Ari Levisohn: Welcome to Into the Verse, the podcast where we dive deep into the verses to share new and unexpected insights, illuminating the parsha and holidays like you’ve never seen before. This is Ari Levisohn, and I’m joined today by my colleague, Adina Blaustein. Thanks for joining me, Adina.

Adina Blaustein: Well, thanks for having me.

Ari: So it's almost Shavuot. It feels like it was just Passover. And so the Shalosh Regalim, the Three Festivals, have been on my mind recently, and I've been particularly interested in the question of, what are these holidays doing as a group, as a unit? I mean, yeah, we know they each have their own details that make them unique. But the Torah does refer to them as a group. It refers to them as the “Shalosh Regalim.” And it's not like all holidays are included in the Shalosh Regalim, right? There's the High Holidays that are not there, or maybe even Shabbat or Rosh Chodesh, right?

Adina: Yeah, I definitely agree that, you know, the High Holy Days and the Shalosh Regalim, I think we think of them as clear units.

Ari: Yeah. So, what I'm really curious today is, what are these three doing as a unit? Are they serving some greater purpose? They just happen to be lumped together? Probably not. But I think in order to do that, let's turn to the first place in the Torah where it actually refers to them as a group.

Adina: Okay, cool. So where am I going?

Ari: So if you could open up Exodus 23:14.

Adina: Okay. שָׁלֹשׁ רְגָלִים תָּחֹג לִי בַּשָּׁנָה – Three times a year, you shall hold a festival for Me. So, definitely, they're a unit. That's how the Torah presents them.

Ari: Yeah, it's pretty brief here. It's not going into length as it does later on. It's really just kind of summarizing them in the shortest way possible and then presenting them as this unit. And finally, verse 17.

Adina: שָׁלֹשׁ פְּעָמִים בַּשָּׁנָה יֵרָאֶה כׇּל־זְכוּרְךָ אֶל־פְּנֵי הָאָדֹן יְקוָה – Three times a year, all the males should appear before God.

Ari: Okay. So, note the two ways that the Torah refers to them as a group. 

Adina: “Regalim,” “pe’amim.” But then they're also called “chagim”.

Ari: Right. They're all called “chagim”. They're festivals, but the group as a whole is shalosh regalim and now shalosh pe'amim. Now, shalosh pe'amim, literally “three times,” that makes total sense. That's exactly how you would expect the Torah to refer to these three holidays. But shalosh regalim, that's pretty weird language.

Adina: Yeah, you know. It's funny because I'm just so used to that term, that's what we call it, that when you stop and say,  “Well, what does that mean?” Then it's strange, yeah. Regel is a foot.

Ari: Right? It's like, literally, “The Three Feet.” So it does seem kind of bizarre here that the Torah is referring to these holidays as “legs,” as “feet-times.” Yeah, it's very strange. And it turns out that there is actually only one other time in the Torah where the word regel, which is literally “leg,” is ever used to actually mean time. And I think that that other place might just be the clue to understanding not just this strange language here, but also what these shalosh regalim, what these festivals are all about, as a unit.

Okay, so for $1 million, what is that other place?

Adina: Well, I feel like I am cheating because I know the answer, but I don’t know if that’s cheating. Okay, so we’re in the Book of Numbers, Sefer Bamidbar, when the donkey speaks to Bilaam, right? 

Ari: Yeah, let’s summarize the story.

Adina: Yeah, okay. So B'nei Yisrael are towards the end of their trek through the wilderness, and the nation of Moav is kind of quaking in their boots hearing about B'nei Yisrael and their clear intention, it seems, to enter and defeat the Canaanite nations. And so they hatch this plan that they are going to hire a prophet – I just, by the way, love that part, like, “prophet-for-hire.” Like, that's awesome – to curse the nation. And that individual is Bilaam. Bilaam, really interesting figure; if he's righteous, if he's evil, like a mixture of both. He definitely talks to God, which is just a whole…I'm sure that's like a whole other can of worms.

But Bilaam starts traveling to the encampment of B'nei Yisrael, and along the way – this is that Shrek moment – his donkey sees the angel of God blocking the path, and the donkey keeps swerving away because the angel is holding a sword and, you know, the donkey's obviously very scared. Bilaam can't see the angel, but the donkey does see the angel. And Bilaam is therefore, like, furiously beating the donkey and getting increasingly agitated, and the donkey keeps swerving off the path.

Finally, in chapter 22, verse 28, a miraculous thing happens: וַיִּפְתַּח יְקוָה אֶת־פִּי הָאָתוֹן – God opens the mouth of the donkey, וַתֹּאמֶר – and the donkey actually speaks! וַתֹּאמֶר לְבִלְעָם – and she speaks to Bilaam this donkey, this female donkey speaks. מֶה־עָשִׂיתִי לְךָ – What have I done to you, כִּי הִכִּיתַנִי זֶה שָׁלֹשׁ רְגָלִים – that you are beating me these three times? And there's your shalosh regalim.

