Bilam Versus Moshe Rabbeinu
איתא לא קם בישראל נביא כמשה באוה"ע קם מנו בלעם
It is taught that there never arose again in Bnei Yisrael a prophet like Moshe Rabbeinu (Devarim 34:10), yet among the nations of the world there did arise one like him, namely Bilam.
Moshe Rabbeinu was the greatest prophet within Bnei Yisrael, but the nations had a parallel figure in Bilam. The Sfas Emes opens by setting up this comparison.
ביאור הענין כי מרע"ה הי' כולל כל הנביאים הבאים אח"כ כמ"ש אלה המצות שאין נביא רשאי לחדש דבר כו'
The explanation of this matter is that Moshe Rabbeinu encompassed within himself all the prophets who would come after him, as it is written, "These are the mitzvos" (Vayikra 27:34) — that no prophet is permitted to introduce anything new from this point on.
Because Moshe Rabbeinu contained all later prophets within himself, the Torah he gave is complete, and no prophet may add to it.
ולעומת זה כאשר הקב"ה בא להראות לאומות כי אין הנבואה טוב להם העמיד להם בלעם שהי' הכולל של כל נביאי אוה"ע
Correspondingly, when the Holy One, Blessed is He, came to show the nations of the world that prophecy is not fitting for them, He set up for them Bilam, who was the all-encompassing one of all the prophets of the nations of the world.
To demonstrate that prophecy does not suit the nations, Hashem gave them their own all-inclusive prophet in Bilam, paralleling Moshe Rabbeinu.
וממילא כשהוא נטרד שוב אין כח לנביא אוה"ע אחריו
And it follows of itself that once he was driven out, there was thereafter no longer any power for a prophet of the nations of the world to arise after him.
Since Bilam encompassed all the nations' prophetic potential, once he was removed, no further prophet could arise among them.
ולכן כל נבואותיו הי' לדורות עד ימי המשיח
Therefore all of his prophecies were meant for all the generations, until the days of Mashiach.
Because Bilam held all of that prophetic power, his prophecies reach across every generation until the coming of Mashiach.
וגם כל מה שרצה להרע לבנ"י הכל ממה שראה שעת דין להכשל
And likewise, all that he wished to do to harm Bnei Yisrael came entirely from his seeing a moment of judgment in which they could be brought to stumble.
Even Bilam's attempts to curse Bnei Yisrael depended on locating a moment of judgment when they might be found liable.
וזה הענין שכתב רש"י ובמד' בפסוק לא הבינו און אינו מסתכל בעבירות שבידם כו'
This is the matter of what Rashi wrote, and likewise the Midrash, on the pasuk "He has not beheld iniquity in Yaakov" (Bamidbar 23:21) — that Hashem does not gaze upon the transgressions that are in their hands.
Rashi and the Midrash teach that Hashem does not look upon the sins in the hands of Bnei Yisrael, so Bilam could find no opening.
ויש לתמוה שהרי אדרבא רק אתכם ידעתי כו' כתיב שהקב"ה מדקדק עם הצדיקים כחוט השערה
And one may wonder at this, for on the contrary it is written, "Only you have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore I will hold you to account" (Amos 3:2) — that the Holy One, Blessed is He, is exacting with the tzaddikim to a hairsbreadth.
This raises a difficulty, since the pasuk in Amos teaches that Hashem is in fact especially exacting with the righteous, down to a hairsbreadth.
אך הפי' על מה שעתידין לחטוא כי הבטה הוא מרחוק
But the explanation is that this refers to what they are destined to sin in the future, for "beholding" denotes seeing from afar.
The Sfas Emes resolves it: the exacting "beholding" in Amos refers to future sins, for the word "beholding" implies looking from a distance.
וכמ"ש חז"ל שבבנ"י אין נדון מחשבה רעה כמעשה רק באומות
And it is as Chazal said, that with Bnei Yisrael an evil thought is not judged like a deed, but only with the nations.
Chazal teach that an evil thought is not counted as a deed for Bnei Yisrael, but it is so counted for the nations.
והטעם כי חטא של איש ישראל אינו בעצם רק במקרה ודי לצרה בשעתה וברשעים להיפוך החטאים בעצם והזכיות במקרה
And the reason is that the sin of a man of Yisrael is not in his essence but only incidental — and "sufficient for the trouble is its own hour" — whereas with the wicked it is the reverse, that the sins are in their essence and the merits are incidental.
The reason is that for a Jew, sin is only an incidental lapse and need not be anticipated in advance, while for the wicked, sin is their essence and merit is the incidental exception.
ז"ש לא הביט און
This is the meaning of "He has not beheld iniquity" (Bamidbar 23:21).
This is the inner meaning of the pasuk "He has not beheld iniquity" — Hashem does not look ahead at the incidental, accidental sins of Bnei Yisrael.
ולא [* הי'] יכול בלעם להרע להם בהסתכלות עין רעה שלו כי היו בנ"י צדיקים אז כנ"ל:
And Bilam was not able to harm them through the gaze of his evil eye, for Bnei Yisrael were tzaddikim at that time, as explained above.
Therefore Bilam's evil eye had no power over them, because at that moment Bnei Yisrael stood as tzaddikim and offered no foothold for his curse.
Summary: The Sfas Emes explains that just as Moshe Rabbeinu encompassed all the prophets of Bnei Yisrael and thereby sealed the Torah from any addition, so too Bilam was the all-encompassing prophet of the nations, set up by Hashem to show that prophecy does not truly belong to them. Once Bilam was driven out, no prophet could arise among the nations after him, and so all his prophecies extend across the generations until the days of Mashiach. His every attempt to curse Bnei Yisrael depended on finding a moment of judgment in which they could be made liable, yet Hashem "has not beheld iniquity in Yaakov." The Sfas Emes resolves the difficulty from the pasuk in Amos — that Hashem is exacting with tzaddikim to a hairsbreadth — by explaining that such "beholding" looks only at future sins from afar, and that for a Jew sin is merely incidental while for the wicked it is their very essence. Because Bnei Yisrael were tzaddikim at that hour, with no inherent foothold for sin, Bilam's evil eye found nothing to grasp and could not harm them.