By Liam Nadiv

This week’s Torah portion is Chukat-Balak: Numbers 19:1 — 25:9

Balak, one of this week’s parshiot, focuses on the story of Balaam, a sorcerer, hired by Balak, the king of Moab, an enemy of Israel, to curse Israel. However, every time Balaam tries to curse them, God changes his words into a blessing. This is the origin of the prayer Mah Tovu because it is a quote from one of the accidental blessings which Balaam gives to Israel.

I find it odd how God acts toward Balaam in this parsha. God first comes to Balaam telling him not to listen to King Balak and curse the Israelites, and then later God said to him to join Balak, and God will tell Balaam what to say. But then, when Balaam begins his travel to the Israelite camp, he is beset by an angel of the Lord holding a sword, trying to stop him from going to the Israelites. As it says: “The donkey caught sight of the angel of God standing in the way, with his drawn sword in his hand” (Numbers 22:23). This contradicts what God told Balaam during their second conversation. To me, it makes no sense why God would threaten Balaam for listening to what God said he was allowed to do.

The commentaries have some ideas. Or HaChaim states that because Balaam rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey and did not tell Balak’s emissaries, it reveals Balaam’s hatred for the Jews, making it obvious that he went on his own initiative and not just because Balak told him to. Bekhor Shor states that God threatened to curse Balaam because even though God retracted the initial statement, God still said from the beginning that Balaam should not go, and Balaam still did. Also, according to Bekhor Shor, God saw that Balaam went because of the rewards that Balak offered, as mentioned in the text.

I agree with Bekhor Shor’s interpretation because even though Balaam listened to what God said in the end, he was still hoping to benefit from doing the wrong thing. Sin is not tied just to what we do, but when we benefit from it, such as buying products made with modern slave labor or from companies which mistreat their workers. While buying these products, we are not intentionally sinning, but it is still wrong, so research the brands or foods you buy. In the Al Cheit prayer on Yom Kippur, we apologize for sins committed both wittingly and unwittingly. The lesson I take from the story of Balaam is that sin does not just mean intentional actions we commit, but also when we benefit from actions that harm others.

This ties into the concept of “mitzvah ha’bah be’aveirah,” which is the idea that a mitzvah done through a sin is still a sin, even if it was done with good intentions. The example used in the Gemara is stealing a lulav, and the Gemara says that the stealing of its parts invalidates the mitzvah of shaking the lulav and etrog. What Balaam did was ordered by God, but he still had sinned because he did it out of greed, and thus he invalidated the mitzvah of listening to God. Judaism commands us to not blindly follow; perhaps this is why Balaam was punished, because he did not question God’s contradiction. Maybe this parsha is also trying to teach us to think critically, both about our faith and about what others tell us to do.

Liam Nadiv is a rising eighth-grader at Krieger Schechter Day School.