Balak | Making Sense of Bilam's Blessings

Balak | Making Sense of Bilam's Blessings, by Rav Yitzchak Etshalom

In engaging in the study of the curses-turned-blessings of the wizard Bilam, we typically approach our task with two assumptions. First - that Balak's aim in hiring Bilam was to eradicate Am Yisrael. Second - that each of Bil'ams curses-turned-blessings stands alone, as he had no way to know that Balak would ask him to try again from another vantage point. We demonstrate the likelihood that both of these are misconceptions and using a fresher understanding of both Balak's stated aim as well as Bilam's literary strategy, we propose a new understanding of these marvelous and elegant blessings.