Balak: The Wizard of Oz and Moav- Hollow Power Unmasked
How Bilaam Reveals That the Greatest Threat Comes From Within
The Wizard of Oz Moav : Bilaam's Hollow Power in Parshat Balak
There's something almost farcical about Bilaam's reputation versus his actual performance in Parshat Balak. Here stands a figure of such legendary power that King Balak summons him from afar, promising riches beyond measure for his services. The narrative builds him up as the ultimate spiritual mercenary—a man whose blessings and curses carry cosmic weight, whose very words can reshape the fate of nations.
But strip away the mystique, and what do we actually see?
The Emperor's New Spells
When we examine Bilaam's track record throughout the parsha, his supposed supernatural abilities crumble under scrutiny. Every instance of genuine spiritual power in the story comes from God, not from Bilaam's own abilities. God appears to him in dreams, God puts words in his mouth, God opens the donkey's mouth, God opens Bilaam's eyes to see the angel.
Bilaam himself? He's remarkably ordinary. He can't see what his donkey sees. He can't curse whom God protects. He can't even control his own words when he opens his mouth to speak. For all his fearsome reputation, he's essentially a spiritual ventriloquist dummy—animated entirely by divine intervention.
The only moment where Bilaam demonstrates any real agency, any actual influence over events, comes at the story's end. And it's not through supernatural power at all. It's through the most mundane, earthly advice imaginable: "Send your women to seduce their men."
The Banality of Evil
This is where the story becomes truly chilling. The great sorcerer's most effective magic turns out to be sexual temptation and moral corruption. No mystical incantations, no elaborate rituals—just the oldest trick in the book. Bilaam's "power" is reduced to that of a pimp's advisor, whispering strategies for entrapment.
The text is remarkably understated about this. We don't get a dramatic scene of Bilaam plotting with Balak. Instead, we learn about his role almost as an afterthought, when the consequences unfold at Ba'al Pe'or. The man who couldn't curse Israel when God prevented him succeeds in corrupting them through entirely human means.
What makes this particularly striking is how it inverts our expectations. We anticipate that if Bilaam poses a threat, it will be through his supposed supernatural abilities. Instead, his real danger lies in his insight into human weakness—a power that requires no divine gift whatsoever.
Before going on - to explain -about Ba'al Pe'or - it's crucial to understanding how Bilaam's advice actually played out.
Ba'al Pe'or occurs in Numbers 25, right after the Bilaam narrative. The Israelites are camped at Shittim when Moabite women begin seducing the Israelite men. But this isn't just about sexual impropriety - the women lure the men into participating in pagan rites to their god, Ba'al Pe'or. The men end up both sleeping with the women and worshipping this foreign deity.
What makes this particularly insidious is that Ba'al Pe'or worship involved ritualized sexual acts (according to some1) as part of the religious service. So Bilaam's advice created a perfect storm - the Israelites' sexual desire becomes the gateway to idolatry. It's spiritual corruption disguised as pleasure.
The plague that follows kills 24,000 Israelites before Pinchas (Phinehas) dramatically ends it by killing Zimri and Cozbi in the act. The text in Numbers 31:16 explicitly states that this entire catastrophe happened "on Bilaam's advice" - the women acted "to cause the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord in the Peor incident."
What's brilliant about Bilaam's strategy is that he understood something profound about the Israelites: they were protected from external cursing, but they could still be corrupted from within through their own choices. He couldn't make God curse them, but he could create conditions where they would effectively curse themselves through their actions.
It's the ultimate insider's knowledge of human weakness - and it worked devastatingly well. The beautiful tents that were the Israelites’ praise became their downfall.
The Invisible Hand
Perhaps the most profound aspect of this narrative is how it illustrates the hiddenness of divine protection. The Israelites remain completely oblivious to the cosmic drama playing out around them. They don't know about Bilaam's attempted curses, they don't see the angel blocking the donkey's path, they're simply going about their lives in the wilderness.
