tiny heara on balak

Hi from Israel!!!  Its very exciting to be here.

This is a very short heara on parshas balak.  its very mussar - ish (my father would be probably be furious at me for saying it), but so be it.

The mishna in pirkei avos draws a contrast between avraham and bilaam, in three character traits, one being nefesh rechavah / nefesh shefalah.  This is understood to refer to the character traits of haughtiness / humility.

Where do we see Bilaam's haughtiness?  Rashi on chumash writes that we learn it from Bilaam's refusal to go with the first group of nobles that balak sent for him.  Chazal interpret that Bilaam told the nobles that he couldn't go with them because it was beneath his dignity to go with low ranking officers.  This, says Rashi, reflects Bilaam's gaavah.

In his peirush hamishnyos, the rambam offers a different pshat.  According to the Rambam, Bilaam's gaavah was expressed when he called himself "yodea daas elyon"  - one who knows G-d.

Gaavah in material things or earthly kavod isnt gaavah - its just plain retarded.  To think that the rank of an officer appointed by balak has any meaning isn't arrogance - its sheer stupidity. Thus, Bilaam's gaavah had to be in ruchnius - to think that he could understand G-d.

In contrast to Bilaam's gaavah, the rambam explains that avraham's humility was expressed in his telling G-d, "anochi afar v'efer" - Avraham said to G-d, "G-d, I am nothing before you.  I have no real knowledge, understanding, or closeness to you."

Man is very frail - but what we sometimes forget is that the primary emphasis of that statement is in ruchnius itself, not just in physicality.  Its not just that we are physically weak, we get sick, we grow old, we die.  But much more - we are affected spiritually so much by our surroundings - that means that we have to ask, is our spirituality real?  We think we are frum and G-d fearing, but how much of that is just cultural norms and would fall away given the right set of circumstances?

I am depressing myself.  But I'll end with the poem Ozymandias:

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desart. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.