'A nation that dwells alone'
Our Sages took care to maintain this separation, enacting decrees so that we do not mingle with the nations, such as forbidding their wine, lest we thereby come close to their daughters, and the like.
Our Parasha relates that (23:7-9) Balaam declaimed his parable, and said: "From Aram, Balak ..led me..'Come curse Yaakov for me'..How can I curse? - G-d has not cursed. How can I curse..For from its origins, I see them as mountain peaks, and from hills do I see it. Behold! It is a a nation that dwells alone, and will not be reckoned among the nations."
Rashi comments: ’’From its origins, I see them as mountain peaks": I look at their origins and the beginning of their roots, and I see them established and powerful, like these mountains and hills, because of their patriarch and matriarchs.
It is a nation that dwells alone": This is the legacy their forefathers gained for them - to dwell alone.
The Dubner Maggid adds: Bnei Israel merited this accolade , since from beginning till end, no foreign seed was mingled with them - this is "from its origins I see them"...
Balaam said about his generation, that, though far from the days of the Avot, nevertheless ‘I see them as mountain peaks’: when I look at them, I see this generation, as going on an established path, all the way back to their Avot.
The Bina l’Itim elucidates: When Balaam was forced here to praise Israel as being above all other nations, he first credited it to them coming from a trunk and attribution that is first and head of all attributes - saying: look at the stone from which they are carved:- as the prophet says:(Isaiah 51:1)’Look to the rock from which you were hewn..look to Avraham your forefather and to Sarah who bore you..’. : what nation has such holy forefathers like us; and should Ishmael and Esav, say: we too are descended from them, the holy Matriachs did not participate in their creation, the Imahot, as is known, having their own level of private sanctity.
The Abarbanel adds: The Avot are alluded to, as ‘mountain peaks’, and the Imahot as ‘hills’, as the people are are hewn from the same sources, a direct continuation from father to son, and it can therefore not be said that alien people from other nations were intermingled with them - as they were ‘a people that dwelled alone, and were not reckoned among the nations.’
They were unlike the rest of the nations, who were assemblies of different peoples gathered together, from here and there, and becoming ‘as one’, despite there not being a natural connection between them.
Not so Bnei Israel, because from their Avot and their Imahot, Balaam saw them always ‘dwelling alone, and not being reckoned among the nations.’, nor intermingled.
The Netziv expounds: Balaam drew an analogy between Bnei Israel and a lofty mountain, the mountain, in its hardness, being rock-like, this alluding to the strength of the people’s emunah.
‘From hills’: the righteous among the people are likened to high hills, meaning - by way of praise - that they are above the natural order - this is what Balaam saw.
‘A people that dwell alone’: not like all other nations and peoples, who when exiled from their country, mingle with, and draw close to their exilers - even more than before their exile.
Not so, Israel, who ‘dwells alone’, and does not mingle with the local people, but ‘dwells’ in tranquility and honor, so that all can see ‘that the Name of Hashem is called upon him’.
‘And not reckoned among the nations’: - should they wish to mingle with the local people, he is ‘not reckoned’ in their eyes, ‘as a person’.
Our Sages (Sanhedrin 104.) say: We read ( Vezot haBracha 33:28) ’And Israel dwelled safely and alone as Yaakov blessed them..’- now, see how they sit alone as Yaakov- meaning: My Will was that they should be ‘alone’: not intermingled with other peoples - then they would ‘dwell safely’, but, alas, now that they seek to be like all other peoples, they ‘sit alone’, from the other peoples, as no people wishes to mingle with them.
We find this, in their exile in Egypt - as expounded by the Bet Halevi - that they abstained from circumcising themselves, saying: Let us be like the Egyptians; what did Hashem do? He turned the hearts of the Egyptians towards them, to hatred.
They thought that since they were in exile, it was appropriate for then not to be different than the locals - yet the opposite happened: the Egyptians distanced themselves from them.
The reason for this, is because Israel has a different and loftier צורה: ’form’ than all other peoples, as Isaiah says:(49:8) ’ואצרך: and I will make you the people of the covenant..’- meaning: I have made you in a special form.
