Misplaced Spirituality
Our quest for Moshiach—the descendent of Moab—is for the Moshiach who will, in Maimonides’ words, facilitate total Torah observance. To the extent that our messianic fervor takes us in that direction it is the fulfillment of Judaism’s directive that we “anticipate (and prepare for) Moshiach’s coming every day.”
Bilam’s New Diabolical Tactic
Bilam, the heathen prophet was hired by the Moabite monarch, Balak to curse the Jews. Balak was terrified that they would overrun his country as they did the land of Sichon and Og, two mighty leaders of neighboring countries.
In the end all of Bilam’s curses were all converted by G-d into incredible blessings. Every curse he attempted to utter came out of his vile mouth as the most eloquent and poetic blessing.
When Bilam realized that his curses did not work, he tried a different tactic. He advised Balak to send Moabite women to seduce the men and coax them into idol worship. Tragically, this idea worked and, as a result, tens of thousands of Jews perished in a plague.
In the foregoing narrative the Torah describes his plan in a way that raises several questions.
The Torah describes what happened thus:
“The Jewish people settled in Shitim, and (as a result of Bilam’s plot—Rashi) the people began to consort with the daughters of Moab.”
Two Questions
Two questions arise when we examine this verse carefully:
First, what does the Torah mean when it says that “the people ‘began’ to be immoral?” It should have said simply: “the people consorted with the daughters of Moab.” Why the addition and emphasis on the word “began?”
Second, the text later on reports that they also consorted with the daughters of Midian. Indeed, the pivotal event related in the Torah here was that the Jewish prince Zimri had an affair with the Midianite princess. Yet, the Torah here mentions only the role of the daughters of Moab.
One of the Chassidic masters, Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech of Dinov, provides a fascinating explanation based on a concept mentioned frequently in Kabbalah.
Moab: Sparks of Moshiach
Moab was the nation from which Ruth, arguably the most famous convert to Judaism, descended. Ruth, in turn, was the great-grand mother of King David, from whom Moshiach, the most distinguished human-being to have ever walked the face of the earth, descends. Moshiach, a full-fledged human being, is the Jewish leader who will usher in an age of permanent goodness and peace.
According to the teachings of Kabbalah, the original Moabites already possessed sparks of Moshiach’s soul. And according to the teachings of Kabbalah, whenever there is a potent force of holiness vested within a person, object or experience, it beckons to us to help “liberate” it. This explains why we are attracted to certain things that appear neutral or even forbidden. They possess hidden sparks of holiness. In some situations, the attraction seems irresistible because the sparks of holiness possess incredible power and crave to be liberated.
The challenge for us is to know how to react to the attraction. In some cases it suffices for us to engage that situation in a positive fashion, whereby the holy spark embedded in it flows through our positive engagement with it. Once the spark is released from its bodily prison it is free to bring light to the world at large.
There are, however, situations where there is no way we can liberate that spark because it is so deeply ensconced in the person, object or experience. To try to remove it by engaging it will only wreak destruction. It is comparable to one who performs surgery to remove a growth by cutting into vital nerves and organs causing irreparable harm. In these situations the surgery will prove disastrous.
To extricate these really hidden sparks we must wait for the right circumstances, time and place.
Bilam to the Jews: “Liberate the Sparks of Moab!”
Now we can understand why the sinister scheme of Bilam commenced with the daughters of Moab as the Biblical text indicates. Only later did it encompass the daughters of Midian as well.
For his diabolical scheme to work, Bilam knew that he could not simply attempt to entice them into immoral behavior. Bilam was too cunning for that for he knew that they would never degenerate to that level of immorality. Instead, he knew that he had to make them feel that what they will be doing was not immoral after all. On the contrary, consorting with the daughters of Moab who possessed these potent sparks of holiness was a way to access these powerful spiritual forces and thereby hasten the world’s perfection.
Slippery Slope
Only after Bilam succeeded in getting them to engage in a well-intentioned but misguided sin, did he unleash his ultimate weapon: releasing the daughters of Midian to seduce the Jews. At this point they were ready to debase themselves without the need to rationalize their behavior. Once they had descended into the clutches of the forces of impurity they had become more vulnerable.
Thus the Torah stresses that they “began” to consort with the daughters of Moab because that was only the first step in bringing about their downfall. Subsequently, they went downhill to a no holds-barred state of immorality, where they had no need to define their errant behavior in spiritual terms.
We can now also understand why the daughters of Midian are not mentioned here because, in fact, they were only introduced to the people after they had sinned with the daughters of Moab towards whom they felt a spiritual attraction.
Modern False Messianic Movements
The lesson in this approach is quite relevant to our day and age.
In the last two centuries many different spiritual and Messianic movements arose that sought to entice us. And indeed they succeeded in ensnaring countless people to follow these movements blindly. In the end, these movements proved to be utterly destructive and immoral despite their superficial appeal.
When a movement sounds idealistic or spiritual one must examine first whether its ideals are in consonance with the teachings of the Torah. There is but one criterion whether a certain course of action is right. Not whether it is laden with sparks of holiness and is attractive, but whether it is moral, ethical and legal—as the Torah defines these imperatives. And it is not to suggest that spirituality is a negative thing, but that spirituality that is at odds with the basic tenets of decency and morality is not true spirituality the way G-d defines it.
Our quest for Moshiach—the descendent of Moab—is for the Moshiach who will, in Maimonides’ words, facilitate total Torah observance. To the extent that our messianic fervor takes us in that direction it is the fulfillment of Judaism’s directive that we “anticipate (and prepare for) Moshiach’s coming every day.”
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Balak by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
