Against A Wall and A Hard Place


Parashat Balak

In Parashat Balak (Numbers 22:2–25:9) the prophet-for-hire, Balaam is summoned by King Balak of Moab to curse the people of Israel. Although the text may appear to state that that God was forbidding Balaam to go, HaShem is specifically telling him not to go if he intends to curse Israel. But Balaam is dishonest in his response to Balak's agents, complaining that God will not let him go. Balak sends his men back and again they entreat Balaam, hinting at a big payday. HaShem makes it clear to Balaam that He's not forbidding him:

"That night God came to Balaam and said to him, “If the agents have come to invite you, you may go with them. But whatever I command you, that you shall do.”

He saddles up his donkey the next morning and something remarkable happens, the animal sees what Balaam cannot — an angel of God, sword drawn, blocking the path.

Three times the donkey diverts the old seer: first swerving off the road, then pressing Balaam’s foot against a vineyard wall, and finally lying down altogether. Each time, he strikes the donkey. Finally, HaShem opens the donkey’s mouth to rebuke Balaam, and then opens his eyes to reveal the angel standing in judgment:

"The angel of the Lord said to him, ‘Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to oppose you, because your way is reckless before Me." - Numbers 22:32

The Torah’s description of the angel standing “in a narrow path through the vineyards, with a wall on either side” represents Balaam’s personal predicament. It would be a waste of time for him speak against Israel. Balaam completely understood this and would later proclaim:

“God is not a man, that he should lie; nor the son of man, that he should repent: has he said, and shall he not perform? or has he spoken, and shall he not make it good?”

                                                        - Numbers 23:19

Since HaShem does not revoke our Free Will, the narrative reveals that God restrains even the wicked to minimize the harm they can do — to themselves or others.

Could it be that this episode was Balaam’s final opportunity to actually repent?

Midrashic tradition sees another level of meaning in Balaam’s threefold beating of the donkey. According to Midrash Tanchuma (Balak 9) and Bamidbar Rabbah 20:14, the three strikes against the donkey represents his attempt to “strike down” the merit of Israel’s three patriarchs — Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Each blow is a metaphysical assault on the spiritual foundations of Israel. It was as if, he was looking for a loop hole in the merit of the Patriarchs, hoping to invalidate the merit of, at least one of them.

Balaam, like all the enemies of Israel, misjudges the enduring merit of the forefathers. Thus, the scene is not only a personal crisis for Balaam, but a cosmic drama: a would-be prophet of doom clashing with the God’s covenant.

The Zohar (III:208b–209a) layers a mystical allegory over the text, teaching that the Divine Will that make it hard for us to advance when we race toward spiritual ruin. The narrow place is the moment when truth confronts our illusions.

The concept that God sometimes confines us to protect us is echoed throughout the Tanakh:

• Jonah, running from his divine mission, is confined in the belly of a great fish — his meitzar — before he prays and repents.

• Joseph endures his own confinement before rising as a redeemer.

• Israel, enslaved in Mitzrayim — “the narrow place” — is shaped by affliction before redemption.

Not all obstacles are punishments. Some are a last chance before the soul's path takes us beyond return.

Sadly, Balaam followed the dictates of his hungry heart. Overlooking the camp of Israel, he was poised on a cliff between repentance and ruin. God gave him sight, the donkey offered a voice of conscience and the angel momentarily aroused him from his spiritual stupor. Yet, Balaam resumed his journey still hoping to curse Israel as much as he was allowed.

Balaam’s crushed foot was actually a merciful blow from the Creator—to block the prophet’s descent into destruction.

This Torah Portion offers many lessons but possibly the most sobering is that loss of freedom, growing constraints and the lack of opportunities could be God's warnings, perhaps an angel stands before us, sword drawn — not to destroy, but to awaken us.