Or HaChaim on Numbers 22:41/אור החיים על במדבר כ״ב:מ״א

1 ויהי בבקר ויקח בלק…וירא משם קצה העם. On the following morning Balak took Bileam…and he saw a small part of the people. The word ויהי, as usual, also connotes something sad. The word may refer to the disagreement between Bileam and Balak over the measly portion of meat the latter had sent over on the previous day. The words ויקח בלק accordingly would refer to Balak trying to assuage Bileam's hurt feelings on the subject.

2Another meaning of these words may be a reference to Bileam's partial lameness. As a rule people suffering from such lameness have difficulty in walking in the morning and especially if they have to climb hills. The word ויהי may hint at the discomfort Bileam experienced on that morning when he had to undertake physical exertions which were most difficult for him. Balak assisted him, and this may be the meaning of the words ויקח בלק את בלעם Balak helped Bileam climb the במות, the hills.

3The word בבקר, "in the morning," may also indicate that Balak did not sleep well during the preceding night. We have a rule that kings do not normally rise till 3 hours after daybreak (Berachot 9). In this instance, Balak broke the rule and rose much earlier than usual.

4Still another reason why the Torah mentioned the detail בבקר, may be connected with what we learned in A vodah Zarah 4. The Talmud questions what precise time is called רתח, a moment when G'd's anger is hot and Abbaye says it is three hours after daybreak. [In order to understand the significance of this let me quote from the text of the Talmud prior to this statement. The Talmud discusses Bileam's ability to divine what G'd thinks about and asks how this is possible in view of Bileam's demonstrated inability to know even what his ass was thinking about. After explaining that there was a special reason why on that day Bileam did not know what went on in his ass's mind, the Talmud even reconstructs the dialogue carried on between Bileam and his ass in addition to that reported in the Torah. At any rate, it is presumed that he was an expert at divining the precise moment when G'd is angry, something important because G'd's anger is so brief. Ed.] When the Torah speaks about בבקר, it hints that Balak and Bileam picked that moment in time when G'd might be angry at His world and a curse might be effective. Bamidbar Rabbah 20,18 also claims that the במות בעל mentioned in our verse refer to the cult of the בעל פעור and that Bileam foresaw that the Israelites would die there [as they did in due course as a result of Bileam's advice to Balak to have the Israelites seduced. Ed.] It is well known that this cult consisted of the worshiper excreting before that idol. Sanhedrin 64 describes what happened in these words: "how did one serve this particular deity? One ate beets and drank beer and then excreted and urinated in front of the idol." In other words, the very worship consisted in the worshiper behaving in the most primitive and revolting fashion. In view of this, Balak wanted to take Bileam up to the hills on which this cult was practiced and at the time it would be performed. This is the meaning of the words ויעלהו במות בעל, he took him up to the hills dedicated to the "Baal Pe-or." Perhaps this was not one of the cults which Bileam worshiped and Balak tried to talk him into performing such worship.

5Still another reason for the Torah writing בבקר, "in the morning," may be related to what the Zohar wrote at the beginning of this portion when it described Balak's particular brand of magic and sorcery involving a bird, צפור. Balak took Bileam up to the hill at the time when this bird was known to be chirping. At such times Bileam could perform his tricks successfully.

6Let us now turn to the reason that Bileam was only able to see a small part of the Jewish people from where Balak had taken him. We have already explained that Taanit 9 tells us that during all the preceding 39 years protective clouds had hovered over the encampment of the Jewish people so that outsiders could not even peek at the Israelites. When Aaron died these clouds disappeared and the camp of the Israelites became visible to outsiders for the first time. This is why the Canaanite (read Amalekite dressed as Canaanites) had been able to locate them and they made war against the Israelites. Subsequently, the protective clouds returned thanks to the merit of Moses. As a result, the camp of the Israelites was once more concealed from outsiders. In view of this how is it possible that Balak showed Bileam even part of the people? Should not G'd have made doubly certain that Bileam could not see them as his evil eye was potentially dangerous to them? We must conclude therefore that the קצה העם, the small part of the people whom Bileam did see, he saw only as a result of invoking Balak's magic by means of the bird we have mentioned earlier. Sanhedrin 67 asks why the witches are called מכשפות in the Torah? The answer is that witches by definition reveal matters which normally are hidden. [not in my text of the Talmud. Ed.] In this instance the witchcraft consisted of revealing what the cloud had hidden. The Torah therefore tells us that even with the help of his witchcraft Bileam managed to glimpse only a small part of the nation.