[Avodah] Was Bil'am Jewish?

[Akiva Miller]

Naaah, of course he was not Jewish. The subject line was just to get
your attention. But then again....

I would not have surprised me if Bil'am had said, "I can't do what my
god doesn't let me do." After all, religious people of *any* religion
generally refrain from going against the will of their god. Likewise,
I would not have been surprised if he said, "I can't do what Hashem
doesn't let me do." He is a professional, and he knows the rules of
the game (most clearly seen in maftir). He knows who he is dealing
with, and if he is trying to curse the Jews, it would be a good idea
to follow the rules of the Jewish God. But Bil'am didn't say either of
those things.

What Bil'am said was, "I can't do what HASHEM MY GOD doesn't let me
do." (B'midbar 22:18) I was very surprised by this phrase. There have
been plenty of polytheists who accept the idea that there are many
gods, One of them being Hashem, the God of the Jews. But in this
pasuk, we see that Bil'am goes beyond accepting Hashem as *a* god - he
accepts Him as "my God".

I checked my concordance and found about 50 cases in Tanach of the
phrase "Hashem Elokai", spelling "Elokai" with either a patach or a
kamatz. It seems that this was the ONLY case where this phrase was
used by a non-Jew.

Very unusual. There must be something going on here. My understanding
has been that Bil'am was a rasha, but nevertheless he was a deeply
spiritual rasha, and that spirituality enabled him to nevuah. But now
it seems that on top of all that, he was a monotheist. It must not
have been easy to be a non-Jewish monotheist in those days. But I
guess cognitive dissonance is a useful tool for reshaim of all kinds.

Akiva Miller