Or HaChaim on Numbers 24:3/אור החיים על במדבר כ״ד:ג׳

1 וישא משלו, "He began his parable, etc." Why were these two words necessary? We also need to know why he had to say: "says Bileam, etc." Who did not know that Bileam was speaking? Furthermore, why did Bileam have to tel us once more who his father was? Besides, why did he have to give details about identifying marks on his body? What did he mean when he said: "who hears the words of G'd?" If he meant to boast that he was privy to communications from G'd, why had he waited so long to do this?

2We must remember that up until this moment Bileam had uttered only words which the angel had put in his mouth; all the words he had spoken were the complete opposite of what he wished to say. Now he was anxious that G'd should agree with what he would utter, i.e. that the words he would say would be considered as if he had spoken them willingly. He was quite prepared that G'd would turn any curse he would try into a blessing. However, he wanted to make sure that if he were to pronounce a blessing G'd would not invoke His power to bless but would accept Bileam's words of blessing as they were. This was especially so if you accept our second interpretation on the words "he turned his face to the desert," where we explained that he pretended to have become a בעל תשובה, a penitent, and to thereby become fit to bless the Jewish people. The verse then may be understood as follows: וישא משלו, Bileam referred to a parable which originated with him personally, not with the angel. Once we accept this approach we can easily understand the quote from Sanhedrin 105 that his blessings were couched in such a language that they were actually curses as in כנחלים נטיו. These נחלים, rivulets which flow through the valley, are brooks which dry up in the summer so that they do not irrigate orchards adjoining them. The Holy Spirit corrected Bileam, adding the word נטיו, i.e. that not as Bileam meant that they would run dry, but they would continue to flow in every season. The Torah continued כאהלים נטע השם, "as aloes planted by the Lord;" actually, Bileam had not wanted to say the additional words "which G'd has planted;" he had only wanted to single out a category of plant which has a short life; G'd altered the meaning by adding the words: "planted by the Lord," i.e. enduring. In this fashion G'd added whatever was necessary to Bileam's "blessings" in order to make real blessings out of them, not hidden curses. If Bileam's words had been spoken by the angel just as previously, why would the angel phrase them so that they could be perceived as curses in disguise? It is dear therefore, that what we have here are words which Bileam spoke of his own accord although G'd added something in each case in order to blunt his evil intention.

3This then is why the Torah wrote three distinct statements to make it unmistakably clear that here we speak about Bileam initiating these blessings. 1) נאם בלעם (3 ,ויאמר (2 ,וישא משלו. It should be recorded forever who it was who thought up these words and uttered them. The reason that Bileam (or the Torah) recorded three separate words identifying the speaker may be analogous to what we learned in the Mishnah Peah 7,1. We are taught there that in order to be certain that a farmer is guilty of violating the law against harvesting fruit from trees he had previously forgotten (שכחה), none of the following three conditions must obtain: 1) The olive tree in question must not be known by a particular name. 2) its produce must not be of a particularly well known quality. 3) The tree in question must not be known because of its specific location. The Mishnah rules that if any of these three conditions applies to the tree in question, it is not conceivable that the owner "forgot" to harvest it when he harvested the rest of the orchard, and therefore he is allowed to pluck the olives from this tree even when this appears to be an afterthought. In our verse, the words "the son of Be-Or" identify the speaker just as the Mishnah identifies the tree. The reason the Torah did not write the usual בן, "son of," but בנו, "his son," is to remind us that Bileam's father was inferior to Bileam the son in achievements. It is also possible that all the Torah wanted to tell us was that Be-Or had only one son, Bileam. If you were to say that he did have additional sons, then the Torah meant that the only son of his who counted was Bileam. As to the specific quality of the fruit of the tree in question mentioned in our Mishnah in Peah the Torah writes הגבר שתום העין, the man whose piercing look would cause harm to anyone he set his eyes on. This is why he had to make it a habit to close his eye i.e. סותם עינו, to avoid killing people indiscriminately. Alternatively, his left eye was distinguished in some way. According to the commentators who understand the expression שתום העין to mean that his eye was opened, it means that when he used to open this eye he would inflict harm on the objects he looked at. Concerning the third identifying mark mentioned in the Mishnah in Peah, the specific location of the tree in question, the Torah wrote שומע אמרי א־ל, "the one who hears the words of G'd," i.e. that he stood in a place where the power of prophecy descended upon him.

4We now have to explain why Bileam said three times of himself that he was speaking, i.e. נאם. This may have to do with three distinct hidden powers Bileam possessed. 1) He was endowed with special powers at birth, something he inherited in his genes. 2) He acquired special powers due to certain deeds of his, just like any person who acquires psychic or spiritual powers due to a certain lifestyle. 3) G'd endowed him with certain powers in order to defuse the claim of the Gentile nations that if only they would have had a prophet such as Moses, they too would have distinguished themselves spiritually just as the Jewish people had done (compare Bamidbar Rabbah 20,1). Bileam intended to bring to bear all of his three powers in his speeches. Concerning the powers he had inherited by way of his genes he said נאם בלעם בנו בעור; he made a point of describing himself as the son of Be-Or instead of describing himself as "a son of Be-Or" so as to avoid the impression that his father had possessed these powers in even greater measure than he himself. He was only interested in underlining his own part in these powers. Concerning the psychic spiritual powers he had acquired on his own, he said נאם הגבר, "says the man." The word גבר is also an allusion to גבורה, heroism or bravery. When he added the words שתום העין, he may have referred to something in the Zohar volume 3 page 208 that he made a pilgrimage to Azza and Azael (names of deities, fallen angels) where he acquired spiritually negative powers. There he gained insights into many mystical matters at the same time finding the acquisition of these powers very exhausting, as described there by the Zohar. Finally, concerning the powers G'd endowed him with, Bileam described himself as שומע אמרי א־ל. He repeated the importance of this element among his powers by adding the word ומחזה, calling attention to the fact that he enjoyed visions granted to him by G'd. He referred to two levels of prophetic powers 1) He could hear G'd's words; 2) He could see visions when addressed by G'd. When he added the words נפל וגלוי עינים, "falling down yet with eyes open," he described his reaction when receiving communications from G'd. If the communication was visual, he would fall down at the time. If it was merely aural, he was able to absorb such messages with eyes open, i.e. without having to go into a trance.