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Part of the Question of the Week!
Today, we are releasing the second Question of the Week! The prize this week will be a 20$ Gift Certificate towards Sefarim (Jewish Books) at Nehora.
How did Bilaam attain the level of prophecy? First of all, we see he was not Jewish, and prophecy (according to the Kuzari) is attainable only by Jews! Second of all, we clearly see he was not righteous since he wanted to curse Klal Israel!
So how can some like him get to prophecy?
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July 6th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Bilam was not a prophet, he had "prophecy grade" spirituality allowing him to communicate with the spiritual worlds and see the future. Only Jews can be prophet (according to Judaism) but a prophet and someone having "prophecy" is not the same. The prophets are G-d messengers. Prophecy is like divination. Bilam did not have to be righteous. Being spiritual and being religious are not the same thing. Being spiritual and being holy (k-d-s) is not the same either. Bilam was very spiritual (and according to a rabbi of my knowing, had a potential surpassing that of Moshe) but was the opposite of holy. His connection with the supernatural prbably was through the intermediary of Azazel, while prophets (as messengers) had conncetion through other angels or G-d himself. A paralel could be comparing Baal Shem Tov and Aman (the Aman of Esther megillah). Both are said to have a very high understanding of G-d. That is why Aman resorted to luck to determine the date of the genocide: an attempt to transcend plans, which are always anticipated by G-d. But, clearly, Baal Shem Tov and Aman were not on the same side.
July 7th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Bilham had prophecy like Moshe. we learn from the passuk:"lo kam beisrael kemoshe od" it is not written:"lo kam baolam kemoshe od…" saying that there was a prophet as powerful or even more powerful than Moshe!! whether we call him a sorcerer or a clairvoyant, God spoke through his mouth-proof he tells balak that he can't control what comes out of his mouth. fyi bilaham was the grandson of Laban Aarami and advisor of Pharaoh; he is the anti-"Semite" who masterminded the death of male jews. why did he have prophecy? the reason being was for the other nations not to say that we didnt have a prophet like moses, so therefore we sinned. so God brought them moses and more, in Bilham and still the other nations were too busy in idolatrous worship, human sacrifices, debauchery… so in order for future generations not to bring it up, Bilham was"blessed" with prophecy-to in a way lead the other nations to God or so you would think!!
July 7th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
PART2)God said to Moses, "I will raise up a prophet for them… just like you" (Deut. 18:18). This indicates that to be worthy of prophecy, a person must perfect himself like Moses, above and beyond the ten steps leading to Divine Inspiration.There are seven gentile prophets mentioned in the Bible: Balaam, Beor, Job, Eliphas the Taimonite, Bildad the Shuhite, Zepher the Naamathite, and Elihu ben Berachel the Buzite.prophecy usually is not granted to converts. Nonetheless, a convert may also be granted the gift of prophecy because of special merit. Thus, the prophet Obadiah, was an Edomite convert, but still became author of one of the books of the Bible. A prophet is therefore accepted because of his qualifications and message, an not because of his ancestry.
July 7th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
PART 3)it is taught in massehet berahot daf 7 that Bilham knew the exact moment that God gets mad. the gemara explains that God gets mad once a day for 1/58888 of an hour, which is equal to 1/16 of a second, and the time his anger lasts is "regah" and bilham, not moses knew!! that is at that time that he wanted to curse Israel, but God for those days, he did not get mad, hence uncapable of cursing them. in conclusion Bilham had qualities but used it for evil, to show you that every man has the potential to do great things, but it is up to the man to defeat the yetser ara and temptation. bilham excelled in being a wicked man!
July 7th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
Hashem created powers of witchraft and prophesy to exist in the world, (but He is still in control of them) and the individulal who attains them can use them for the bad or for the good in accordance with free will. Bilam was one of those individuals who used his powers for the bad. in those days, even nonjews had magic ( ruach ra- bad spirit, just like the egyptians turned stick to snake). Hashem gave Bilam his powers because even though he was not Jewish, Bilam had the potential to become a great man. he could have blessed the jews but instead he chose to curse them. The parsha of bilam shows us that ultimately, Hashem controls everything and that even those sorcerers and prophets may have power, Hashem will not allow them to use those powers against His will. Because generally those that attain supernatural powers use them for the bad, Hashem doesnt desire us to make use of those supernatural powers and it says in the torah that a sorceror must be killed. Righteous prophets who did use supernatural powers in history used them in order to bring the Jews closer to Hashem or to bolster the truth of the torah.