Therefore, one who acts against his form, can be likened to a monkey in the form of a man - so, a Jew who seeks to be like the other people, becomes repugnant in the eyes of those other people - in the words of Hosea (8:8): ’Now in the eyes of the other peoples, like a utensil they have no wish for.’
Rav Meir Robman - brought in the Sefer ‘Yalkut Lekach Tov’, comments, that Balaam’s wonderment at Bnei Israel being apart from all other nations, can be well understood, from the well-known words of the Rambam, that man - by his nature - is drawn in his attitudes and deeds after those of his friends and associates, and the customs of the land. This explains Balaam’s wonderment, as to how, in every aspect of life - their clothing, their food and all their ways, Bnei Israel - despite always being a very small minority in the populace - kept their own way of life, different and apart from thr locals, without intermingling with them.
Balaam gives the answer: The answer to this phenomenon, can be found in the passuk preceding this statement, that ‘they were a people that dwell alone’, when he says: ’For from its origins, I see it rock-like’ - these are the Avot, ‘and from hills do I see it’- these are the Imahot’ as Rashi notes, the Avot and the Matriarchs are the foundation and the anchor on which the people rest during all the generations.
We see clearly that the power of ‘dwell alone’ we inherited from the holy Avot.
The Torah tells of Avraham Ha’Ivri: Avraham, the Hebrew, on which our Sages expound in the Midrash: ‘All the world on one side, and he, on the other side- singular was he in his way’ - the way of Hashem, as against the whole world who engaged in idolatry, and he stood steadfast like a wall, in his faith in Hashem - not mixing with them, or assimilating.
To the contrary, he went and taught the whole world that there is one Creator who is the master of heaven and earth.
One is obligated to say: ‘When will my deeds reach those of my forefathers, Avraham Yitzchak and Yaakov?’
This applies equally to our subject. Our duty is to be steadfast in the maelstrom in which we stand, in today’s world.
We are to remain apart from the other nations, and from those of our brethren who have fallen to their wiles - not to be influenced by them, but rather, to try to share the light of the Torah, to light their way from their darkness.’
Rav Yosef Chaim Shneur Kotler, brings the words of the Ramban: I look, and see them, that they dwell alone, and there is no people with them, unlike the many people and nations which gather together, to be one camp; but they all have one Torah, and one law, and are one people, who dwell alone under the banners of Yaakov and Israel.
So it is said in the Gemara (Bra’ 11:): ’Who chose us from all the nations, and gave us His Torah’, this is the choicest of all the blessings.
Expounds the Rav: Read literally, the intent of these words, is that Israel is special in its essence and being, and is not included in the number of nations, nor counted in one count with the rest of the nations.
The Ramban, however, expounds, that the separation came by the giving of the Torah- as we read in the blessing that was established on the Torah: 'Who chose us from all the nations, and gave us His Torah.’
The Targum Yonatan ben Uziel adds: This people do not behave in the ways of the other nations.
This inevitably means that they will be different in their whole way of life and conduct, as we indeed find specified in the Torah, in mitzvot such as what foods are forbidden to them, the principle being:(Kedoshim 20:24) ’I am G-d, your G-d, who has distinguished you from other peoples’.
This distinguishment being the objective of all that pertains to the nation of Israel- our main work is to go in this way, and to take care not to go in the ways of the nations, which would change the nature and essence of the purity and sanctity of the nation of Israel.
Israel are required to be separate in all that they do, general and particular, as it says:(Acharei Mot 18:3) ’You shall not follow their statutes’, and the intention is not only deeds that relate to idolatry, but also to general deeds, which have no specific reason, and are only ‘their statutes’ - in these, too, we are required to be distinguished from the nations.
The reason for this, is that every deed that a person does, has a source in his soul, from which source his deed arises.
In this, Israel differ from the other nations, in their essence and in their source; further, in Israel all the deeds have an objective and a purpose.
