direct our middot and desires for good. The Tiferet Shmuel says, that Bilaam’s aim was to cause Bnei Yisrael to fall victim to their bad character traits and desires. The first letters of Kaved – Lev – Moach, in that order, spells out kalem, meaning destroy them. Bnei Yisrael however, when acting as a whole, prioritized the mo’ach over the lev and kaved, in the order that spells melech, king. Bilaam, on the other hand, is a kavod seeker. This primary desire for honor blinds him and has him losing his vision all along. It is Balak’s promise of kavod that sets him on his ill-fated mission altogether and his sense of losing honor that has him in a personal power struggle with a donkey, among other things. (Not so, lehavdil, as when adults feel the
need to show their wonderful two-yearolds “who is boss.”) In choosing our perspectives, it is helpful to ask ourselves whether there might be character traits (resentment, fear, selfishness, dishonesty, honor seeking) that might be driving our thoughts. All this comes together very nicely in a Mishnah in the fifth chapter of Pirkei Avot. Whoever possesses these three things is of the disciples of Abraham, our father; and three other things, is of the disciples of Balaam, the wicked. A good eye, a low spirit and a humble soul, he is of the disciples of Abraham, our father. An evil eye, a haughty spirit and a broad soul, he is of the disciples of Balaam, the wicked. What is the difference between the disciples of Abraham, our father, and the disciples of Balaam, the wicked? The disciples of Abraham, our father, enjoy this world, and inherit the World to Come…. But the disciples of Balaam, the wicked, inherit gehinnom… To summarize: The disciples of Abraham Avinu possess: 1) Good eye (brain/neshama/intellect); 2) low spirit (heart/desires/taavot); 3) humble soul (middot/character traits) On the other hand, the disciples of Bilaam HaRasha have: 3) Evil eye (brain/neshama/intellect); 2) haughty spirit (heart/desires/ taavot); 1) broad soul (middot/character traits) In the disciples of Avraham Avinu, the good eye/brain/neshama takes precedence over the others. This is chochmah, the ko’ach of mah. As Onkelos explains, when Hashem breathed a neshama into Adam, he was granted knowledge and speech. It may be what is implied in Bilaam saying, “Mah tovu,” i.e. Your (koach)mah is good, and in
