Translated from Hebrew by S. NAthan

l'ilui nishmat Esther bat mordechai

   Balak was king of Moav and as we know, a sorcerer. This is why he requested the aid of the wicked Bilam, for he knew that super powers pulse within every superior person, whether for good or for evil – in Bilam’s case destructive powers that could be exploited for Balak’s purposes, thereby sparing Balak the need to use force in order to crush the power that was threatening his kingdom.

   Balak was well aware of the fact of human power. He knew that human beings were not just one more animal depending exclusively on the Creator. He knew that man had been graced with a part of the Creator’s own power, a power that does not partake of nature. He knew that human beings were capable of possessing powers that could wield control over nature, such as for example the power of sorcery, and even more than sorcery. The power of prophecy for example, or even hidden powers drawn from man’s Godly soul, from the spirituality that is immanent within him: Using these one could subdue the forces of nature.

    Bilam was prophet to the nations of the world. He was renowned for possessing powers that he could activate as he pleased by the power of human – and even Godly – will. He knew how to “focus the moment,” meaning he knew which exact moment was reserved for each nation and for each individual – a moment reserved for that person or nation by the Cause of all causes, a moment of weakness which, if one would make use of it, whether the individual himself for his own sake or another individual, then one could extract immense benefit. It would be possible to overcome one’s own weaknesses. It would be possible to cause another man to stumble, to fall into the trap laid for him, laid not by others but rather lying hidden within the very nature of his own being.

    The people of the spirit are those who live the life of the spirit that is found far above and beyond visible reality. People of the spirit are versed in the Creator’s laws. These laws are found far above and beyond the reality of physical matter. These are the laws at the primary level, which activate the laws of physical matter. The coarsely physical natural laws are not the primary laws. You do not need to resort to them or deal with them if you control the primary laws of the spirit. You move closer in that case to the control room from which and through which the Holy One operates His universe.

    There are certain laws that operate autonomously, and that obligate whoever activates them, and even the Cause of all causes. They obligate even the Holy One Himself in all His glory because the Holy One undoubtedly and necessarily created His universe to follow a fixed order. It is given to those who know the mysteries, who know chen (an acrostic for chochmas nistar) to know this fixed order, to be familiar with it and to be able to activate it. Such a one was the wicked Bilam. Balak, himself not unfamiliar with this Godly wisdom, believed he would be able to exploit the abilities of a wise man such as Bilam, whose familiarity with this wisdom was even greater than his own.

    The Power of the Word The power of the word, of speech, of “a verbalizing spirit” is a power exclusive to human beings. By the power of thought joined to the power of speech, man is differentiated from every other animal. Even the animals that are superior to him in their physical dimensions are nevertheless limited in comparison to man. Through his ruach mimalila, his “verbalizing spirit” man continues to express the image of the Divine bestowed upon him by the Creator in His great generosity.

   Most human beings are not aware of this great power of theirs, and waste it on nonsense that they consider important, for communication purposes only. The Torah has already warned man about this with the story of the Generation of the Divide: That this power is delicate and sensitive and easily confused; that the communicative use that man makes of this power could be his downfall. Man needs to understand the real nature of this power, and the extreme caution that it requires so that it will be expressed only in ways that are beneficial.

   What Comprises the Power of Speech?

    On the one hand, this power is defined by verbalizing, by a movement and distortion of the lips. The mouth rattles as well as the tongue, sounds are produced with the intention of conveying a particular message to a hearer. Speech extends from this extreme definition all the way to the other extreme, to the hidden speech one conducts with oneself alone. “Matters of the heart.” Between the one extreme of merely producing verbiage devoid of any meaning other than the sounds themselves, and the other extreme of “matters of the heart,” many and various speech forms can be found. Chief among all these is speech as an expression of thought and feeling. “Matters of the heart” are joined to meaningful content and feeling, which are conveyed to another, and this expression moves far beyond instructions, shopping lists, users’ manuals, and commands.

    Prayer On the surface of things it appears that prayer too belongs to the category of “matters of the heart.” Expressing thanks, admiration, plea, or expressing yearning and attachment – expressing those things that a man feels in his mind and in his heart toward the Creator, blessed be His Name. If so, what is the difference between the written word and the words of the heart? It can only be the spontaneity factor, the non-mediated expression, what bursts out with directness, from heart to heart. Such words remain in the category of sheer longing, as a yearning for the invisible and the inaudible, a desire for something that by its very essence can never be found in the material world.

   The source of the world of the spirit originates in the world of thought, in the contemplation that is inherent in the “verbalizing spirit” in man. Speech that holds quality of this sort – one cannot doubt that it holds power as well. It holds the ability to effect change at the primary level, which determines which change will be destined to take place in the limited sensory world of physical doing.

