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Bilam's Blessing
By Rabbi Scott Kahn

In Parashat Balak, we witness the transformation of Bilam’s curses into blessings; one by one, each verbal attempt to destroy Israel becomes a reinforcement of their finest qualities. The third blessing contains within it one of the most well-known verses in the Torah: Ma tovu ohalecha Yaakov, mishkenotecha Yisrael – “How good are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel.”

Rashi offers two possible explanations of this pasuk. He first explains that the tents referred to by Bilam were the dwelling places of the Israelites in the desert; Bilam was praising the exceptional modesty of the Jewish people, who were careful to ensure that the entranceways of each tent were not facing one another, thereby ensuring each family’s privacy. The second explanation he offers is that the tents were the Tabernacle in Shiloh and the Temple in Jerusalem, which were the “dwelling places” of G-d, and wherein the Children of Israel were able to offer sacrifices to atone for their sins.

This makes the final episode in the parashah that much more surprising. Immediately following Bilam’s failed mission, the People of Israel – praised twenty verses earlier as possessing modest homes and unique dwelling places for the Divine Presence – are seduced into worshipping the god Baal Peor and begin committing sexual offenses with the women of Moav and Midian. The Talmud teaches that these sinful practices were instigated by none other than Bilam himself, as a means to accomplish his nefarious goal by allowing Israel to destroy itself through its own immorality. How could he have believed – correctly, it turns out – that the very people he praised for their sexual purity and close relationship with G-d would be seduced by their exact opposite?

This strange juxtaposition, however, can be more readily understood by noticing an overarching theme of the story of Israel’s transgression with Moav and Baal Peor: the constant emphasis on events occurring in public. For example, the provocation for Pinchas’ act of vengeance at the end of the episode was a public display of immorality by Zimri and Kozbi, along with public crying by the leaders of Israel in front of the Mishkan. Additionally, G-d commanded Moshe to execute the guilty “across from the sun,” which Rashi explains as “In front of everyone.” Finally, the idolatry of Baal Peor itself involved defecation to the idol – an act normally done in private, and now, disgustingly, performed in the service of a false god.
 

Bilam did not praise the Children of Israel for their exceptional morality per se, but rather for their intelligence in setting up their dwelling places to preclude the possibility of immorality. In other words, Israel’s greatness was not its superior ability to resist temptation, but its wisdom in setting up safeguards to ensure that potential temptations would be shut out before they could even begin. Similarly, Bilam did not praise Israel’s relationship with G-d, but its Temple, wherein sacrifices could be brought to atone for sins – or, more accurately, l’chaper, or “to cover” sins. The Beit HaMikdash was not only a place for the Divine Presence to manifest itself, but also the only place – a private place - where Jews could offer the sacrifices. The grandeur of Israel is represented by the fence it erects to protect itself from the same vices that tempt all people, and by their realization that the greatest manifestation of holiness often occurs in private. Accordingly, when the Jewish people were seduced in public, they failed.

The safeguards they carefully applied to other aspects of their lives were sadly missing, the privacy with which they related to G-d was absent. When modesty is ignored, when religiosity becomes primarily a public affair, disaster looms. Only when the Jewish people successfully protect themselves with unusually modest behavior do they acquire the sanctity worthy of the blessing, Ma tovu ohalecha Yaakov, mishkenotecha Yisrael.