Ari: Yeah, there's your shalosh regalim, and it ends up actually coming up another two times in this section of the story when the angel refers to this whole drama that played out between Bilaam and his donkey as shalosh regalim. 

Adina: Yes, right. I see, in verse 32, we have this word again when the malach Hashem now, who Bilaam can see, says, עַל־מָה הִכִּיתָ אֶת־אֲתֹנְךָ זֶה שָׁלוֹשׁ רְגָלִים – why are you beating your donkey these three times? And then, the angel continues speaking in verse 33, continuing to describe what just happened because Bilaam obviously hadn't seen the angel and didn't truly understand why the donkey was veering off the path. So the angel continues: וַתִּרְאַנִי הָאָתוֹן – the donkey saw me, וַתֵּט לְפָנַי – and the donkey swerved before me, זֶה שָׁלֹשׁ רְגָלִים – those three times.

And so there you have those three appearances of shalosh regalim, and it's just, I mean, it's incredibly fascinating that it's three times, times three. It appears three times. Super cool.

Ari: Yeah. And, not just is this the only place where the Torah uses the word regalim to refer to times, but it's also three and it's like emphasized with this, you know, tripling up of the language. And not just that, but the other language the Torah uses to describe these holidays, right? Shalosh pe'amim, which is literally “three times,” also comes up in this same story as shalosh pe'amim.

Bilaam finally comes and meets up with Balak and agrees to at least try to curse the Israelites, even though he's already said, “I can't curse, I can only speak what God puts in my mouth.” And then, three times he tries to curse them and blessings come out.

Diving Into the Bilaam Story

Adina: Wow. And I'll just say, I'm, like, racking my brain. Like, what's the connection to the shalosh regalim? And I honestly am like, these two episodes could not be any more dissimilar, right? There's Bilaam trying to curse B'nei Yisrael, and then there's shalosh regalim.

Ari: Yeah, like, what could these have to do with each other? So I think we only have one choice now, which is, let's just dive into the Bilaam story and see what we can find. What could this story possibly have to do with the holidays, and also, what does this teach us about the word regalim? And why would the Torah be using that as a substitute for the word “times?”

So let's just open up here, Numbers 22. So, Balak, the King of Moav, and the Moabites, they see Yisrael coming. They see that the Israelites just defeated the Amorites, and in verse three, it says: וַיָּגׇר מוֹאָב מִפְּנֵי הָעָם מְאֹד – So, the Moabites become extremely fearful of the Israelites, כִּי רַב־הוּא – because they're great, וַיָּקׇץ מוֹאָב מִפְּנֵי בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל – and Moav becomes disgusted by the Israelites. וַיֹּאמֶר מוֹאָב אֶל־זִקְנֵי מִדְיָן – So, Moav then goes to the elders of Midyan, that's Bilaam's people. עַתָּה יְלַחֲכוּ הַקָּהָל אֶת־כׇּל־סְבִיבֹתֵינוּ כִּלְחֹךְ הַשּׁוֹר אֵת יֶרֶק הַשָּׂדֶה – These people are going to go and יְלַחֲכוּ, they’ll lick up everything that's around us, like the ox licks up the produce of the field.

Adina: Yeah, they're gonna strip it bare.

Ari: And then you know, they continue this language when they come to Bilaam and try to convince him to come with them to curse the Israelites.

Adina: Right, they're clearly articulating this narrative of, this nation, somehow, is a massive threat.

Ari: Yeah, I think there's two things we see here, right? They're threatened by the Israelites, and they're also disgusted by the Israelites. These two things kind of seem to go together. So they continue this language when they come to Bilaam and try to convince him to come with them. They tell him: הִנֵּה עַם יָצָא מִמִּצְרַיִם – this nation which has left Egypt, הִנֵּה כִסָּה אֶת־עֵין הָאָרֶץ – they are covering the eye of the land, for whatever that means, right? And they go on to tell him: וְעַתָּה לְכָה־נָּא אָרָה־לִּי אֶת־הָעָם הַזֶּה – Now come with us and curse these people, because they are mightier than us. So we see this language of, like, “They're gonna destroy everything, they're gonna eat up all the land,” whether literally or metaphorically. They're kind of seeing them as some kind of pest that they need to get rid of, and at the same time, they're also afraid of how powerful they are.

Adina: Yeah, I mean, I'm reading this, and this is Exodus chapter one. This is the beginning of shibud Mitzrayim.

Ari: Exactly.

Adina: Yeah. Is that where you're going?

