Giving Strength to the Good

Bilaam rose early [and hurried... Targum Onkelos] to saddle his she-donkey [to go and curse the Jews]..." (Num. 22:21)

When a person sins, he augments the power of evil in the world. This can happen in two ways: if for selfish motivations, he augments the power of "neutral evil" (kelipat noga). He makes the world a coarser, less G-d-oriented place, but does not increase the spirit of antagonism against divinity in it. To redeem the power he invested in this form of evil and re-root it in holiness, it is enough for the person to regret and repent of having selfishly indulged in G-d's gifts.

When a person transgresses one of the Torah's explicit prohibitions with the express intention to disobey G-d's divine commandments, he augments the power of the three varieties of "pure evil" (the kelipot temey'ot). In this case, the person increases the world's enmity toward divinity, increasing the world's conscious and unconscious hostility to G-d's intents and purposes. To redeem the power he diverted into this form of evil, the person must motivate his return to G-d with ardent, overpowering love.

Balaam's exceeding hatred and antagonism toward G-d may be seen as an allegory for the evil produced by deliberate transgressions of the Torah's prohibitions. Abraham's exceeding love of G-d and enthusiasm in performing His will is then an allegory for the antidote to this poison: repentance and reorientation toward G-d motivated by love.

Here, at the beginning of Balaam's journey to curse the Israelites, G-d tells him that he is doomed to fail, for the people have inherited the power to transform the results of his hatred for G-d into holiness. This transformation of pure evil into good is the theme of the whole episode of Balaam and his curses.

Copyright 2001 chabad of california / www.lachumash.org

from Likutei Sichot vol. 28, pp. 163-164