Parashat Balak, 5786, 2026: "A Nation That Dwells Alone"

​Rabbi David Etengoff
 
ה' יעזור וירחם על אחינו כל בני ישראל בארץ ישראל ובכל חלקי הארץ
 
The phrase, “Now it came to pass in the morning” (“vayehi b’boker”), appears eight times in Tanach. Each instance portends a significant change either for an individual, or for our nation. One of the times it is found is the narrative of Balak and Bilam. Balak was the King of Moav, who simultaneously hated and feared the Jewish people. He hired Bilam, the world’s greatest sorcerer, to curse our nation and halt our rise to glory. Little did Balak know that our people’s greatness was a direct result of Hashem’s desire to fulfill His master plan for our nation. Since he lacked this understanding, Balak was convinced that he could destroy us through Bilam’s curses, to the extent that he refused to listen to the wizard’s protestations that he could only say and do what Hashem allowed:

Balak said to Bilam, “Did I not send to you to call for you? Why did you not come to me? Am I indeed incapable of honoring you?” Bilam said to Balak, “Behold I have come to you, do I have any power to say anything? The word Elokim puts into my mouth—that I will speak.” … Now it came to pass in the morning that Balak took Bilam and led him up to Bamot Ba’al, and from there he saw part of the people. (Sefer Bamidbar 22:37-38, 41, this and all Tanach and Rashi translations, The Judaica Press Complete Tanach, all underlining my own)
 
Like other megalomaniacal monarchs, Balak was convinced his evil desires would be fulfilled. Instead, what began with “vayehi b’boker,” ended in a beautiful bracha for the Jewish people:

How can I curse whom God has not cursed, and how can I invoke wrath if Hashem has not been angered? For from their beginning, I see them as mountain peaks, and I behold them as hills; it is a nation that will dwell alone and will not be reckoned among the nations. Who counted the dust of Ya’akov or the number of a fourth of [or, of the seed of] Yisrael? May my soul die the death of the upright and let my end be like his.” (Sefer Bamidbar 23:8-10, underlining my own)
 
 
What, however, is the meaning of: “a nation that will dwell alone, and will not be reckoned among the nations?” A direct reading seems to indicate that it refers to the multiple ways we are distinct from the other nations of the world. By way of illustration: We our proscribed from marrying non-Jews, prohibited from eating non-kosher food, and obligated to fulfill both the positive (zachor) and negative (shamor) aspects of the holy Shabbat. Each of these mitzvot clearly differentiate us from our non-Jewish neighbors.
 
Rashi (1040-1105), basing himself on Targum Onkelos and Midrash Tanchuma, takes a different approach in his analysis of our phrase:

It is a nation that will dwell alone: This is [the legacy] their forefathers gained for them-to dwell alone, as the Targum Onkelos renders it: [“it is a nation that is alone destined to inherit the world”].
 
and will not be reckoned among the nations: As Targum Onkelos paraphrases, they will not perish along with the other nations, for it says, “for I shall make an end of all [the other] nations…” (Sefer Yirmiyahu 30:11); they [the Jewish people, however,] will not be reckoned with the rest… [Midrash Tanchuma Balak 12, underlining and brackets my own]
 
Rashi’s brief gloss contains the following Targum Onkelos and midrashically-infused concepts:

1. Dwelling in solitude is a distinctive legacy of our people, handed down to us by the Avot.
2. We are the sole nation “destined to inherit the world.”
3.  Even though the other nations will perish, we will not, and we will ever be separate from them.

 
In my view, Rashi’s ideas are reminiscent of the beginning of the first paragraph of the Aleinu:
​
It is our obligation to praise the Master of all, to ascribe greatness to the Creator of the [world in the] beginning: that He has not made us like the nations of the lands, and has not positioned us like the families of the earth; that He has not assigned our portion like theirs, nor our lot like that of all their multitudes. For they prostrate themselves to vanity and nothingness and pray to a god that cannot deliver. But we bow, prostrate ourselves, and offer thanks before the Supreme King of Kings, the Holy One blessed is He, Who spreads the heavens, and establishes the earth, and the seat of His glory is in heaven above… (Rabbi Avraham Davis, Metsudah Linear Siddur, underlining my own)
 
May the time come soon and, in our days, when the nations of the world recognize that Hashem “has not made us like the nations of the lands, and has not positioned us like the families of the earth; that He has not assigned our portion like theirs, nor our lot like that of all their multitudes.” For then, as Zechariah HaNavi taught us so long ago: “And Hashem shall become King over all the earth; on that day shall Hashem be one, and His name one.” (14:9)
 
Shabbat Shalom
 
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