Do not curse the nation, for they are blessed.[2]
Did G-d need to explain Himself to Balak? He should have simply commanded Balak, “Do not curse them! Full stop.”
Rashi, citing a midrash, provides the background conversation to this incident. After Balak receives the instruction not to curse the Bnei Yisrael – which he accepts – he says, “OK. So I’ll bless them then.” Hashem responds, “Don’t bless them. They are already blessed.”
You may ask, what is the harm in a little extra beracha? Why did Hashem insist that Balak not bless them?
The gemara’s[3] story about the poor man whose wife died may hold the key to understanding why. The fellow was left with a newborn, and no way of sustaining the baby, His wife was out of the picture, and he could not afford to pay for a wet nurse. Hashem provided a miracle for him. He grew breasts, and was able to nurse the child himself.
Two opinions in the gemara take diametrically opposing positions. One praises the father. “How great is this person, that Hashem performed this miracle for him.” The other one regards him dismissively. “How lowly is this person, for whom the protocols of Creation were changed on his account.” The two positions do not really conflict. Whether he was praiseworthy or lowly depends on who the person was – whether or not he was a tzadik who deserved miraculous Divine intervention, or whether he wasn’t, but managed to move the Heavenly Court with his davening.
It always bothered me, though, that the gemara did not preserve some parallelism between the two positions. If the non- tzadik is frowned upon for “changing the order of Creation,” then the tzadik should be lauded for doing the same! Why did the gemara instead find different phraseology, and praise him instead for the Heavens “performing a miracle for him?”
A holy man[4] explained that parnasah for the tzadik does not require the creation of something new. Think of Hagar, crying out for water, until the malach “opened her eyes, and she saw a water spring.”[5] The water did not have to be created for her. It was already there, just waiting to be revealed. The tzadik doesn’t need new parnasah to be arranged for him. Lesser people are different. As emunah and bitachon diminish, the need for new avenues of parnasah increase. Thus, it is specifically, “When you say, ‘What will we eat [in the shemittah year]?’[6] that Hashem answers, “I will command my beracha for you.” Had they not asked the question (which evidences a lack of full bitachon) , they wouldn’t require a special beracha! The food would already be there, waiting for them.
This, then, is the reason why the gemara only speaks about changing the natural order for the less-than-tzadik. Such change would not be a compliment paid to the greater person. He does not require any real-time intervention. For him, the answer to his dilemma is a miracle – but one that precedes the need, not appears to answer it.
When Balak said that he would offer a beracha on behalf of the nation, Hashem told him, “No way. They are not in need of any new beracha. Their success is already assured and hard-wired.”
- Adapted from Divrei Shaul, by Rav Yosef Shaul Nathanson, the Sho’el U-Meshiv ↑
- Bamidbar 22:12 ↑
- Shabbos 53b ↑
- He means his brother, Rav Zusha, in Noam Elimelech, Behar, s.v. vechi somru ↑
- Bereishis 21:19 ↑
- Vaykira 25:20 ↑