Ari: Uh-huh, a hundred percent. Yeah, I was gonna say, do you know...do you see any parallels to the holidays here? And I...we don't, but there's something really strong that's like, right, really grabbing at us.

Adina: So, like, “וַיָּגׇר” this idea of, like, ger, being a stranger in a land.

Ari: Right.

Adina: מִפְּנֵי הָעָם, that language of הָעָם (ha’am), calling them, like, you know, this almost like, objectifying them as, “they’re a nation,” when...I don't know, the beginning of Shemot, there were kind of like a few families. רַב־הוּא (rav hu), that's definitely language I recognize.

Ari: רַב, not just רַב, but...

Adina: וַיָּקׇץ, that language of disgust. רַב וְעָצוּם מִמֶּנּוּ appears here...

Ari: רַב וְעָצוּם, we have both רַב (rav) and עָצוּם (atzum). They're referred to as “great and mighty.” And, Exodus 1:9, Egypt refers to Israelites as רַב וְעָצוּם מִמֶּנּוּ – greater and mightier than us. 

Adina: That hyperbolic מִפְּנֵי הָעָם מְאֹד, I'm hearing echoes of the multiplication of B'nei Yisrael through the birth of multiples, right? פָּרוּ וַיִּשְׁרְצוּ וַיִּרְבּוּ וַיַּעַצְמוּ בִּמְאֹד מְאֹד – They multiplied, became numerous, right, fertile, right, a lot, a lot.

Ari: Yeah. What else do you see in verse 3?

Adina: And then, right, and then וַיָּקׇץ – became disgusted with them, or alarmed with them. And then, if I remember that verse correctly...

Ari: Exodus 1:12.

Adina: Yeah. וַיָּקֻצוּ (vayakutzu), is that there?

Ari: Mm-hmm.

Adina: Yeah.

Ari: וַיָּקֻצוּ מִפְּנֵי בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל. Exactly the same language. The Egyptians, the Moabites, they become disgusted by the Israelites.

Adina: It's describing this really intense reaction. I remember reading once that, like, the language of וַיָּקֻצוּ is like when you feel like you're gagging, like you're throwing up, you're becoming nauseated and disgusted. So, this isn't just fear. This is fear and disgust, contempt, loathing that somehow the Moabites are feeling deeply in their own identity. They're objectifying B’nei Yisrael, obviously.

Ari: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Adina: And then verse four, I mean, it continues because...

Ari: It does, yeah.

Adina: Yeah. The metaphors that they're using, this notion of, like, they are going to strip us clean. It's kind of reminding me of הָבָה נִתְחַכְּמָה לוֹ. I mean, now that I'm starting, it's just too much. I mean, I'm assuming that's all you're noticing, right?

Ari: There's so much. Well, actually, in verse four, there's one language here that's word-for-word borrowing from Egypt. The fact they're gonna go and eat up all the  יֶרֶק הַשָּׂדֶה – all of the greenery of the fields, all the grass of the field, right? In the plague of locusts, of אַרְבֶּה, it says, in Exodus 10:15: וְלֹא־נוֹתַר כׇּל־יֶרֶק בָּעֵץ וּבְעֵשֶׂב הַשָּׂדֶה – Right, this כׇּל־יֶרֶק הַשָּׂדֶה, all the vegetation in the field gets completely eaten up. So now, Moav is referring to the Israelites as if they are these locusts who are just...who are pests.

Adina: Yeah, and certainly that image of the Mitzriyim kind of saying, “Oh, they're swarming the earth.” They're, like, they're not even people, they're animals. I mean, that's how, that's the language that the midwife uses to Pharaoh, to kind of say, “Oh, they're animals. They give birth before we even get there.”

Ari: To put one final nail in the coffin, in case you had any doubt about that language from the locusts in Exodus 10:15, that verse starts off: וַיְכַס אֶת־עֵין כׇּל־הָאָרֶץ – They covered the eyes of the land, which is, again, exactly verbatim, word-for-word how they describe the Israelites now as covering the eye of the land.

Adina: Yeah. And I'm even seeing a really important thematic parallel, which is in Exodus chapter one, Pharoah kind of looks at the situation, and he decides to proceed not by an outright genocide, but by hitchakmut, right? He says, הָבָה נִתְחַכְּמָה לוֹ – let's outsmart them. And what follows is a series of efforts, of strategies really, to kind of gradually enslave the people – to kill the baby boys, secretly at first, and then by throwing them in the Nile. So what follows isn't just, “Egyptians, pick up your swords and kill them.” What follows is a kind of underhanded way to dominate B'nei Yisrael. And that's essentially what's going on here, that Moav isn't saying, “All right, Moabites, pick up your swords and let's fight against the nation.” In turning to Bilaam, they're seeking a similar, more subversive path by cursing the nation.

