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Beit Midrash
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- Chemdat Yamim
- Parashat Hashavua
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- Bamidbar
- Balak
The root that comes up no less than 14 times in the narrative of Bilam is davor, which is used both to mean speech and in the word davar (thing, matter). He discussed the things he would say, listening to what Hashem would say, speaking to Balak, Balak speaking to him…
We have explained in the past that the root davor can be a sign of prophecy, as we find by the devarim that Moshe said (Devarim 1:1), that Yirmiyahu said (Yirmiyahu 1:1), and that Yaakov was careful about (Bereishit 37:11).
This time, we will go in the direction of another usage of the root – the realm of tefilla (prayer). We saw it last week when Moshe was commanded to speak to the stone (Bamidbar 20:8), and instead Moshe hit the stone twice (ibid. 11).
The Netziv (Bamidbar 20:13) relates to this event the riddle-like words of Chazal on the pasuk (Shir Hashirim 7:6): "Your head is upon you like carmel, and the strands of your head are like purple fabric, a king is detained in the rehatim (channels?)." Vayikra Rabba (31:4) comments on the pasuk as follows: "Your head is upon you like carmel" refers to the prayer of Eliyahu, who went up to the Carmel: "and the strands of your heads are like purple fabric" refers to the prayers of David. "A king is detained in the rehatim" refers to Moshe who did not pray but rather hit, and therefore Hashem decreed upon him that he would not enter Eretz Yisrael because of the rehatim of the "waters of quarrels."
The following is how the Netziv, the Rosh Yeshiva of Volozhin, the mother of the pre-Holocaust yeshivot, continued this theme of the tefillot of men of great spirituality. "Indeed, our Rabbis of blessed memory removed the veil from this wonderful matter. Even when Hashem clearly wants to bring an abundance of good, and there is no need at this time to awaken Heavenly mercy, still it is His desire that people will pray first, because this is the manner in which the Creator set matters."
So we have learned something new – prayers can be called speech and fit the root of davor. While Bilam’s own tefillot were not intended to bring good to Am Yisrael, but rather the opposite, his words have become a major part of our legacy and our prayers. The vision of our nation that Hashem publicized through Bilam, made it possible for us to sharpen our view of what we can be and what we should pray for.
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