“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” - Blaise Pascal
Police lie when they interrogate people. They tell the criminal that they know more than they do, that they have more evidence than they have, that their accomplice has come forward and agreed to testify against them.
They do this because they understand one critical fact about humanity - we are our own worst enemy.
It’s something Bil’am understood about the Jews in this week’s parasha as well. He tries and tries to curse the Jewish people and at every turn is unsuccessful. “What can I hex that El has not hexed, and what can I doom that the LORD has not doomed?” (23:8) The Jewish people are impervious to destruction from the outside.
So how, then, does Bil’am succeed in causing damage to the Jews? Well, according to the Sages (Sanhedrin 106a), he gets them to self-destruct:
Balaam said to them: The God of these Jewish people despises lewdness, and they desire linen garments, as they have no new garments; come, and I will give you advice. Make for them enclosures using wall hangings and seat prostitutes in them, with an old woman outside the enclosure and a young woman inside, and have the women sell them linen garments.
The Jews, who couldn’t be cursed from the outside, destroyed themselves with improper behaviour.
A similar sentiment is found in the midrash regarding Israel’s military prowess:
The generation of David were all righteous, but because they had informers among them, they would go out to war and fall. … The generation of Ahab were idolaters, but because they had no informers among them, they would go down to war and be victorious.
This is true for all of us in all walks of life - if we did what we knew we were supposed to, if we weren’t our own worst enemy, we’d succeed. But instead, we sabotage ourselves, find ourselves unworthy in our own minds, and betray ourselves.
Bil’am teaches us one critical fact about our nature - our biggest obstacle is ourselves.
Very true!