Ari: Exactly. If this was a normal, just simple fear, you know, then they might try to just train harder and recruit more men and just fight extra hard and defeat them. But they're trying to dominate them, in some kind of way. So, you know, these parallels are almost impossible to ignore here. But does Egypt have anything to do with the holidays?

Adina: I mean, like, the whole story, the historical backdrop of the shalosh regalim is the Exodus from Egypt. 

Ari: Exactly. The Exodus from Egypt is definitely connected to all the holidays. Every time, in both the prayers and the kiddush, we refer to all of them as zecher l'yitziat Mitzrayim, a remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt.

Balak, the Exodus, and the Shalosh Regalim

So the question, though, is, what does the connection between Balak and the Exodus have to do with the holidays? What does it have to do with regalim? And in order to understand, I think we just need to keep reading a little bit further.

As an aside, these parallels we just talked about, we have talked about these before in one of our animated parsha videos. You can go check those out on the website. But I want to try to go a little bit further than we went there and explore some new stuff.

So it's clear that Balak is modeling himself after Pharaoh and after Egypt in the way he's relating to the Israelites. But what about Bilaam? So Balak makes this offer to Bilaam: “Join me, curse the Israelites, and I will honor you greatly.” And now listen to the language he uses. This is Numbers 22, verse 16. Balak says to Bilaam, אַל־נָא תִמָּנַע מֵהֲלֹךְ אֵלָי – Don't hold back from coming with me, כִּי־כַבֵּד אֲכַבֶּדְךָ מְאֹד – because I will honor you greatly. Now, does that remind you of anything in the Exodus story? כִּי־כַבֵּד אֲכַבֶּדְךָ מְאֹד – I will honor you greatly? This word, כַבֵּד (kaved)?

Adina: Yeah, so it's interesting because this is right after Bilaam seems to be demurring to move forward with the plan, and the king's job, Balak's job, is to push Bilaam along and say, “Bilaam, keep going. You keep doing this.” And there's no possible reason why Bilaam, after seeing the angel of God and after having his donkey speak to him, would keep going.

So, I mean, what immediately comes to mind is vayechbad Hashem et leiv Pharoah, that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, right? I'm just seeing that parallel of Pharaoh. There is no reason for you to keep refusing to allow Bnei Yisrael to go. You see each successively more distressing plague, and yet he kept going.

Ari: Yeah. So that language of כַבֵּד in the Exodus story means that Pharaoh's heart was heavy, but it's the same word in Hebrew. We translate it differently in different contexts, but as you're pointing out, you know, we really shouldn't translate them so differently because they're really describing the exact same thing, which is this, like, pride or honor that they both have.

Adina: Like a stubbornness, persistence, yeah.

Ari: Right. But in the Bilaam story, it's, you know, “I'll honor you,” right? So I guess you could ask, like, okay, why does Pharaoh really not let the Israelites go? Like, what is really going on there? So like, stubbornness, okay. But, like, what's even below the level of stubbornness? Why is he stubborn? I think it might be the same reason that Balak is offering to Bilaam here, which is a sense of honor.

Adina: It could be selfishness or pride. Yeah.

Ari: Like a sense of pride, right, and the pride leads them to do the exact same thing, which is to try to mess with the Israelites despite all evidence that this is a bad idea.

Adina: And I'll just say, try to mess with the God of the Israelites despite all evidence that this is a bad idea. I think in the Exodus story, Pharaoh so clearly casts himself as an antagonist of God, not just of the nation. And, you know, from his first challenge to Moshe of, “Who is this God? I haven't heard of him,” the plagues are clearly all about God educating Pharaoh and the Egyptians, “You will know God by the end of this.”

And I wonder if, with that journey in mind, now I'm looking at it and I'm wondering if Bilaam casts himself in a similar way as this all powerful, all-knowing prophet who also has his pride on the line.

Ari: Yeah. Bilaam, and then I think certainly Balak too. I wonder if that's what's going on with Balak and what they're trying to do with the Israelites, and I wonder if this over-inflated ego might really be at the heart of everything we just saw.

You know, if they were really just afraid of the Israelites, there were a lot of other options they could do. Why is Balak afraid? He saw what happened to the Amorites, but the Amorites only ended up in a war with Israel because they refused to let the Israelites pass through. And it was actually the Amorites who started the fight against them. So it doesn't seem like Balak really had anything to be afraid about. If his fear was really just that he was going to be destroyed in war...but if his fear is something much more personal, it's something much more emotional that has to do with their sense of pride and power, then you might start to see why they’re so motivated to view the Israelites like animals, and they're so demeaning to them. And the very fact that Israel is becoming powerful is itself a terrible thing.