July 8th, 2008 at 8:51 am
I think the Kuzari which you quoted said he was an exception - so… big deal, an exception. Every rule has exceptions. Maybe God wanted to show that good and bad both have the potential to get to great heights so he made an exception.
July 8th, 2008 at 8:54 am
I LOVE DAN ILLOUZ, i know this doesnt count but I LOVE DAN ILLOUZ
July 8th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
BS''D K, so I just want to say that I heard the sam thing as Joey Golberg. A very knowlegeable person said that (if your question is based of the Kuzari) Balak was an exception. Why? I don't knnow. Hashem has His ways and His reasons. I tried to fond another answer online, but couldnt find anything else. Anyways, it could also be that le ciel est bleu et c'est pour ca!
July 8th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
There clearly was some level of prophesy given to those who didn't deserve it and weren't Jewish. Lavan also got a message from Hashem not to harm Yaakov. Seems that in order to save the Yidden there are different rules. BTW the question is on the Kuzari, not on Bilam: - Adam and Noach weren't Jewish and also had prophesy. - Avimelech king of Gerar got a message from Hashem to free Sarah. - Both Hagar and Lot "interacted with angels" which is a level of prophecy.
July 9th, 2008 at 1:04 am
Prophesy is inherently a gift from above. A strong case can be made to the effect that no one is actually worthy of it. The question then is not HOW Billam attained his level of prophesy but WHY.
July 9th, 2008 at 7:52 am
"the question is on the Kuzari, not on Bilam" Any explanation as to what the Kuzari actually meant?
July 10th, 2008 at 7:34 am
PART 1) Hashem was reluctant to give Bilaam prophecy which is why the language "and Hashem happened upon him" is used, but it was in order to benefit the Jewish people by his curse turning into a blessing and therefore He went out of His way to ensure this. Also, if you don't read any of the mefarshim and you'd had no prior knowledge of Chazal's comments, you'd think Bilaam is quite a tzadik - he follows Hashem's word meticuously and will only act in accordance to His words. It's only when you start reading Rashi and other mefarshim that we see his intentions were actually that of believing he could change Hashem's mind etc. Whereas other characters like Balak are clearly evil. Hashem would probably be more reluctant to give the obviously evil people prophecy than the people who at least on the outside of things look good.
July 10th, 2008 at 7:35 am
PART 2) But at the end of the day, it's in Hashem's control anyway who gets what… this parsha doesn't directly concern Am Yisrael (except the last perek) but was obviously included to teach us something and the lesson I think we can take from it is that Hashem will even give prophecy to a non-righteous non-Jew if it means Am Yisrael will get a blessing, and there's so much that goes on behind our backs that we don't even know about. Hashem is constantly acting on our behalf.
July 10th, 2008 at 8:23 am
According to the midrashim, the power of prophecy was given to all the nations of the world so they could not claim that hashem was playing favorites. Several other people above have already pointed out instances where other non-Jews seemed to have the power of prophecy. Honestly I don't understand how the kuzari could have made such a claim. Perhaps the Kuzari was referring to more modern times when it appears that non-Jews do not have the power of prophecy.
July 10th, 2008 at 8:37 am
but then, in modern times, even Jews do not have such a power.
July 10th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
In this weeks Parsha Rashi discusses this particular issue and he asks the same question. He explains that the reason Hashem allowed Bilam, a wicked person, the merit of recieving prophesy, was because if there were no prophets for the goyim they could make the excuse that they didn't repent for the sins they committed because they didn't have a prophet. Therefore, Hashem gave the goyim a prophet and despite this, they still committed sins and did not repent. I think it is ironic that Bilam did the exact opposite of what Hashem sent him to and instead of leading the nations on a path of morality and values, he encouraged them to embrace immorality. To explain the apparent contradiction between the Kuzari and Rashi, I don't think there is any real contradiction between their opinions, because the Kuzari was stating a general rule and Rashi explains the exception to the rule. Since there is no other mention of any other prophets for the goyim it could be that after Bilam's failure in his mission, Hashem did not provide the goyim with anymore prophets and the Kuzari's statement is correct and Rashi's statement applied during Bilam's time.