Posted on 09/08/22
The Torah prohibits the entry into the Jewish nation of the male descendants of Moav. This fatal inherent flaw stems from this nation’s nefarious intention in having hired Bilaam to curse us.
The Torah then parenthetically points out that despite Bilaam’s attempt to foist his toxic curses upon us, nevertheless, ‘Hashem your G-d, refused to listen to Bilaam, and Hashem your G-d, ויהפך — reversed the curse to a blessing for you, because Hashem your G-d, אהבך — loved you.’
(דברים כג ו)
The verse is confusing. Did G-d hear the curse and effect a change? Doesn’t the verse state clearly ‘He refused to listen’ to it?
What is this notion of ‘reversing’ the curse into a blessing? Does G-d need to transform the curse to neutralize it? Wouldn’t His blessing be enough to quash it?
Even more perplexing is the fact that Bilaam never even uttered a curse, and only expressed blessings.
True, the Talmud asserts that from his divinely coerced uttering we can intimate what his intention was. But do intentions have any power?
Evidently, they do.
The Talmud states that all Bilaam’s blessings eventually, due to our sins, reverted throughout our history to his originally intended curse. Except for one — the blessing of מה טובו — How goodly are your tents, Jacob, and your dwellings Israel. (במדבר כד ה)
This is indicated in the earlier verse that describes G-d reversing, הקללה — the ‘curse’ in the singular as opposed to ‘curses’— into a blessing. This being the sole inviolable eternal blessing, while the others will find their initial negative intent during our various exiles.
But then the question begs. If indeed as the verse establishes that G-d reversed the curse ‘because he ‘loved’ us’, why wouldn’t that love ward off forever all the other curses as well?
It is recorded in the name of the Holy Reb Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev that Bilaam’s original ‘stingy and evil eye’ that sought to cast doubt in aspersing the worthiness of their Houses of Gathering in prayer and the Study Halls of Torah learning, stemmed from his own frustration in being able to fathom how places so void of any material enjoyment could possibly provide happiness in life. A man who indulged so famously in earthly delights and pleasures projected a powerful negative force that sought to deny its worthiness, denying the notion of being capable of sensing ‘divine pleasure’, and seeking its destruction.
Perhaps the love G-d exhibited in stifling Bilaam’s curse wasn’t simply in the blessing that countered it. In fact, the latent desire of Bilaam indeed can have a lasting impact to affect a curse instead of a blessing when we do not live up to the blessings that are contingent on our fulfilling the will of G-d.
It was in the specific area of this intended curse that prosecutes against the many among us who similarly often find frustration in the realm of our connection to G-d through purposeful and meaningful prayer, and inspiring and energizing study of Torah. Oftentimes we may even develop anger and a sense of defeat in aspiring within these venues of connection.
It is precisely because G-d loves us so overwhelmingly that he refuses to even hear this plaint that echoes the vacuous testaments of Bilaam and his cohorts. Only G-d can perceive so deeply that our frustration does not stem from rejection but from a deep-seated yearning that is longing for closeness.
This then is the deeper and more accurate understanding of transforming a curse into a blessing. What may appear as a cursed existence is truly the emanations of a soul who is sincerely yearning to be close to G-d.
A popular story is often repeated about the illustrious and indefatigable Klausenberger Rebbe who once while riding in a car during a blizzard in Montreal during one of his many trips to promote his remarkable institutions, spotted a bare-headed individual walking through the freezing cold snowstorm. The Rebbe asked his driver to pull up closer to this stranger. Rolling down his window, to the shock of his driver, he proceeds to converse in Yiddish to this apparent goy. Lo and behold, it turns out he was a Yid. The Rebbe opens the car door inviting him in to sit next to him in the warm car. He discovers that he is a fellow survivor who lost his entire family, who has rejected G-d in frustrated anger of his fate in life, declaring his hatred of G-d. The Rebbe held his hand warmly conveying to him that G-d no doubt loves him no matter how far he has strayed. After speaking to him for some time and driving him to his destination he bid him farewell.
Many years letter the Rebbe returned to Montreal to attend a dinner for his Mosdos. The guest speaker couldn’t make it so they asked the driver to share some experiences with the crowd. He retold this fascinating tale. Upon conclusion a chossid in the audience stands up and identifies himself as the subject of the story. He then shared publicly what it was in that experience that brought him back ‘home’. He relayed that it wasn’t just the warmth the Rebbe extended him that brought him back into the fold. It was his realizing that the Rebbe had discerned he was a Yid — despite to all appearances he was a goy — because the Rebbe must have wondered to himself who in the world would go out with his head uncovered and totally unprotected in below zero temperatures. It could only have been someone so angry at G-d that would display such defiance to cover his head. That is what awakened his closeness to G-d.
In the image of the Creator, the Rebbe emulated this boundless love and faith in his fellow Jew, in understanding that he wasn’t as much angry as he was pining for closeness to Hashem once again.
There are many among us who live with inner anguish over their inability to connect. Nevertheless, they plod on despite the pain and frustration. One can only imagine the love these individuals have in G-d’s eyes.
May we never forget this and be sensitive and in awe of these precious souls.
May this month when we are to ‘seek out Hashem when He is found’, draw these holy souls back to sensing Hashem’s loving embrace.
באהבה,
צבי יהודה טייכמאן