Covenant & Conversation

Balaam is numbered by the rabbis as one of only four non-royals mentioned in the Tanach who are denied a share in the World to Come.2 Why then did G‑d choose that Israel be blessed by Balaam?

From the vantage point of heaven, the ultimate absurdity is when humans start thinking of themselves as G‑dlike.

The character of Bilam remains ambiguous, in both the Torah and subsequent Jewish tradition. Was he a diviner (reading omens and signs), or a sorcerer (practising occult arts)? Was he a genuine prophet, or a fraud?