Uncovering The Hidden Light
וירא בלק כו' ויגר כו' מאוד כי רב הוא
"And Balak saw..." (Bamidbar 22:2), "and he became terrified..." (Bamidbar 22:3), exceedingly so, "for they were many."
The Sfas Emes opens with the pesukim describing how Balak saw Bnei Yisrael and was overcome with dread, more than usual, because they were so numerous.
כתיב מה רב טובך כו' אור הגנוז כו' כי הקב"ה גנז אור התורה במעשה בראשית וע"ז כ' וירא אלקים כו' כל אשר עשה כו' טוב מאוד ודרשו חז"ל על מה"מ ויצה"ר ע"ש
It is written, "How abundant is Your goodness..." (Tehillim 31:20), referring to the hidden light, for the Holy One, Blessed is He, concealed the light of the Torah within the act of Creation. Concerning this it is written, "And Hashem saw all that He had made... and behold, it was very good" (Bereishis 1:31), and Chazal expounded the words "very good" (me'od) as alluding to the Angel of Death and to the yetzer hara — see there.
He cites the hidden light that Hashem stored away within Creation. The Torah's description of the world as "very good" hints, per Chazal, even to the Angel of Death and the yetzer hara, teaching that the highest good is concealed within seemingly negative forces.
ועבודתינו הוא למצוא הארה הגנוזה ואז נתגלה האמת ומכניעין הכל להקב"ה
And our avodah is to find that hidden illumination, and then the emes becomes revealed, and we subdue everything to the Holy One, Blessed is He.
Our task is to uncover that concealed illumination; once found, the emes shines forth and all of existence is brought into submission to the Holy One, Blessed is He.
ובנ"י דור המדבר כן היו שהאירו אור הגנוז בכל מקום מסעם
And Bnei Yisrael, the generation of the midbar, were precisely like this — for they radiated the hidden light in every place of their journeys.
The generation that traveled through the midbar accomplished exactly this avodah, lighting up the hidden light at every stop along their journey.
וכתיב וירא בלק שבע"כ ראה מה שנתגלה כבוד מלכותו עין בעין נראה כו' וזה הי' נקרא לבלק הרשע כיסוי עינים כמ"ש כסה כו' עין הארץ
And it is written, "And Balak saw," that against his will he saw what was being revealed of the glory of His kingship, as it were beheld "eye to eye" (cf. Bamidbar 14:14); and to Balak the rasha this was experienced as a covering of the eyes, as it is written, "it covered... the eye of the land" (Bamidbar 22:5).
Balak was forced to perceive the revealed glory of Hashem's kingship, but because he was a rasha, that very revelation registered for him only as a blinding 'covering of the eyes.'
כי אין הרשע יכול להסתכל באמת
For the rasha is unable to gaze upon the emes.
The reason it appeared to him as a covering is simply that a rasha has no capacity to look directly at the emes.
ויגר כו' מאוד מבחי' מאוד הנ"ל שהיה עומד שיבררו בנ"י כל הבירור כראוי וז"ש כי רב הוא כנ"ל
"And he became terrified... exceedingly" — from the aspect of "very" (me'od) mentioned above, for he stood facing the prospect that Bnei Yisrael would draw out the entire clarification of the world properly; and this is the meaning of "for they were many," as explained above.
Balak's terror stemmed from that aspect of 'me'od' — he was confronted with Bnei Yisrael's power to clarify and elevate the entire world, which is the inner meaning of his fear that 'they were many.'
וקודם שהלכו בנ"י לא"י הי' זה הכנה להתקשר באור הגנוז כנ"ל
And before Bnei Yisrael went up to Eretz Yisrael, this episode was a preparation to become bound to the hidden light, as explained above.
The confrontation with Balak, occurring right before the entry into Eretz Yisrael, served as a preparation for Bnei Yisrael to attach themselves to the hidden light.
[בחי' א"י הוא נקודה אמצעיות שבכל העולם כמ"ש בזוה"ק וירא]:
[The aspect of Eretz Yisrael is the central point of the entire world, as the Zohar HaKadosh writes on "Vayar."]
A bracketed note adds that Eretz Yisrael is the central point of the whole world, as the Zohar HaKadosh teaches on the word 'Vayar.'
Summary: The Sfas Emes reads Balak's terror at the sight of Bnei Yisrael through the lens of the hidden light (or hagganuz) that the Holy One, Blessed is He, concealed within Creation. The Torah calls the world "very good," and Chazal's reading of "me'od" as including even the Angel of Death and the yetzer hara teaches that the deepest good lies buried within the very forces that seem to oppose it; our avodah is to uncover that illumination so that the emes shines and everything is subdued to Hashem. Bnei Yisrael of the midbar did exactly this, radiating the hidden light at every stage of their travels. When Balak "saw," he was compelled to perceive the revealed glory of Hashem's kingship, yet as a rasha incapable of gazing at the emes, that revelation struck him only as a blinding covering of the eyes, and his dread was really fear of Bnei Yisrael's power to clarify the whole world. Coming just before the entry into Eretz Yisrael — the central point of all existence — this episode prepared Bnei Yisrael to bind themselves ever more deeply to the hidden light.