[Avodah] Questions about Bilaam

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Jul 05, 2023 at 03:07:57PM +0300, Marty Bluke via Avodah wrote:
> Bilaam was a Navi who chazal say was as great in nevua as Moshe Rabenu. If
> so, how was he such a rasha? Why did he want to curse hashems nation, the
> Jewish people? Why did he think he would succeed?

The Scholastic rishonim consider nevu'ah "natural", except maybe for
Moshe's. In other words, if you develop your awareness of ruchnius enough,
you would naturally "see" what's going on among mal'akhim and such.

Other rishonim understand nevu'ah as a message given by Hashem.

So the Scholastics, and perhaps both camps, would ask the reverse question:
If Bilaam was so out of touch with ruchnius and Hashem's values, how did
he become a navi?

Could be that this is why chazal simply say it was a gift to the nations,
so that they cannot say we didn't even have the keilim to know what You
wanted. It doesn't make sense, but Hashem had to give someone nevu'ah, even
if they lacked the grounding to get that kind of power and not be corrupted.

-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Zion will be redeemed through justice,
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   and her returnees, through righteousness.
Author: Widen Your Tent
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF