As the Jewish people travelled through the desert, they became larger and stronger as a nation. They were increasingly intimidating to the nations that they approached. Balak, the king of Moav, saw the Jewish people approaching and became very concerned.
Balak decided that the best way to defeat the Jews would be to have them cursed before waging them in battle, and the best person to curse the Jews would be the prophet Bilam. (For the purposes of this exploration, we are going to ignore the discussion as to whether Bilam is evil or not.)
Bilam is hesitant to answer Balak’s call, and waits until God gives him the OK to travel to Moav. Bilam is instructed to only do and say what God tells him; Bilam informs Balak of this limitation.
Balak brings Bilam to bamoth ba’al, a lookout point, to observe the Jewish nation as he is about to curse them. Bilam reminds Balak that he can only speak the word of God, and God places words in his mouth. Instead of cursing the Jewish people, Bilam is given words of beautiful poetry, praising and blessing the Jewish people.
Balak is understandably upset, and brings Bilam to a ‘better’ location, sdeh tzofim. He believes that with a better view, Bilam will be able to curse the Jews as originally intended. Alas, the same thing happens, and another blessing is bestowed upon the Jewish people. The same thing happens in a third location, at which point Balak is so frustrated with Bilam that he sends him back home.
Balak was on to something. Balak wanted to make sure that Bilam had the proper perspective in order to judge the Jewish people.
In life, there are often times when we are quick to judge someone else, and many times we are wrong. It can be very easy to focus on one instance, and allow our imaginations to expand outward into fanciful tales. There is an episode of The Simpsons where a wheelchair-ridden Bart is convinced that his neighbor Ned Flanders killed his wife Maude, when in actuality he had simply killed a plant. Bart failed to explore every perspective.
So what did Balak do wrong? We should strive to look at every perspective to find a redeeming value in every person. If we are having doubts in someone’s character, it is prudent to explore every possible angle in order to find righteousness in this person. The opposite, however, is not true. We should never take good people and search out the bad in them. We are not meant to ignore the sins of people who might have some redeeming characteristics, but we should never initiate a witch-hunt determined to find a flaw in good people.
Balak didn’t understand that changing Bilam’s perspective was not going to change the good nature of the people. In the end, it only brought them blessings.
