What kind of Prophet was Bilaam?

Bilaam (Balaam) is well known as “Bilaam HaRasha” (בִּלְעָם הָרָשָׁע). He was the wicked prophet for the nations of the world (אומות העולם). Chazal, the Sages of the Mishnah and Talmud, paint a really nasty picture of Bilaam’s character. Just one mild example is in Pirke Avot (5:19), the Sages describe Bilaam as greedy, haughty, and selfish. Scroll here for a refresher on the story of Bilaam, his prophecy, and his donkey in Parshat Balak.

Would God Choose Someone Wicked to be a Prophet?

I don’t know about you but …I always imagined that you had to be a pretty decent guy in order to be a prophet. Having God talk directly to you sounds like the kind of thing reserved for big tzadikim, definitely not for someone nicknamed “HaRasha.” If God is willing to talk to people as wicked as we think Bilaam was, then decent folks like you and me should be getting prophetic messages from God all the time, but we don’t. So it seems weird that Chazal portray Bilaam as a huge Rasha, and yet, he was still a prophet of God.

In this week’s Torah portion, Parshat Balak, the King of Moab, is afraid the approaching Israelites will conquer his land. He decides to send for Bilaam, a prophet, to wage a spiritual attack on the Israelites. After initially saying, “No,” God grants Bilaam permission to go with Balak’s messengers. Along the way, we have the famous story of Bilaam and the donkey. Bilaam’s donkey sees a vision of an angel, but Bilaam, oblivious to the angel’s presence, keeps hitting his donkey. Miraculously, Bilaam’s donkey begins to speak. When Bilaam eventually reaches Moab, he attempts to curse the Israelites three times, but each time pronounces blessings instead.

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And if that’s not strange enough, when you read the story, a different picture of Bilaam emerges. Granted, he was willing to curse the Israelites and his spiritual vision needs some corrective lenses to see angels right in front of him, but we can’t see angels either and he’s just helping Balak solve an existential threat. At the very least, when you read the story, he definitely doesn’t come across as the paradigm of haughtiness like we hear about in Pirke Avot. He keeps saying, “I can only say what God puts in my mouth” (Numbers 22:38), “I can’t transgress anything God says” (Numbers 22:18), and he actually follows through on that. There’s a genuine sense of humility in what he says. I don’t think Chazal were just making things up, but what did they see in the Torah that convinced them that Bilaam was so supremely evil?

To answer that, what if I told you that Chazal got their impression of Bilaam from the fact that he had his own test as great as Akeidat Yitzchak? I know it seems crazy, but Chazal were masters of a close reading of the Torah, and I believe they saw several textual parallels linking Bilaam's mission to curse the Israelites with Abraham’s test in the Akeidah. 

In this video Rabbi Fohrman and the Aleph Beta team dive deep into this comparison and emerge with a whole new perspective on Bilaam that has inspiring implications. Subscribe now to add meaning to your Shabbat table and inspire your company with the beauty of the Torah.