Eisav and Bila'am's Prophecy

16 Tammuz 5782

Erev Shabbat Kodesh

Parashat Pinchas

While it is already Parashat Pinchas here in Eretz Yisrael, the Diaspora is reading Parashat Balak.  So, since we just read it and they are reading it now, the following is highly relevant.

Even after Eisav spurned his birthright (and all that went with it, including Leah Imeinu) and sold it to Ya'aqov, our Sages tell us that his progeny got another shot at it when the Torah was offered to them before it even came to us.  Just like their forefather, the Edomic nations spurned that, too.  However, we are told that HKB"H left the door open to individuals from those nations - the offspring of Eisav - to enter into the covenant as converts in the future. 

Bila'am's prophecy of the End of Days is always of special interest as it alludes to the End of Days.  According to the commentaries, not only Ya'aqov's, but Eisav's future figures largely in it.  Here are some quotes for your consideration.

From the Stone Edition Chumash commentary, Bamidbar 24:18-24:

"...Edom shall be a conquest and Seir shall be the conquest of his enemies - and Israel will attain success.  One from Jacob shall rule and destroy the remnant of the city."

He saw Amalek and declaimed his parable and said: "Amalek is the first among nations, but its end will be eternal destruction."

He saw the Kenite and declaimed his parable and said: "Strong is your dwelling, and set in a rock is your nest.  For if the Kenite should be laid waste, till where can Assyria take you captive?"

He declaimed his parable and said: "Who will survive when He imposes these!  Big ships from the coast of Kittim will afflict Assyria and afflict the other bank - but it, too, will be forever destroyed."

18. His enemies. Seir and Edom - the two names of Esau's descendants - will fall to his enemy, Israel, and become its possession. Verse 19 concludes this aspect of the prophecy by saying that Israel will dominate Edom and destroy its most prominent city (Rashi). This describes the End of Days, because the current dispersion is called the Edomite Exile, during which Israel is considered to be under the dominion of Edom. This will end when Edom's power is broken (Ramban).

20. Amalek is the first among nations. Amalek was the first to attack Israel (Rashi). Alternatively, Amalek ranked first in military prowess (Ramban). Later commentators interpret that Amalek, the primary offspring of Esau, is the first in that it is the embodiment of intense evil, just as Israel, its implacable foe, is charged with being the embodiment of good (Resisei Laylah).

24. Big ships from the coast of Kittim. The warships of the Roman Empire [Kittim] will bring its legions to conquer Assyria and the nations on the other side of the Euphrates. Thus Rome is identified as the "fourth beast" in the vision of Daniel (Daniel 7:11), who foretold the future exiles of Israel until the final redemption (Rashi).

Everyone knows what happened next.  Bila'am came up with an insidious plan for Balak... 

The Midianites had correctly identified Israel’s weak point: having tried and failed to hire the Gentile prophet Bil’am (Balaam) to curse them, they instead took his advice and sent their womenfolk to seduce the Jewish men (see Numbers 31:16).

“[Bil’am] said to them [the Midianites]: The God of these ones hates sexual immorality, and they crave linen. Come, I’ll give you some advice: Make tents for them and put harlots inside – an old woman outside and a girl inside, and sell them linen garments…” (Sanhedrin 106a).  And then follows a long and detailed account of how the Midianite women and girls seduced the Jewish men, and used their powers of seduction to entice the Jews into idolatry.

Bil’am’s ploy succeeded to a frightening extent: “The nation began to commit harlotry with the daughters of Moab, and they called on the nation to sacrifice to their gods; the nation ate and bowed to their gods. Israel became attached to Ba’al-Pe’or, and Hashem’s fury flared against Israel… And those who died in the plague were 24,000” (Numbers 25:1-9). 

Tanchuma, Balak 18, also tells us how it went down:

" [A Moabite girl lures an Israelite into her store.]  Following that, the girl says [to the Israelite], 'You are like one of the family. Sit! Choose what you like!' and a jug of Ammonite wine is sitting by her.  The wine of the nations had not yet been prohibited [later on, our sages forbade their wine to prevent intermarriage, wine being a factor in generating intimacy].  The girl comes out in jewelry and perfume, and entices him, saying, 'Why do we love you but you hate us? Take this vessel for free! Surely we are all descendents of one man, Terach, father of Abraham.' "

And it is all for the purpose of mixing with us and blurring the boundaries that HKB"H established in order to ultimately assimilate us and thereby destroy us. 

NOTE: "Integration" is no different than Assmiliation

The midrash agrees with Rashi... 

In the future, Esau will wrap himself in a tallis, sit down next to Yakov and say to him, "You are my brother"....Yakov will say to him, "My brother, you will not be like me. I will lead you to death, I will be the pestilence that leads you to Sheol (Hoshea 13,14). Had I upheld the decrees that you promulgated against me, I would have been guilty at the eyes of Heaven. Had I violated them, you would have killed me (Yalkut Shimoni, Yirmiahu 333).

"That was Esau's intention when he told Yakov, 'Let us travel together and I will go before you' (Genesis 33,12). He wanted them to join together in both this world and the world to come, to meet each other halfway, with each modifying his conduct until they were alike (Yalkut Shimoni, Genesis 133).

I'd say this has been fulfilled in Joe Biden and Yair Lapid.  (Further proof that Yair is from the Erev Rav.)

Nothing has changed, but those offspring of Eisav who wanted to join with Ya'aqov have done so through conversion.  Then, there are the actual God-fearing, righteous gentiles who obey the Sheva Mitzvot, but both groups are comparatively small in number.  The progeny of Eisav, as a whole, will never do teshuvah.  Eisav is doomed, and rightfully so.

~ SHABBAT SHALOM ~