Linked By Destiny

In the Diaspora, we read the double portion of Chukat–Balak, (Numbers 19:1–25:9), and discover a subtle connection between Moses’ failure at the Waters of Meribah and Bilaam’s failure to curse Israel.

The thread begins even before Moses was born. Pharaoh, fearing the growing strength and number of the Children of Israel, sought counsel concerning what should be done with the Hebrew people. The Sages teach that three figures counseled pharaoh: Bilaam, Job, and Yithro. Job didn’t take sides and told the Egyptian king to follow his own dictates while Jethro reminded pharaoh that Israel and her ancestors had been favored by heaven, then he fled to the safety of Midyan.

According to the Oral tradition, it was Bilaam who advised Pharaoh to cast the Hebrew male infants into the Nile.

Pharaoh’s decree was tied to the astrologers’ vision that Israel’s redeemer would fall through water.

Yet here is the deep irony: Egypt’s seers beheld what seemed a disaster for the promised savior of Israel. Moses was indeed placed into the Nile, but those waters did not destroy him. They carried him into Pharaoh’s own house, where the future redeemer of Israel would be raised under the very roof of the tyrant who sought to prevent his birth. What Egypt’s seers mistook for Moses’ death was only the beginning of his mission. The “fall through water” would come much later, not in Egypt, but at Meribah, when Moses struck the rock, instead of speaking to it and told that he would not lead Israel into the Promised Land.

This gives the episode of Balaam in Parashat Balak an even sharper irony. Balak is driven by the same fear that once seized Pharaoh. So Balaam, who had once counseled Pharaoh in the effort to destroy Israel’s redeemer, now reappears generations later as a prophet-for-hire, summoned by Balak to curse the same people.

The old enemy of Israel’s destiny returns, but his power is again overturned by Heaven. Balaam is forced to say what he does not wish to say: “How goodly are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel.” The very man who once advised that Israel’s sons be drowned in the Nile is compelled to praise the nation those sons became.

Yet Balaam remains unchanged. Having failed to curse Israel directly, he is still mired in evil and advises Balak how Israel might be destroyed from within.

The contrast with Moses is striking. Moses, the faithful servant of God, fails once in speech at the waters of Meribah and loses the privilege of entering the Land. Balaam, the corrupt seer, speaks words of divine beauty but remains wicked at heart. Moses stumbles yet never abandons his holy mission and is still remembered as Israel’s supreme prophet.

Thus Chukat-Balak form a remarkable historical arc. Balaam’s first counsel, in Egypt, failed to stop Moses. His later curses, in Moab, failed to stop Israel. The waters that were meant to drown Israel’s future became the path by which Moses was saved.

The curse meant to weaken Israel became a blessing that still lives in Jewish prayer:

“O My people, remember what Balak, king of Moab, devised, and what Balaam, son of Beor, answered him; from Shittim unto Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord."  - Micah 6:5

And through it all, HaShem’s promise moves forward, turning the designs of the wicked into instruments of His will.