{"id":47945,"date":"2019-01-22T21:02:10","date_gmt":"2019-01-22T19:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=47945"},"modified":"2022-08-17T08:21:59","modified_gmt":"2022-08-17T05:21:59","slug":"hubris-and-blindness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/hubris-and-blindness\/","title":{"rendered":"Hubris And Blindness"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The best way of understanding the Torah\u2019s approach to human self-pretension is through examples. The obvious case is Balaam. Balaam is the archetype of the shaman, the wonder-worker who uses religion in a way the Torah regards as blasphemous, as a means of enlisting supernatural powers to human ends. As Balak, King of Moab says to him: \u201cNow come and put a curse on these people, because they are too powerful for me. Perhaps then I will be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land. For I know that whoever you bless is blessed, and whoever you curse is cursed\u201d (22:6).<\/span><\/p>\n

Balaam goes through the usual formalities. He cannot, he says, do anything against God\u2019s will. He must first find out whether the mission is acceptable. This turns out however to be mere show because when a second attempt is made to persuade him, promising him more honor and reward, he consults with God again, proving that he believes that God, like man, can change His mind, be bribed and so on. God is angry, though the text does not tell us this yet. The form His anger takes is that He gives permission to Balaam to go. Since Balaam has shown he only half-accepts the answer \u201cNo,\u201d God gives him the answer \u201cYes.\u201d The sages described this as the rule that \u201cWhere you want to go, that is where you\u00a0<\/span>will be led\u201d (Makkot 10b). The next morning Balaam sets out, and the famous scene with the ass takes place. <\/span><\/p>\n

A joke is being played on Balaam. His ass sees an angel that Balaam, the greatest seer of his age, cannot see. The ass speaks, proving what God told Moses at the burning bush: \u201cWho gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord?\u201d (Ex.4:11). Balaam has the hubris to think he\u00a0<\/span>is the master of God\u2019s word, that he can decide who will be blessed and cursed. God shows him that even an ass can see and speak if God wills it. Balaam cannot see an angel with a drawn sword even when it is directly in front of him, and far from cursing the Israelites finds himself losing a moral argument with a talking donkey. <\/span><\/p>\n

Satire descends into farce as the man Balak has offered a fortune to curse the Israelites proceeds to bestow on them some of the most unforgettable blessings in the entire Torah. This happens because Balak and Balaam believe that blessings and curses are for sale and that divine powers can be exploited for human ends.<\/span><\/p>\n

Excerpted from the <\/span>Koren Pesach Machzor<\/span><\/em>, <\/span><\/i>p.103<\/span><\/p>\n

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