Taming the Donkey and the Snake

Taming the Donkey 

and the Snake

One of the main images in parshat Balak is that of G-d opening Balaam’s donkey’s mouth so that it could talk to him after Balaam had struck it three times. Balaam was on his way to curse the Jewish people on behalf of king Balak.

G-d opened the mouth of the donkey, and it said to Balaam, “What have I done to you that you have struck me these three times?” Balaam said to the donkey, “For you have humiliated me; if I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now.”

In the entire Pentateuch, this is only the second time an animal speaks. The first time occurred in the Garden of Eden where the snake seduced Adam and Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. The Torah describes that affair with these words,

Now the snake was cunning, more than all the beasts of the field that the Lord G-d had made, and it said to the woman, “Did G-d indeed say, ‘You shall not eat of any of the trees of the garden?’” 

The woman said to the snake, “Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat. But of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, G-d said, ‘You shall not eat of it, and you shall not touch it, lest you die.’” 

The snake said to the woman, “You will surely not die. For G-d knows that on the day that you eat thereof, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like angels, knowing good and evil.”

Similarities Between the Snake and the Donkey

There are similarities between these two instances when an animal spoke. Both are related to curses. The outcome of the conversation between the snake and Eve was a four-fold curse on Adam, Eve, the snake, and the earth. The conversation between Balaam and his donkey in our parshah also occurs in context of a curse.

"The strategy used by the snake was opportunism" ...

"Although never stated explicitly, the donkey is justifying itself by explaining that everything it did, it did for Balaam’s sake—in this case saving him from God’s angel."

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The rest of the shiur goes into depth, concepts of "Philosophical Rationalism", "2 Souls - 3 Cultures", "Messages from G-d?", Greek Culture, and an analysis of the 49 words spoken by the snake, and the donkey, and in the footnotes are gematrios and the incarnations of Balaam.

Rav Yitzchak Ginsburgh is a master at the depth and elucidation of kabbalistic concepts. Full article