Or HaChaim on Numbers 24:6/אור החיים על במדבר כ״ד:ו׳

1 כנחלים נטיו, "As valleys stretched out, etc." Our sages in Sanhedrin 105 offer many interpretations on this verse. I believe we may do well to explain the verse in the following manner. Bileam speaks of four different groups of righteous people amongst the Jewish nation. One category is similar to the prophet Samuel who used to tour the whole land of Israel year after year in order to spread Torah knowledge (Shabbat 56). The second group of righteous men are the ones who made their headquarters on the Temple Mount near the Sanctuary teaching and judging. Actually, this group is not basically different from people such as the prophet Samuel except that people wishing to hear the word of G'd had to come there instead of the word of G'd coming to them. The group of people who emulate the prophet Samuel are superior to this group as they bring the word of G'd to all parts of the country. The third category of righteous people is the group who study Torah for its own sake, i.e. without ulterior motives. The group mentioned previously is superior in that it not only studies but also teaches. The fourth category of the righteous are the ones who provide the financial backing for those who study by going out to earn the money necessary to support both themselves and the people studying Torah.

2Bileam had something to say with regard to each of these four groups of righteous Jews. He compared the members of the category who model themselves after the prophet Samuel by describing them as "brooks which stretch out," to describe the way they reach out spreading their Torah knowledge. He complimented these people for being like drawers of water enabling others to drink. He described the second category of the righteous, the ones who study and dispense knowledge and justice on the Temple Mount as "gardens along the river;" a garden has been planted as a fixture and anyone who wishes can come and avail himself of what it has to offer. The fruits of this garden eventually reach all corners of the country when the people who had come there take the fruit with them. This is what the prophet Isaiah had in mind when he said (Isaiah 2,3) that "Torah emanates from Zion and the word of G'd from Jerusalem." The third category of the righteous, the ones who isolate themselves in study for study's sake but who do not interact much with the community they live in, Bileam compared to aloes "planted by G'd;" they are similar to Jacob whom the Torah described as a loner, "a man living in his tent" i.e. devoting his life to study. [The author uses the letters of the word aholim in the text as if they had been vocalised oholim "tents." Ed.] The reason Bileam used the word נטיעה, "planted" in this context is that the older these plants (aloes) become the more roots they develop i.e. their souls become ever more deeply rooted in Torah values. Finally, concerning the fourth category of the righteous the ones who provide the material wherewithal for those who study and/or disseminate Torah, Bileam describes them as towering cedars. This is hyperbole for the men of physical and spiritual stature of this world. Although they possess all these attributes they do not yield fruit as they have not studied Torah themselves.

3I have written repeatedly about the fact that the only true "fruit" is the fruit resulting from Torah study. It behooves us to study what the Zohar volume 3 page 202 has written on Deut. 20,19: "do not destroy its trees." The author understands the trees mentioned in that verse as a reference to Torah scholars, whose Torah knowledge is considered as the fruit they yield. Bileam adds the words עלי מים, that these cedars grow near sources of water to explain the reason why they endure. Water is a simile for the Torah which stands by people who study it, just as water is an indispensable part of physical life. People who enable the Torah scholars to keep on studying by providing their physical needs share fully in the rewards of these scholars, as we have documented repeatedly. The entire blessing is meant to describe all of the Israelites as deeply rooted in sanctity, even the section of the population which devotes itself to the pursuit of material goals in order to share the results with the Torah students.