[Avodah] Vayisa m'shalo vayomar

[Akiva Miller]

There's a word that appears frequently this week in Parshas Balak, and I'd
like to understand it better: mashal (often translated as "parable", not to
be confused with the homonym connoting rulership).

According to my concordance, the word "mashal" - often translated as
"parable" - appears only 9 times in the Chumash. Of those nine, only one
(Devarim 28:37) is not in reference to Bil'am. One of the other eight is in
Chukas (21:27, which Rashi says refers to Bil'am), and the other seven
(23:7, 23:18, 24:3, 24:15, 24:20, 24:21, 24:20) are in Balak obviously
referring to Bil'am. Apparently, whatever "mashal" might mean, Bil'am did
it better and/or more often and/or more famously than anyone else.

What's more, of the seven times it appears this week in Parshas Balak, all
seven are in the exact same phrase: "vayisa m'shalo vayomar".

Does anyone go into the meaning of this word? The usual translation
(parable) makes me think of stories and the underlying point of the
stories. I see that the Ibn Ezra on 23:18 points to two phrases that appear
further on ("k'soafos re'em" in 23:22, and "k'lavi yakum" in 23:24) as if
to say that those phrases are the mashal, whereas the rest of the speech is
normal. I'd prefer not to argue with the Ibn Ezra, but are those phrases
really that much more complicated than the rest of the speech? I think most
or all of his words were deeply laden with meaning.

It seems to me that all the quotes from Bil'am can be divided into two
categories. When Bil'am spoke with Balak about the terms of employment,
they used normal everyday simple prose. But when Bil'am was actually on the
job, doing what he was hired for, "vayisa m'shalo vayomar" and he used a
whole 'nother kind of speech. The Torah refers to this other kind of speech
as "mashal", and I suspect that "poetry" or "metaphor" might be better
translations than "parable".

In fact, on pasuk 23:7, RSR Hirsch sends us to Bereishis 4:7, where we have
the verb "timshol - rule over", and he reconciles the "rulership" meaning
with the "metaphor" meaning. But I'm still not entirely satisfied, because
in the context of Bil'am, the Torah's word "m'shalo" is singular, not
plural, as if to say that each speech is a parable with a single nimshal,
and does not need to be parsed phrase by phrase.

Another approach to my question could involve the use of the verb "vayisa"
here. If mashal was a parable, any verb of speech could work, like
vayidaber or vayagid. Why use nun-sin-aleph (to raise or lift)? It gives me
an image of a preacher (or darshan or maggid) who knows how to use his
voice to make a point. But maybe that's just an inaccurate cultural bias.

To close:

If the word "mashal" in the context of Bil'am never bothered you, that's
fine, and I sincerely apologize for taking your time; please do not think
about it any further.
But if it *has* bothered you, please let me know your thoughts; I'll
probably find it interesting.

Thanks to all!
Akiva Miller
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