Adina: Yeah, I think you're kind of painting a picture of psychologically what happens when we feel like a core part of our identity is challenged by people around us, that an unfortunate reaction is to then cast those around us in a less-than-human way to be able to justify our contempt of them. I mean, the Nazis did this with the Jews, and that they kind of cast them in a less-than-human light, called them vermin and painted them in an animalistic way to then be able to justify the acts that they were then demanding that they do. You're not murdering a human if you don't view that person as human.

Ari: Right, and of course that also, though, went along with their own sense of pride, their sense of superiority as the Aryan race.

Adina: Yes, for sure. It's such a fascinating portrayal into how pride can move to jealousy, how jealousy can move you to contempt, how contempt can move you to something even much more dangerous and scary, to think of a genocide.

I'm fascinated by this Bilaam character now, and I guess I'm fascinated by Balak too, because wouldn't they have learned from Pharaoh and the Egyptians? When you pointed out the connections, you presented it like Balak and Bilaam are casting themselves in this way, or perhaps the Narrator is casting it in this way.

Ari: Yeah. I mean, I would say it's probably the narrative voice of the Torah that's casting in this way. Presumably, they didn't realize how stupid they were being.

Adina: Right, right. And they just said, “Oh, well, Pharaoh was unsuccessful in the ways that he did it. We're just going to do it differently. We're going to do it better. Pharaoh tried to enslave them in his way. We have a secret weapon, which is Bilaam's power to have his blessings or curses come to fruition.”

It's fascinating that, as you're saying, the Torah is then creating these hyperlinks for us to then learn from, to kind of acknowledge.

A Donkey Dilemma

Ari: So I want to look a little bit more into Bilaam, because he doesn't really accept or reject this offer, but he goes along for the journey, where we end up with the story of the talking donkey. And I want to look at the text there and see if there are any more parallels that might shed light on what's going on with Bilaam in particular, and really, our ultimate question of what's going on with the word shalosh regalim.

Okay, so Numbers 22:25. The angel comes to get in Bilaam's way. The donkey sees and turns away. וַתֵּרֶא הָאָתוֹן אֶת־מַלְאַךְ יְקוָה – The donkey sees this angel of God, וַתִּלָּחֵץ אֶל־הַקִּיר – and he presses Bilaam into the wall. וַתִּלְחַץ אֶת־רֶגֶל בִּלְעָם אֶל־הַקִּיר – And it presses the leg of Bilaam into the wall. Here we have “leg.” I don't know, maybe that's important. Remember that. וַיֹּסֶף לְהַכֹּתָהּ – then Bilaam continues to hit her. Adina, anything here remind you of Exodus?

Adina: The imagery of God smiting the Egyptians again and again and again. And also, I guess, in recompense for the Egyptians smiting the Israelites again and again and again.

Ari: Right, with the language of makkot, לְהַכֹּתָהּ, which is “smiting,” right. So it's not really clear which role Bilaam is playing here. Is he playing the Egyptians, or is he playing God? What about this language of וַתִּלְחַץ (vatilchatz)? 

Adina: I think, is that describing the Egyptians as they're on the receiving end of the Makot? I think that appears there.

Ari: Not on the receiving end, but before the makkot, in Exodus 3:9, God says וְגַם־רָאִיתִי אֶת־הַלַּחַץ אֲשֶׁר מִצְרַיִם לֹחֲצִים אֹתָם – I've seen the oppression that Egypt is oppressing the Israelites. This oppression, pressing, it's the same word. 

Adina: I’ll just point out that the אָתוֹן [donkey] seems to be having a bit of a Burning Bush moment, that the אָתוֹן is able to see the malach Hashem and Bilaam can't.

Ari: Oh, yeah. Wow. I would love to do a whole epilogue about...

Adina: Just like, right, how Moses can see the Burning Bush…

Ari: How Moshe comes into this, because that's not the only Burning Bush reference here. But yeah, so it turns out that this language of oppression, לַּחַץ, only ever comes up in the context of what the Egyptians did to the Israelites, with the exception of right here when the donkey is doing that to Bilaam. So now, like, it's the donkey who's being the Egyptians who are oppressing his master Bilaam. It's like this weird imagery.

Adina: So yeah, the roles reverse, but when we kind of see the donkey oppressing Bilaam, this kind of makes sense, right? Because the donkey's actually trying to save Bilaam from harm, but in the process, Bilaam processes it as, “Well, my donkey is trying to torture me.”

