Reply To: Short & Sweet

Balak: אין הדבר תלי אלא בי

Rashi on this week’s parsha asks the obvious question: if Bilaam was such a rasha, how did he have nevuah? Rashi answers that the reason Hashem spoke to Bilaam was just so that the nations of the world would not be able to complain that they did not have Neviim to guide them like Klal Yisroel did. So Hashem gave them a Navi, and he only made things worse.

However, this answer is quite puzzling. The nations still seem to have a valid complaint: if we had had a Navi who wasn’t a rasha, maybe we could have been better.

Perhaps we can suggest that the message here is a bit deeper. The nations believed that if only they had somebody with nevuah to guide them, they’d behave. But Bilaam was living proof that if somebody does not want to do what is right, not only won’t having a Navi change them, but even being a Navi won’t help them. All the guidance and heavenly intervention in the world will do nothing for somebody who does not want to be better.

God given gifts will not change a person or a people. The only one who can change you is you.

לע״נ דוד חיים בן ישראל דוב הכהן
לע״נ ר׳ חיים דוב בן ר׳ בןציון שלום