Parshas Balak: The Talking Donkey | Rabbi Yeshaya Levi

It's an interesting thing that over the summer months, the Parshos Hashavua and Pirkei Avos sometimes intersect. One example of that is Parshas Balak, where we have the famous story of the wicked Bilam and his אתון, and his donkey. And that has a connection with Pirkei Avos. The Mishnah tells us that there were ten things that were created Erev Shabbos at twilight and one of those ten things was the mouth of the she-donkey. The Maharal seems to explain that the reason it's on Erev Shabbos at twilight was because it's still part of the six days of creation, and yet, since it's the twilight before Shabbos, it's so close to Shabbos, the spiritual influence, the holiness of Shabbos had an impact. So therefore, donkeys are part of creation, but a talking donkey that's already an exception, that's beyond the laws of nature, and that was the spiritual influence of the holiness of Shabbos. So my Chavrusa, Nechemya, asked me, he says: Isn't it amazing that here you have such a miracle, and it had to take place through a donkey, an impure animal? Indeed, if you look in the commentaries, it was just a question of putting Bilam in his place, trying to subdue him, to humble him, so you could have changed the storyline. Theoretically, it could have been a cow, could have been a sheep, knocked against him, it could have talked, and it wouldn't have to be an impure animal. And I told him, Let's make the question even better. We'll add on to it. This was not just an impure animal. This donkey was involved in terrible, terrible acts of impurity, terrible, terrible abomination. And that should be the place where Hakadosh Baruch Hu brings the manifestation of that first holiness of Shabbos and changes the creation? Isn't that something. So I was thinking to say, maybe we'll call it from the perspective of Avodah, that maybe there's a good lesson that we can take out of here. Here you have a donkey. It's an impure animal. It's involved in acts of terrible, terrible impurity, of terrible sins. And yet, indeed, it was a source of Kiddush Hashem, of miracle. So maybe we can say from that, how much more so a Yid, who’s made בצלם אלוקים, the image of Hashem, and he has a pure Neshama, as we say every morning in davening, and we are a part of God Above, so how much more so, although we strive constantly for holiness and purity, if, God forbid, we stumble, we can look and he says, If that impure animal, with so much impurity around it, was still able to be a source of Kiddush Hashem, holiness and purity in the world, so certainly we are able to rise up, if we get a little dirty, God forbid, at a particular time, we rise up, we just brush it off, and then we, too, can become a place of Kiddush Hashem, of bringing the Ribono shel Olam more into this world. It's a remarkable thing to be part of the Vayimaen family. May it be His will, that we should all merit only to go upward, and we, too, can become a source of holiness into the future.