Ari: Right, my donkey is not just torturing me, he's oppressing me. I'm oppressed by my donkey. And now, he has to fight back against the donkey. And now he's giving makkot to the donkey. So this happens twice. There's two rounds of this happening, and then it runs itself into a narrow place. It has nowhere to turn, right or left. וַתִּרְבַּץ תַּחַת בִּלְעָם – it crouches under Bilaam, וַיִּחַר־אַף בִּלְעָם – and Bilaam gets furious, he gets angry, וַיַּךְ אֶת־הָאָתוֹן בַּמַּקֵּל – and now he hits it with a stick. וַיִּפְתַּח יְקוָה אֶת־פִּי הָאָתוֹן – God opens the mouth of this donkey. וַתֹּאמֶר לְבִלְעָם – The donkey says to Bilaam, מֶה־עָשִׂיתִי לְךָ כִּי הִכִּיתַנִי זֶה שָׁלֹשׁ רְגָלִים – What have I done to you that you have hit me these three times? And Bilaam responds to him,  כִּי הִתְעַלַּלְתְּ בִּי – because you have made a mockery of me. Does that remind you of anything?

Adina: I think that's kind of the general tone of what God does to Pharaoh throughout the Exodus story.

Ari: Yeah. Look in Exodus 10:2. God says: וּלְמַעַן תְּסַפֵּר בְּאׇזְנֵי בִנְךָ וּבֶן־בִּנְךָ אֵת אֲשֶׁר הִתְעַלַּלְתִּי בְּמִצְרַיִם – You should tell your children about how I made a mockery of Egypt. Again, I believe this is the only two times in the Torah that this language is used. So now, it's the donkey who's like God making a mockery of Bilaam. The pasuk continues, Bilaam says...yeah, go for it.

Adina: לוּ יֶשׁ־חֶרֶב בְּיָדִי – If only I had a sword in my hand, כִּי עַתָּה הֲרַגְתִּיךְ – I would kill you.

Ari: Does that remind you of anything?

Adina: It just reminds me of this general sense of, like, why didn’t the Egyptians pick swords and kill B'nei Yisrael?

Ari: So if you take a look at Exodus 5:21, after Moses' first attempt to free the Israelites, Pharaoh increases the work which leads to the Israelites just being completely distraught. And they come to Moses and they say, you know, “Why have you just made everything worse for us?” They say, “Moses, you have given Pharaoh a sword to kill us.” Here's the language: לָתֶת־חֶרֶב בְּיָדָם לְהׇרְגֵנוּ – You've given them a sword to kill us. So now, Bilaam is saying, “If only I had a sword, like the Egyptians did, to kill the Israelites,” but of course the Egyptians didn't really kill the Israelites. They were just interested in dominating the Israelites, which is really the same thing Bilaam is trying to do here. He's just trying to dominate his donkey.

So there are all these parallels here, and it's not super neat exactly who is playing who. It seems like they're kind of trading off who is in power.

Adina: But it's so interesting because I feel like people paint these stories in their head of who the source of power really is, and then sometimes you get this reality check where you realize that it's not at all how you perceived it.

Ari: Absolutely. And I think the Torah is kind of presenting this story. I mean, it's this, like, humorous story. It's this absurd story.

Adina: It’s so comic, right? Bilaam’s like, “Oh, I need to kill my donkey.” The donkey's more powerful than you? And even just the choice of the donkey to be his animal that he's traveling with. Like, what a humble...you know, I would've felt like a horse, you know, even a camel is taller. A donkey is, like...it's just so comic that Bilaam is basically saying, you know, “My donkey is rebelling against me.” 

Ari: Right, exactly. And I think it's the same conflict that we saw with Pharaoh and with Balak, this idea of one somewhat insecure person trying to dominate someone else. Except like now, it's absurd because it's not two nations or two powerful people, but it's one man and his donkey.

Adina: It's the same plot.

Ari: It's the same plot, but with this absurd twist. And of course, finally, the angel opens Bilaam’s own eyes and he sees what's going on. He realizes how stupid it was. He realizes that there was really someone else in power the entire time. We knew this the whole time. We're sitting here laughing at Bilaam being like, “Haha, silly Bilaam, trying to fight with his donkey.” We know that God is the one who's really in power, but Bilaam has to go through this learning experience.

Adina: And the dramatic irony is kind of dragged out for quite a long time. It's interesting because that part's missing in the Exodus story, that sense of dramatic irony in the same way. I mean, it feels like the Exodus story really is this learning experience for Pharaoh, for the Egyptians, and for B’nei Yisrael as well, that they all have to kind of learn God's overwhelming power.

No Leg To Stand On

Ari: Right. And so maybe, as you pointed out, this isn't the first time this has happened. This was in Egypt. That was the first time God's really revealing his power to the world. So maybe you could excuse Pharaoh and the Egyptians for being a little slow to realize that God's the true Master, God's the Royal One in power, how silly it is for them to try to lift themselves up over this other people.

But now, this is take two. And Balak and Bilaam, they should really know better. We’ve already seen how this plays out.

