[Avodah] Was Bil'am Jewish?

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Jul 02, 2018 at 12:21:53AM -0400, Toby Katz via Avodah wrote:
: My brother, Heshy Bulman, based on RSRH, understands Bilam to be
: boastful and arrogant -- saying to the nobles and bigshots who are in
: attendance, in effect, <<I have G-d in my pocket, He does my bidding,
: He is my G-d and does what I want Him to do.>>

Perhaps, but RAM's point stands that Bil'am's G-d is indeed G-d,
hyphen and all.

But as someone who says E-lokei Neshamah and E-lokai Netzor, I am
uncomfortable going too far reading into Bil'am's wording. Your brother
and RSRH are interpreting how Bil'am meant knowing what we know of Bil'am,
not deriving new information about Bil'am from his use of the expression.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Life is complex.
micha at aishdas.org                Decisions are complex.
http://www.aishdas.org               The Torah is complex.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                                - R' Binyamin Hecht