The Reaction

Parshat Balak

In Parshas Balak, the Torah relates the story of Bilaam and his attempts to curse the Jewish People. The Parsha recounts how Bilaam was journeying to go meet Balak on his donkey and the donkey sees an Angel with a sword in the middle of the road so it turned towards the fields. Bilaam’s reaction to this was to hit the donkey. 

The Angel moved to the footpath in the field in between two walls and the donkey pressed up against the wall, smashing bialys foot in the process. Bilaam’s reaction was to hit the donkey. 

At last, the Angel put himself in a tight place where the was no way to go around, when the donkey saw the Angel she lay down under Bilaam. Bilaam once again hit the donkey.

 It was at this point that Hashem opened up the mouth of the donkey and the donkey asked Bilaam why he was hitting her so much. Bilaam reacted completely naturally, and spoke back to the donkey and said that he was hitting her because she is acting against her wishes. The donkey replied: “I have always been t…