A City of Power or Submission?

A City of Power or Submission?
When reading through the narrative of Parshat Balak, Bila’am seems to be surprisingly confident in his prophetic capabilities. He tells the ministers of Moav and Midyan to stay the night, assured that Hashem will inform him what to do before morning. He seems to have constant access to prophetic revelation in ways that only the greatest prophet – Moshe Rabbeinu – had. 

Indeed, Chazal inform us that Bila’am’s level of prophecy was equal to Moshe’s. This astounding assertion leads to a fundamental teaching that appears in the very beginning of the Midrash’s analysis of Bila’am (Bamidbar Rabbah 20:1). The Midrash asserts that HaKadosh Baruch Hu granted the other nations of the world a parallel personality to every great heroic figure in Jewish history. 

Just as Klal Yisrael received the great prophet Moshe, the other nations received Bila’am. While Moshe’s prophecy leads to moral refinement and Godly values, Bila’am’s powerful spiritual capabilities were directed toward disastrous sin and near annihilation. 

The Midrash notes that Bila’am is not the only expression of this phenomenon. This is part of a broader pattern of זה לעומת זה עשה אלוקים – this one against that one God made. For every powerful spiritual hero granted to the Jewish people, Hashem established a parallel personality among the nations of the world. 

Chazal highlight Shlomo HaMelech and Nevuchadnetzar as the next pairing. Shlomo was granted unparalleled political power and wealth. He used these resources to glorify Yerushalayim and build a magnificent home for the Shechinah. With wisdom, Shlomo composed beautiful literary works of praise and supplication to the Almighty. 

Nevuchadnetzar, the Babylonian ruler of the ancient world, was likewise granted domination over the nations of the world. But instead of facilitating Hashem’s connection to His people and His world, Nevuchadnetzar utilized his power to destroy the Mikdash and divorce the Shechinah from Yerushalayim. Instead of recognizing and extolling Hashem’s greatness, he blasphemes Hashem (until he is forced into submission, of course; see for example Daniel 4). 

This distinction between Shlomo and his Babylonian counterpart highlights a fundamental distinction between how Klal Yisrael and the other nations view Yerushalayim. For Klal Yisrael, Yerushalayim is a symbol of hachna’a, submission before Hashem. To draw His Presence into our world, we surrender our wealth, capabilities, and ambitions to the King of Kings, recognizing that He is the ultimate source of everything we possess. 

Not so the other nations. Their kings seek to usurp God’s power for their own cynical purposes. Instead of building Yerushalayim as the focal point of Hashem’s connection to this world, they destroy it. Instead of facilitating Hashem’s revelation in Creation, they mask it. 

And even when they seek to possess Yerushalayim rather than destroy it, the city still does not represent to them what it did to its original architects. Yerushalayim is not a symbol of political power or worldly dominance. Quite the opposite. It proclaims that all political power and worldly accomplishment ultimately belong to Hashem. Its message is that no king, empire, or civilization stands at the center of history: Hashem does. The holiness of Yerushalayim emerges not when man exalts himself, but when he willingly places everything he has achieved at the feet of the King of Kings.

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