Balak: A Tail of Two Donkeys

ויחבוש את אתונו

And he saddled his donkey

The Pasuk relates that Bila’am was so anxious to fulfill his mission of cursing the Jewish People that he saddled his donkey himself. Our Sages say, that hatred can make a person behave so irrationally, that even a prominent world-famous sorcerer such as Bila’am would reduce himself to readying his animal himself.

Rashi brings from Chazal, that Hashem said to Bila’am, ‘wicked one! You think that you will be successful because you saddled your donkey yourself? Why, Avraham Avinu already preceded you when he saddled his donkey himself as well, in preparation for the Akeidah.

What is the ‘merit’ of saddling our donkeys by ourselves, and why would Bila’am think that he has some advantage by doing so?

Rav Moshe Feinstein learns from here an important lesson:

We need to incorporate Torah and Mitzvos into our lives, and treat it as our personal business. As we say every morning in Birkas Hatorah, אשר קדשנו במצותיו, וצונו לעסוק בדברי תורה Hashem commanded us to be ‘engaged’ and toil in the words of Torah. It is not enough to simply learn Torah, it needs to be our עסק   our total involvement, and permeate our very lives.

The Barometer for this is how seriously and how engaged we are in the other areas of our life. Whatever importance we attribute to our livelihoods, and to the extent we are engaged in our pastimes, we must at least be engaged to this extent in our Avodas Hashem; and we can also measure our passion for Torah and Mitzvos based on the passion that the world at large places for their wordly pursuits. 

Bila’am thought, that if he would ‘saddle his own donkey’ he would actually raise the bar, and create a higher standard of engagement in his goals, that would reflect negatively on us-our level of enthusiasm for Yiddishkeit does not match the level of enthusiasm of others for what’s important to them! To this Hashem replied, Wicked one, you got it all wrong, for the Jewish People already have it in their genes, from Avraham, to dedicate themselves to Hashem on the highest levels.

We find a similar idea with Haman Harasha, when he turned down the king’s offer to finance the extermination of the Jews, offering to pay for the whole thing himself out of pocket-Hashem said, the Jewish People already preceded you with their enthusiasm by donating money every year to the Beis Hamikdash!

We see from here how important it is to dedicate ourselves to the service of Hashem, to engage in Torah and MItzvos as our personal business, as least as much as the world at large engages in their pursuits! Have a wonderful Shabbos!