   The great importance that human beings attribute to heart to heart speech – even when it does not express any profound unfoldings of the heart – may be proven by the unlimited passion that people devote to simple conversations among friends. Heart to heart talks have from time immemorial been considered the most important and most widespread of pastimes. This is without any relation to the content of the talk. Conversations between friends are basically comprised of an exchange of views about this and that. They are comprised of an exchange of personal feelings: One exchanges one’s own heart’s experiences with another person. Such expression partakes of the profound and powerful in one’s personality. An exchange of views becomes a powerful bond of personality, a profound expression of the personality of both sides. All this happens through speech.

   One also finds speech through body movement, as in prayer. Some pray by swaying all the limbs of the body. They do not seem to sense that speech is taking place. They seem wholly involved in some practical bodily activity. Here speech is not drawn from the heart and soul, and is distanced even from the mind. The whole entirety of such speech is nothing more than ovair la’asiyoso. Its focus is on the physical act of speech. It is over as soon as it has begun, and all for show and publicity. It is speech devoid of depth, resembling an activity. It is speech that is cavana-free. It is in fact not speech but action.

   Prayer contains cavana, inner intention. It is no activity of the body, of the lips but rather of the soul’s depths. Toch kidai dibur, “at the moment of speaking” means at the moment of being miskavain, of focusing one’s inner intention. It is an aspect of dovair emes bilvovo, uttering with one’s lips what one feels in one’s heart.

   Yet on the other hand, “words in the heart are no words.” One who feels something in his heart must express his heart’s murmurings with his lips as well. But if his lips move while his heart is elsewhere, it is considered “a mere monkey’s trick” or else it considered as if that person were practicing his reading skills, and very often he has not even fulfilled the minimum requirements of prayer or blessing.

   It seems that any speech of mitzvah requires that the lips express the murmurings of one’s heart. Any severing between mouth and heart is unacceptable as an act of mitzvah. Merely moving lips is mere physical activity. Someone whose heart is not in his prayer feels the need to sway with all his body in order to emphasize the activity, instead of emphasizing the inner intentions of his heart. This is practical activity that takes the place of feeling one’s inner intention.

    “Only her lips were moving, but her voice could not be heard,” is said regarding the prayer of Chana, mother of Shmuel the prophet. It is brought as halachic evidence in relation to the silently standing prayer of Shmoneh Esrei, as something fitting and proper, as an optimal method of praying. This teaches us that in prayer, inner intention is the main thing, only this inner intention should be bound to some minimal activity of the lips; the barest movement is sufficient. The emphasis is not on activity but on intent. However, in order to realize the connection between the lips and the heart’s murmurings, some expression of the lips is necessary, in order to bring forth the words that are in the heart, through the mouth.

   It would appear that this was the leading dilemma facing Bilam HaRasha. His cavana, his inner intention was to cause distress and harm and damage to the People of Israel. His intentions were no less malevolent than those of Balak who was giving him his orders. Only Balak believed that “matters of the heart” were the main issue and Bilam was attempting to persuade him that “words in the heart are no words at all” and one must connect them to lips speaking. In contrast to Bilam, Balak reasoned that “matters of the heart” should be strengthened through actions: Building seven altars. “Stand here for me like this, at your burnt offering.” The burnt sacrifices were intended to strengthen “matters of the heart.” Bilam tries to prove to him that if God does not agree to harm the people of Israel, the activities of the sacrifices will offer no reinforcement for the contemplations of his heart.

   Bilam wishes to teach Balak that man is more capable of connecting his heart’s ponderings to his lips than he is of connecting his lips’ murmurings to an action. Bilam viewed the human ability to connect mouth to heart in perfect coordination as being an act of partnership in the act of creation, that could give one the status of partner to the Creator more than could any physical act, no matter how impressive. From the parasha it does not seem that Balak was so easily convinced.

    “And G-d opened the female donkey’s mouth.”

    The female donkey whose mouth God opened – what does this talking, seeing donkey come to teach us? First of all, that the wicked Bilam’s intention is inadequate to harm the People of Israel, whether by his mouth or by his heart. Rather, one must identify with the will of the Creator. When such identifying is absent, all the tools of prophecy in the world are of no use. No connection between heart and lips can help the power of speech. Only identifying with the Cause of all causes. Without this identifying, believing in intentions that are alien to the Creator’s will is utterly in effectual. Balak believed in the human witching power as an independent power in its own right that had no need of the Creator’s assistance.

   Bilam knew that without the help of the Creator who manages the universe, man’s mystical powers are nothing in themselves. Neither evil eye nor evil intention. They are nothing more than a “futility of futilities.” Balak remains unconvinced, and gets rid of Bilam, but not before Bilam gives him a piece of advice that targets the most absolutely and essentially human element: Free choice.

   If man uses free choice, he can attain his desire and will not need to resort to sorceries, spells, incantations, or treacheries assisted by the seductions of Moav’s daughters. Any seduction that targets a human weakness has the power to succeed precisely because it draws on a human source – drawing on free choice rather than on any mysterious source.