It's only we, the readers, who are granted the behind-the-scenes view. This mirrors our own experience of divine providence—we rarely recognize protection or guidance in the moment, only in retrospect or through the lens of prophetic insight (ie our parsha or Purim for extreme examples).
The donkey seeing what the prophet cannot becomes the perfect emblem of this theme. Sometimes the most spiritually attuned perspective comes from the most unlikely sources, while those who claim special sight remain blind to what's directly in front of them.
The donkey's accusation of disloyalty! The donkey essentially says "Haven't I been faithful to you all these years? Have I ever led you astray before?" - it's calling out Bilaam's ingratitude and lack of recognition.
This creates a stunning parallel structure throughout the story:
Bilaam and his donkey: The donkey has been loyally serving Bilaam, protecting him from danger (the angel), but Bilaam beats it and shows no gratitude. He can't see that his faithful servant is actually saving his life.
God and the Jewish people: God has been loyally protecting Israel, shielding them from Bilaam's curses (which they don't even know about), but they're about to show their own ingratitude by falling for the Ba'al Pe'or seduction.
The Jewish people and the story itself: When they hear this narrative, they're learning about protection they never knew they had - just like Bilaam did not appreciate his donkey's protection.
The donkey's rebuke becomes a mirror for the entire dynamic. Just as Bilaam fails to appreciate his donkey's loyalty until it's pointed out to him, the Jewish people often fail to recognize God's constant protection and guidance. The story is essentially saying: "You're just like Bilaam - you don't see the loyal service protecting you every day."
It's a deeply uncomfortable parallel that forces self-reflection. The enemy sorcerer's relationship with his faithful donkey becomes a metaphor for Israel's relationship with their faithful God. The very creature that exposes Bilaam's spiritual blindness also exposes our’s.
Justice Delayed, Not Denied
The story doesn't end with Bilaam's successful corruption of Israel. Numbers 31 provides the epilogue: when Moses leads the campaign against Midian, Bilaam is found among the enemy and killed. The advisor who couldn't defeat Israel through supernatural means, who could only harm them through base temptation, ultimately faces the consequences of his actions.
There's poetic justice in this ending. The man who built his reputation on otherworldly power dies in the most ordinary way possible—in battle, alongside the very people he advised. No Obi-Wan vs Darth Vader lightsaber battle or Shmuel executing Agag, no dramatic confrontation, no supernatural showdown, just the inevitable result of choosing the wrong side.
The Lesson of Hollow Power
What emerges from this reading is a profound meditation on the nature of true power versus mere reputation. Bilaam's story serves as a cautionary tale about confusing influence with authority, manipulation with mastery.
In our own time, we encounter many figures who trade on mystique and reputation while lacking substance. The lesson of Bilaam reminds us to look beyond the performance to the actual results, to distinguish between genuine spiritual insight and mere theater.
More importantly, it suggests that our protection and guidance often operate invisibly, through means we don't recognize or appreciate. Like the Israelites in the wilderness, we may be shielded from dangers we never even knew existed, guided by a hand we rarely see.
The wizard, like in Oz, turned out to be wise. The Wizard of Oz gave Dorothy and her friends good advice when he was revealed to be a fraud. Bilaam also gave “good” advice to his patron.
In the end, the story of Bilaam and Baal Peor exposes the hollowness of borrowed power and the terrible effectiveness of exploiting human weakness. Bilaam’s spiritual reputation crumbles when tested—he can’t curse whom God protects, yet he manages to corrupt Israel through the basest means possible. Whether Baal Peor worship involved obscene defecation, ritualized sexual acts, or both, the point is the same: Bilaam’s “wisdom” weaponized Israel’s own desires against them. He couldn’t bend God’s will, so he taught them to betray themselves. It’s a sobering reminder that real threats to holiness often come not from flashy magic or dramatic curses, but from the ordinary temptations we fail to guard against within.
Others, meaning Chazal say Peor was defecation. Can’t say I understand this.