Therefore, even though these deeds may be appropriate for the nations, they are forbidden to Israel, as they do not lead to the attainment of our purpose and objective.
Rashi, on the passuk in our parsha (23:9): ’Who counted the dust of Yaakov..’ comments: The number of Mitzvot they fulfill with dust, are innumerable: ‘You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey’, ‘You shall not sow your field with a mixture of seeds’ - the Midrash continues, listing many other Mitzvot to which this applies.
Continues the Rav: This is because in every thing, there is the opportunity to fulfill a Mitzvah; more than this - this converts the act to the performance of a Mitzvah.
The deeds of the nations, even those which in themselves have no bad aspect, since they are not directed to this purpose, therefore remain as bare deeds without purpose - for this reason: ’You shall not follow their statutes - this leading to ‘a people who dwell alone’.
For this reason, that Balaam said: 'Who counts the dust of Yaakov or numbered a quarter of Israel’, meaning: even the physical deeds of Israel, have this lofty and praise-worthy level, because they themselves are deemed as fulfilling Mitzvot, as they are directed to the desire objective.
This is why our Sages say, that ‘one eye of Balaam was blinded’, this because he could not comprehend this matter, that it is possible to infuse sanctity into every physical deeds, and that, in this, Israel differ from all the other nations, whose wisest and most righteous men do not have this ability to sanctify physical deeds.
It was because of this, that one of the eyes of Balaam was ‘blinded’ - he was unable to suffer this reality of sanctity, in the objects of this world.
Rav Eliyahu Shlezinger expounds that, from our parsha, we learn a new foundation, as to the passuk: ’A people that dwells alone and not be reckoned among the nations’: Our Avot and Matriarchs in all the past generations were founded and steadfast in this, not veering from their faithfulness, despite the countless tribulations which they suffered, not ceding even one minhag, such as their way of dress as Jews.
The unyielding stand of our Avot and Imahot, stood their descendants in good stead, from generation to generation, in remaining as a ‘people that dwells alone and not reckoned amongst the nations’.
In all the days of our galut - from place to place - when in every place, the overwhelmimg majority of the populace was not Jewish, with their culture and deities, behold this wonder: The Jews did not go in their ways, and did not change their own traditions - not changing their language, nor their traditional Jewish names, which were the names of our holy Avot and Matriarchs.
Even the wicked hater of Jews, Balaam, knew to appreciate those he meant to curse, being unable to be oblivious to the might of this reality that confronted him, till he was compelled to be moved to praise them.
Last, the exposition of Rav Gedalia Schorr: In Parashat Vayishlach, we learned of the level of Yaakov Avinu, that it was לבדו: ‘ by himself’, always ‘alone’, his thoughts cleaving to Hashem.
This is what Balaam said on the nation as a whole, that they inherited this attribute from Yaakov Avinu, to be לבדד: ‘by itself’, like he was לבדו : ‘by himself’ - as it says in Parashat Vezot Habracha (33:28): ’And Israel dwelled safely and alone, as Yaakov (blessed them) in a land of grain and wine’ - meaning that they inherited this level, so that it was at the level of being able to ‘dwell safely and alone’, like the level of Yaakov: just as he was at the level of לבדו: ’by himself’, so too, his seed, as a result, throughout the generations, were able to not go in the ways of statutes of the nations, but to remain ‘alone’.
Our Sages took care to maintain this separation, enacting decrees so that we do not mingle with the nations, such as forbidding their wine, lest we thereby come close to their daughters, and the like.
Likewise, the leaders of the nation throughout the generations were on the guard to keep the level of the people, to be לבדו: by itself - as whilst they are לבדו: ‘alone’, they are בטח: safe, that they would keep their sanctity and level, as Hashem’s nation.
We find that when the people did not maintain their status of ‘alone’, Divine Providence ensured that they should be distanced by the nations - causing them to become hated, where they had sought to be favored, as we found at the beginning of their sojourn in Egypt.
Whilst this was against the will of the people at those times, Hashem’s Will was that they not go in their ways, but remain faithful to their mission to be ‘a people that dwells alone’.’
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