The basic narrative the people of Israel tell ourselves about Bilaam casts him as a central antagonist in our story.
And while the Torah later references Bilaam’s wickedness in retrospect (Bamidbar 31:16 & D’varim 23:6), the surface level text (p’shat) of Parshat Balak appears to present him in a much more positive light. In fact, we see him repeatedly insist that his willingness to do only that which the Creator instructs. We even see that he refers to the Creator exclusively by the names known and used by the Hebrews.
Our sages reveal Bilaam to have been a descendant of Lavan – who was himself the grandson of Avraham’s brother Naḥor. This branch of the ancient Hebrews produced most of Israel’s matriarchs and also possessed a strong cosmopolitan impulse that sought to achieve the Hebrew mission through living in the greatest cities amongst the most enlightened gentiles (leading Lavan to ultimately become known as an “Arami” rather than an “Ivri“).
Despite his personal loyalty to HaShem, Bilaam had fully integrated himself into the larger idolatrous world where he enjoyed recognition and respect as a great spiritual figure. It actually appears that all of the pre-Israel Hebrews, including the entire Naḥor line, were “moderate” servants of the Creator who had been relatively tolerant of idolatry. They neither imposed their beliefs on others nor challenged the immoral societal norms that typically accompanied idolatrous views and practices.
What set Avraham (and later the people of Israel) apart was an insistence on the exclusivity of serving HaShem. Avraham launched a war against idolatry that brought him into direct conflict with the powerful Nimrod. It may have been precisely for this reason that Avraham – the destroyer of gods – was selected to be the progenitor of the nation of Israel. And it was likely the expectation that Israel would continue Avraham’s revolution that struck fear into the hearts of the Moabites and Midianites.
Upon stepping back onto the world stage after 40 years in the uninhabitable desert, and after defeating the mighty kingdoms of Siḥon and Og, Israel is threatening the stability of the region.
It therefore makes sense that King Balak would have sought to enlist the aid of a well known prophet of Hebrew origins to assist in repelling the fearsome Israelite hordes (according to our sages, Bilaam and his father had previously helped the Amorites penetrate otherwise impenetrable Moabite defenses). This set the scene for a spiritual confrontation between Bilaam of the moderate Naḥor line and Israel of the radical Avraham line.
Bilaam demonstrated unsurpassed mastery over the more technical aspects of prophecy. His visions gazed far into the future and offered a profoundly detailed description of the events that he saw. His problem, however, was that he related to his own prophetic skill as merely a handicraft and therefore failed to perceive the responsibility that his unique powers demanded of him.
Our sages teach that Bilaam’s most pertinent qualities were “an evil eye, arrogance, and greed.” (Pirkei Avot 5:19)
But these traits may not be as clear cut as they initially appear.
An “evil eye” is essentially the tendency to find fault and to see flaws in other people. Because it’s rare for any person or society to be completely good or bad, the attitude and outlook one adopts when evaluating others is often crucial.
One who tries to see the merits of others is said to have “a good eye” while a person who focuses on other people’s flaws is understood to have an “evil eye.” And that’s precisely the underlying mechanism that gave Bilaam’s curses their power – the efficacy of a curse consists in isolating and enhancing the negative aspects of that curse’s target.
But this trait isn’t only found in evildoers. It can sometimes even be found in righteous people – those of the g’vura (restrictive power) attribute whose impulse is to defend a culture, system, or social order from threats, and therefore have a tendency to focus on the negative traits of others.
Bilaam’s second character trait was arrogance, which clearly manifested itself in how he spoke to King Balak. But this trait shouldn’t be considered completely negative because in order to attain self-actualization and success in life, it’s often necessary that a person not underestimate himself.
In Bilaam’s case, we see that his high opinion of himself wasn’t exaggerated.
Our sages list greed as the third of Bilaam’s three primary qualities.
When Balak’s messengers come to enlist Bilaam’s help, he told them that “even if Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I couldn’t do anything, big or small, contrary to the command of HaShem my G-D.” (Bamidbar 22:18)
These words are often understood as hinting that Bilaam actually did want to receive from Balak a house full of silver and gold as payment for his services. But this seems somewhat petty within the context of Bilaam’s reputation for being one of the world’s greatest spiritual figures. Moreover, even after Bilaam demonstrated several times that he was unable to curse Israel, he repeated the same formulation (Bamidbar 24:13). At this point, we should no longer understand his “greed” as a demand for more generous material compensation.
We should understand Bilaam’s greed not as greed for material wealth, but rather “spiritual greed” – an ambition to play a major role in historical events. The primary passion of exceptional individuals is a desire to influence the world and to significantly contribute to humanity’s development. This is one of the most compelling passions that a high caliber person with great potential can experience. Not a lust for money or even power but rather a need to influence history.
Such “greed” can actually be a very positive trait. It’s the force behind the creative impulse and only becomes problematic when it fails to discriminate between right and wrong. Controlling such passion therefore becomes a moral imperative. But Bilaam was unable to meet this challenge. He was enslaved to his “greed” to such a degree that he lost his moral judgement.
King Balak expressed an exclusively geopolitical understanding of the situation he faced. A new player had emerged on the regional stage, demanding a share of the resources. It makes sense that the old guard would seek to repel the newcomer. Especially when that newcomer threatened the social and political order. Balak, a political leader, was driven by realpolitik. For a king, this approach was legitimate.
But for Bilaam – a major prophet with exhaustive knowledge of Israel’s origins – this level of understanding was unacceptable. For him to have adopted such a narrow and neutral geopolitical approach was actually destructive. A prophet of his stature should have had a broader perspective that took Israel’s mission and destiny into consideration.
When Bilaam heard the Creator ask “What do these people want of you?” (Bamidbar 22:9), this wasn’t meant rhetorically. It was a question of how Bilaam understood the situation. When Balaam answered by essentially just repeating Balak’s words, this expressed that he prefered to limit his perspective to a surface-level geopolitical understanding of events. From that moment on, his actions should be seen as criminal.
It’s important to note that Bilaam would later be executed by Pinḥas ben Elazar but Balak wasn’t punished. His actions were actually appropriate to who he was. But more was expected from Bilaam and it was actually his unwillingness to grasp the full essence and context of the events transpiring around him that essentially made him a villain.
But why did Bilaam fail to understand the Creator’s special relationship with Israel and direct involvement in its national destiny? Hadn’t he seen the miracles performed for Israel forty years earlier?
Of course he did. But as a descendant of Naḥor and Lavan, he may not want to concede the correctness of Israel’s path.
While Bilaam could be seen as a “moderate” Hebrew, Israel was a nation of “radical” Hebrews intent on destabilizing the regional order (that benefited Bilaam). For generations, Bilaam’s family had championed a course of integration with an immoral world and respectful tolerance of idolatry, while slowly assimilating into the broader civilization. From this perspective, it was hard to see the revolutionary Avraham and his descendants as anything other than a dangerous splinter group further radicalized by Egyptian slavery and the charismatic leadership of Moshe.
This perspective prevented Bilaam from reading the map of history and seeing Israel and our national aspirations as genuine expressions of the Divine Will. From his perspective, the Divine Will must be apolitical and not take sides in the conflicts of nations. His approach was exclusively spiritualistic, focusing only on the specific instructions he received from Above and feeling free to otherwise conduct himself according to the moral and cultural norms of his surroundings. This was the major flaw in Bilaam’s thinking because the Divine Will is revealed in earthly developments no less than in heavenly commandments.
By limiting his interaction with HaShem to the realm of “religion” for the individual, Bilaam failed to perceive the world around him as a source of Divine revelation.
