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 there for you, have I ever acted towards you in this way before?” Bilaam replied, No.
At this point, Hashem reveals the Angel to Bilaam and the Angel berates him for hitting the donkey and not turning around and tells him that he should continue but he should only do as per Hashem.
Many times through out life things seem to go awry, things that would usually go right go wrong and we usually react to this in our natural way to be upset about it and to try to make it go right again.
The Angel asked Bilaam “Why are you hitting the donkey?”
Isn't it obvious why he is hitting the donkey? It usually trudges long as directed, and now it is veering off the path and Bilaam is only reacting naturally by hitting it to go back on the path.
Reb Levi Yitzchok explains so simply yet beautifully, that when things go wrong we are not meant to just react naturally, rather we should contemplate why Hashem is causing this to go wrong and we should change course.
That is what the Angel was asking Bilaam why are you hitting the donkey and not turning around? The next time life doesn't go the way we want it to go... don't hit your donkey!