Adina: I think it's a testament to human's ability to persist in not learning, in giving way to our basic instincts, in being foolish. I mean, we're experts at that.

Ari: Yeah.

Adina: I think it's a testament to a human's ability to, despite evidence to the contrary, continue to be stubborn and continue to have a warped perspective on the world.

Ari: Okay. So what does this have to do with this idea of the “leg?” We did see one leg in the story, but what does that have to do with anything? Okay. This is a little bit of a speculation. If anyone listening has ideas of their own, I'd love to hear them. Send us a voice note. Click the link in the description.

Adina: SpeakPipe makes it really easy to send in your thoughts.

Ari: Yeah, super easy. Here's what I think. We did see this one example of “leg” coming up in the story, right? It says וַתִּלָּחֵץ אֶל־הַקִּיר – the donkey pressed against the wall, וַתִּלְחַץ אֶת־רֶגֶל בִּלְעָם אֶל־הַקִּיר – and he pressed the leg of Bilaam into the wall. What does that second thing tell us that the first one didn't already? Once he knows he is pressing into the wall, why does it also have to tell us again, “and he was pressing the leg of Bilaam into the wall?” What does that add? So let me ask you this: What does Bilaam use to hit the donkey?

Adina: He has this makel, he has this staff.

Ari: Right. It says he uses a staff. Now, where does that actually say that he uses that staff, that stick?

Adina:  In verse 27: וַיִּחַר־אַף בִּלְעָם – he gets furious, וַיַּךְ אֶת־הָאָתוֹן בַּמַּקֵּל – and he beats his donkey with his stick.

Ari: Remember, this happens three times. Which time does it actually say that he beats him with the stick?

Adina: I think this is the third time. Let’s just go back to check. Yeah, only on the third time.

Ari: Why would it only say this on the third time? What does that imply about the first two times?

Adina: So let's see. The first time is in verse 23. It just simply says וַיַּךְ בִּלְעָם אֶת־הָאָתוֹן – Bilaam beat the donkey. The second time is in verse 25, and it says וַיֹּסֶף לְהַכֹּתָהּ – he continues to beat the donkey.

Ari: Right. So if the third time...

Adina: ...is verse 27, which we just read: וַיַּךְ אֶת־הָאָתוֹן בַּמַּקֵּל – He beats the donkey with the stick.

Ari: Right. So if the third time he beat him with a stick, what'd he beat him with the first two times?

Adina: Presumably either his hands, or his legs, or also a stick. It's just emphasizing it the third time.

Ari: Right, so what would've changed between the first two times and the third time? What's the situation now? What happens right before he beats him with a stick?

Adina: Well, his leg was incapacitated, so he can't kick the donkey. And in verse 26, they're in this incredibly narrow space where there's no room to move. Oh, the second time, the donkey collapses.

Ari: Donkey collapses, right? Which means that, all of a sudden now, Bilaam, his knees are in the ground, his legs are all cramped up. What if he was actually hitting the donkey with his legs? He was kicking the donkey.

Adina: Yeah, I mean, I think that makes sense given how people normally ride animals, which is they don't want to beat their animals with a riding crop or a stick. That's a bit cruel to do that all the time. They're gonna steer the animal, if you've ever gone horseback riding, by applying pressure with their legs. And then, if things get really intense, then they might use some kind of stick to urge the animal along. So I think it...yeah, I buy it that the first two times were with Bilaam's legs, but in verse 27, when the donkey collapses under him and Bilaam's in this heap, he can't use his legs, or the legs wouldn't really do anything. So he's using a stick.

Ari: Yeah. And again, this is, you know, speculative. I don't know for sure that he was using the legs. But if he was, look again at that verse we just read: וַתִּלָּחֵץ אֶל־הַקִּיר וַתִּלְחַץ אֶת־רֶגֶל בִּלְעָם אֶל־הַקִּיר – He pressed against the wall and he pressed Bilaam’s leg into the wall. That leg isn't just a random thing that he was pressing into the wall. That leg is Bilaam’s method for dominating the donkey. The donkey's taking that very thing that shows Bilaam's power and he's attacking it, he’s disabling it. It's as if your dog took the leash and started whipping you with it. That leg is the center of this power struggle.

Adina: It's the very, almost, seat of his power, yeah. 

Ari: I think that the regel is symbolic of man's power over the animal, of Bilaam’s power over his donkey. When Bilaam feels that his leg is being pressed, it's not just like, “Ouch, that hurt.” It's, “How dare you press my leg? My leg is what I'm supposed to use to press you.”

Adina: That infuriates Bilaam, this notion of, “You four-legged creature,” right, “Me, with my two legs, I'm way more powerful than you.”

