Avot341

9:
We now turn our attention to the character whom our mishnah presents as the antithesis of Abraham. The three virtues discovered in Abraham have their opposite in three vices discovered in Balaam the wicked. But before we investigate those vices and their biblical sources perhaps we should say a few words about Balaam himself.

10:
His story is told in the book of Numbers, chapters 22-24. He also appears again briefly in Numbers 31. He is also mentioned in Deuteronomy 23:5-6 and Joshua, Micah and Nehemiah also mentions him. The main account in the book of Numbers may be swiftly reviewed: the king of Moab hires Balaam, a renowned sage and prophet, to come and curse the Israelites so that their advance against Moab and then Canaan may be stopped. After some hesitation Balaam accepts the invitation and travels (on his talking donkey) from Mesopotamia to the steppes of Transjordan. However, every time that he tries to curse Israel he utters the most beautiful of blessings. After foretelling Israel's ultimate victory he returns home.

11:
All that most people remember about Balaam – if they remember anything at all – is that he had a donkey that talked to him. In all probability it is this incredulous element in the story that makes people think that the whole episode is fictional. But surely, we should perhaps think otherwise when we recall that the prophet Micah mentions this episode in Israel's history in particular:

And both Joshua recounts the seer's death:

12:
But, surprising as it may seem, we also have mention of Balaam the seer outside the biblical account, so he may well have been an historical personality! In 1967, at Deir Alla in the Kingdom of Jordan, archaeologists found an inscription which contained a previously unknown prophecy by Balaam. This prophecy was written in a dialect that had great similarities with Aramaic and South Canaanite characteristics. The inscription is dated to the 7th century BCE. It is painted in red and black inks, which emphasize the text, on a plastered wall. The prophecy has nothing whatsoever to do with the events described in the bible.

To be continued.

In Avot 337 we discussed the sin of Jeroboam. Juan-Carlos Kiel asks whether his sin really was idolatry. He writes:

Jeroboam split the United Davidic Kingdom, separating Ephraim, Menashe and the other eight tribes from Judah. The roots of the schism are rooted in the rivalry between the two main groups in ancient Israel and in the failure of Solomon, the wisest of men, to prepare his heir for the kingdom. In this, at least, he should have been wiser.
After the schism, Jeroboam was faced with the problem of his subjects going to Jerusalem to serve the Lord. It was Rehoboam who "owned" the House of God and the rituals. Jeroboam built alternative "Houses of God" and presented to the people two different places where they could serve the God of Israel. In his temples, he used a golden calf. Studying the representations of gods in the ancient Middle East, we find that the god of thunder and storm was represented as standing on top of a bull. There are some archeologists that suggest Jeroboam's calf was perhaps equivalent to the cherubim in the temple, a "stand" where the god would stand, a place from which His power would reside. If this is what Jeroboam was building, he was very far from idolatry – he was offering the people of Israel an alternative where to serve the God of Israel. He was defying the 'ownership" of the Temple, and perhaps the "ownership" of God. If this is so, the conflict, instead of being a conflict of idolatry, would be a conflict of who has the right to build a House to the God – in some ways could be presented as the conflict who has the right to convert to Judaism and/or to marry – which translates to who can ordain rabbis. In Jeroboam's days, the conflict was won by Jerusalem.

I respond:

What Juan-Carlos writes may be an explanation of why Jeroboam acted as he did but it does not change the fact of what he actually did. There is no way of interpreting I Kings 12:28 except as an open invitation to idolatry.

Today's shiur was one day early and the next shiur in this series will be on 15th April. Both of these changes are caused by my personal commitments. My apologies.