Eyes Open Wide

Are your eyes open? Do you really see what is going on?

Some background material for this week’s Parsha, Balak: The wicked man Bilam travels on his female donkey to curse the Jews. G-d told Bilam not to go, but he went anyway. As he travelled, the donkey saw an Angel standing with a sword and veered off the road. Bilam hit the donkey. They came to a narrow part of the road with walls on both sides, and when the donkey saw the Angel the second time, it veered off the path, but came to the wall which crushed Bilam’s leg. Bilam hit the donkey a second time. The donkey tried to continue, but at this point the Angel blocked the entire path, so the donkey crouched down. Bilam hit the donkey very hard. G-d then opened the mouth of the donkey who said, “Why did you hit me these three times?” At this point the Angel also appeared to Bilam.

That is the background story.

So, what is the problem?

Why didn’t Bilam figure out what was going on? Bilam was not a dummy. He was a smart who also had prophecy that was as clear as the prophecy of Moses. He knew that G-d told him not to go, but he opted not to see that command. Instead, he thought, “G-d didn’t mean that I can’t go. He meant that I can’t go with these inferior people. I’ll get better escorts and then I can go!”

Next, this donkey was very familiar to Bilam – as the donkey said, “Am I not the very same donkey that you have been riding on all your life until this very day? Was it ever my habit to do this to you?” So Bilam should have noticed this odd behavior and instead of striking the donkey, he should have tried to understand what might be the underlying cause (which was that G-d didn’t want him to go and blocked him with an Angel). But Bilam didn’t see this. He assumed that he was doing the right thing, and it was the DONKEY that was doing something to thwart his plans.

Does this happen to you? Do you think you are doing the right thing, but it doesn’t work out, and you don’t notice why?

Benny was our cab driver about 20 years ago, and my wife asked him if he worked on Rosh Hashanah. He answered no, but his friends did and made a lot of money. Or so they thought. One guy made almost 2000 shekels, but then after Rosh Hashanah something went wrong mechanically with his car and he had to spend all that extra money for the repairs. Benny the cab driver told us about other drivers who had similar predicaments. Benny saw what was going on and didn’t drive on Rosh Hashanah. But ask these other drivers, and they’ll see what they want. “It was just a coincidence! What is wrong with making some money? I am sure that next time there won’t be a problem!”

I would sometimes leave early from prayer services or my learning. One time I left morning services about 5 minutes early, but I could not walk outside because of the heavy downpour. But as soon as services officially ended, I was able to leave. Another time I was learning and left my learning partner early to catch a bus. I got to the bus stop, but the bus never arrived. After 15 minutes, the next scheduled bus arrived. In both cases, I saw that I could have stayed until the end without any loss in time, and now I remember these incidents and won’t leave early unless I am forced to do so.

Bilam refused to see what was in front of him. We need to try to do our best to not be like Bilam, and instead we need to fist notice that things are not working out as we expected, and then ask ourselves if we are really acting correctly.

Wishing you all a Good Shabbos!