Learning from the Converse: Bilaam as a Foil for the Jewish Leader

 One of the perhaps overlooked elements of the narrative depicting Bilaam's attempts to curse the Jewish people, is the significance of Bilaam's cruelty towards his donkey. As is universally accepted in Jewish thought, every narrative element plays a role, has some function, or significance; no detail can/should be overlooked because the Torah is the only text that we have written by Hashem himself, and therefore every nuanced verse, word, or even letter not only edifies us but also shapes our lives as people.

In that light, the question could be asked, "Why does the Torah go to such length to elaborate on Bilaam's relationship with his donkey?" It is to create a contradistinction between how Avraham, with great alacrity, woke at the first break of dawn to sacrifice his, mounting his own donkey, whereas Bilaam showed that same zeal when waking to mount his donkey before setting out to curse God's beloved nation? If that was the underlying significance, a mere, brief mention would have sufficed? The thought struck my mind that the long, drawn out narrative could be intended to show Bilaam's intransigence, and utter refusal to heed the divine will. That, obviously, could also be true, but still, it would seem to be lacking, because we already see that in Bilaam's dismissal of Hashem's directive not to collaborate with Balak's emissaries; Bilaam presses the issue again, failing to see the writing on the wall, or rather, choosing not to. 

And then, later, at the end of the narrative, when Bilaam is already directing Balak about which sacrifices to offer so that his curses will be received by the Almighty, there too, Bilaam's curses morph into blessings, and Bilaam, on two successive occasions, attempts, in his way, to harm Hashem's beloved, the Jewish people. So, it would seem, that Bilaam's run-ins with his donkey, his donkey who could see the Angel of God, which Bilaam himself could not see, were aimed at another purpose. 

I would like to suggest that by depicting Bilaam's cruelty towards his donkey, the Torah sought to instruct us as to the values we should seek in our leaders. Bilaam was unique in a way that no other non-Jewish leader was. He had prophecy, and could uniquely intuit the divine will on the deepest of levels. As Rashi writes, his prophecy was no less great than that of Moshe Rabbeinu, the greatest of prophets who could speak to God Almighty "face to face," while totally awake. Perhaps Bilaam initially had to sleep to be able to hear Hashem's will, but at the point when Bilaam is cursing the Jewish people, he is wide awake, beseeching the Almighty to turn his wrath on His own people. 

With all of that, with his great prescience, divine understanding, ability, as the Gemara teaches, to potentially eradicate a whole nation with the utterance of one word at exactly the right time, he didn't have the decency to treat his donkey, that he had ridden from time immemorial, with a modicum of decency. Even after he, Bilaam, was chastised by the Angel of God, for having shown such cruelty to his doting donkey, Bilaam rationalizes his actions by explaining that "he didn't know the Angel of God was before him," but he makes no motion to apologize for striking his donkey, almost beating it to a pulp. The donkey, himself, calls him to task, saying, "Why did you strike me three times?" There isn't the slightest hint of apology in Bilaam's words or tone. In the most malicious of ways he says, "For you have disgraced me. Were I to have a sword in hand, I would slay you this instant." 

This lack of empathy, and consideration, is paradigmatic of the Jew-hater, the person who takes umbrage at the higher moral imperative that the Jewish people bring to the world. The Jewish people, the flock of the Almighty, was always led by shepherds, figuratively and literally, shepherds who carried a stray lamb through craggy rocks, who waded through tumultuous waters to find a baby goat that had gone astray. How different was Moshe's encounter with the Almighty, tending to animals with greatest affection and sensitivity, when he chanced upon the burning bush, and Bilaam, who had already seen God, but channeled that vision to cruelty, and heartlessness.