Ari: When we stand tall on two legs, like that's our sense of pride. That's our sense of, you know, being human. You know, when we want to show humility, we get on our knees and bow down. That's how you show humility. But standing up on your two legs, that's our sense of pride.

Adina: Mm-hmm.

Recognizing the Real Master

Ari: So what does this have to do with the holidays? If we go back to the verses that we read that described the holidays, it described them, particularly here, for their agricultural milestones. These are times of the year when we would be feeling especially proud.

Adina: So Shavuot is called Chag Hakatzir, “Harvest Holiday,” and Sukkot is called Chag Ha'asif, “Ingathering,” and Pesach, Chag Hamatzot, doesn't have any specific agricultural thing going on.

Ari: Although Chodesh Ha'Aviv, there's this whole emphasis on the springtime...

Adina: Exactly, right.

Ari: When you see things starting to grow, things start to blossom.

Adina: Exactly, you know that you're going to be spending some time, after the dormant winter, out in the fields preparing for those exciting occasions ahead.

Ari: These are three milestones when we feel really good about ourselves. We feel, “Oh, look what I've done. Look how much I've created.” In essence, they are our “leg moments.” They are our regalim. They're the moments when we stand on our two legs and feel so proud.

Adina: That’s fascinating, and what I'm thinking of is, and that's the moment when, more than anything, you need to remember the Exodus holiday, and the Exodus story takes on so much more significance. That story will ground you. 

Ari: So it just so happens that this section of the holidays here, it doesn't come in a section where you would expect it. It's in this long section of laws about how we treat each other, and particularly, it's about how we treat people who are less powerful than us. 

Adina: Okay, so the laws of the holidays appear in a few different places, right? They appear in the Book of Devarim, they appear in the Book of Numbers, and they also appear in the Book of Exodus. But you're pointing out, and they appear in the Book of Leviticus also, but when they appear in the Book of Exodus, the context is kind of strange because it's in Parshat Mishpatim, which is all about, you know, torts, right? It's all about bein adam l’chaveiro, man and his fellow man.

Ari: Right, and the section immediately preceding the holidays is this whole series that, if you look carefully, and we don't have time to get into that all now, but if you look carefully, they're all about how you treat people that are less fortunate than you. And so, just as by way of example, in Exodus 23, verse nine, with just a few pesukim, a few verses before this section on the holidays, it says וְגֵר לֹא תִלְחָץ – You shouldn't oppress the stranger. Here's that language of תִלְחָץ again. And remember, I said it only comes up in the context of the Exodus from Egypt and how the Egyptians treated us. Why should you not oppress the stranger? וְאַתֶּם יְדַעְתֶּם אֶת־נֶפֶשׁ הַגֵּר כִּי־גֵרִים הֱיִיתֶם בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם – Because you were strangers in Egypt, and when you were there, they did lachatz to you, they oppressed you. So now, you're learning not to oppress other people. 

Adina: We need to break that cycle of the battered becoming the batterers. I think I see why the Torah is framing the Balak-Bilaam story in the sense that they perpetuated it, and there's this fear that we might perpetuate it as well in the way that we remember that story, in the story that we tell the Exodus. Like, what if we learned the wrong lessons from it, and instead of treating other geirim nicely, we treat geirim the way we were treated?

Ari: And so, what would happen if you didn't have the holidays is exactly that. Your pride would just grow and grow until inevitably, you know, someone would threaten your pride and you would feel the need to dominate them. And that, as you said before, that domination you know leads to jealousy and hatred and disgust and fear, and eventually to really horrible consequences. But here come the holidays, and they come to reign you in. 

Adina: Yeah, so as you said, at those greatest moments of our pride, when we're harvesting, when we're ingathering and we're kind of looking over the bounty and potentially there's a whole group of laborers who've been working the fields to enable us to produce and see those results. Verse 17, in Exodus: שָׁלֹשׁ פְּעָמִים בַּשָּׁנָה – Three times a year, יֵרָאֶה כׇּל־זְכוּרְךָ אֶל־פְּנֵי הָאָדֹן יְקוָה – You'll appear before Adon, your Sovereign, your Master, God. In other words, you're not the real master.

Ari: The real Master, right?

Adina: Wow.

Ari: Yeah, there it is. Here come these holidays, and lucky us that we get to learn the easy way. We don't have to get embarrassed in front of our animals in order to learn who the real Master is. Because three times a year, we take a step back and we realize who's the one in real power. And we remind ourselves that we're all just servants of the same God.

Credits

This episode was recorded by me, Ari Levisohn, together with Adina Blaustein.

Editing was done by Evan Weiner.

Our audio editor is Hillary Guttman.

Our managing producer is Adina Blaustein

Our senior editor is me, Ari Levisohn. 

Thank you so much for listening, and we’ll see you next week.