It's Thursday again (my, how the days fly by) and it's time for another Dvar Torah, which, I am pleased to notice, is used by many of you at the Shabbos Table.
Balak is a particularly difficult Parsha in which to find an APPROPRIATE Dvar Torah. The INAPPROPRIATE VERTLECH keep coming to mind, such as Bilaam being CONSTIPATED, etc. (If you don't understand this reference, ask your parents).
Anyway, I often wonder at the statement in Rashi which posits that "Bilaam was AVARICIOUS (look it up) and loved money because he told the messengers from Balak that "even if Balak gives me his entire house filled with silver and gold, I will not be able to disobey the word of G-D to do even the slightest thing". (Posuk 18)
And yet, we find in Perek Shishi, Mishna 9, to be learned this Shabbos, that R. Yosi Ben Kisma made the following reply to the man who met him on the road and asked him to come live in his town, since he, (R.Yosi Ben Kisma) said that he came from a town filled with Torah and wise men:
"Even if you give me all the silver and gold in the world, I will not go to live in a place that is not a place of Torah..."
Why is the comment of Bilaam interpreted as proof that he is greedy, while the reply of R. Yosi Ben Kisma, is not???
One good Answer, (mentioned in the TORAH TEMIMAH), is that R. Yosi Ben Kisma, replied in the same vein as the incident required. The Mishna says that the man who asked him to come to his town, first offered him "Tens of Thousands of Golden Dinars and precious stones", to which offer R. Yosi Ben Kisma replied, to the effect, that all the money in the world would not tempt him to move to a town barren of Torah. This reply was, obviously, a GUZMA, an impossible exaggeration that could not possibly be fulfilled, and it was said , only, to make a point.
Bilaam, on the other hand, apparently, only wanted the KOVOD, the Respect, as it states in the earlier Posuk (Posuk 17) KI CHABADE ACHABDACHO MEOD ("for I will give you great and high respect"). In fact, that was why Balak sent more eminent messengers the second time, as he also was under the impression that Bilaam only craved greater respect.
Bilaam should have responded to that offer by saying, in effect, that no amount of Kovod would allow him to contravene the word of Hashem. . Instead, he responded by referring to Balak giving him his house filled with silver and gold. Thus, it was obvious that Bilaam was avaricious and greedy, and mainly a lover of money, as Rashi points out.
The Torah Temima concludes his comment as follows: "It is well known that it is the nature of a vice that a man has, to always finds its way to his tongue, where it is frequently recalled in his speech".
We must all be really careful to monitor our speech so that our vices do not become obvious to all.
That's all for today. If I do not have a chance to Post anything tomorrow, (which is likely), I want to wish all and sundry a GUT SHABBOS.
LOVE, ZAIDA