In one of the most gripping scenes in the Torah, the Gentile prophet Bilaam has been summoned to curse the assembled Israelites on behalf of Balak, the King of Edom. Protesting that he can only say what he is instructed by God, Bilaam nonetheless ascends the heights of a nearby mountain, to get a commanding view of Israel - all the better to curse them. Each time he attempts to curse the people, and each time he is overwhelmed by God's mandate to bless. Finally, in a moment of personal envy and hope, Bilaam blurts out, "Let me die the death of the righteous. May my fate be like theirs!"
What do Bilaam's words convey to us? We can ask that question on many levels: what did Bilaam signify by his words, what deeper meaning does the Torah convey through them to us, and how have the sages of the Jewish people refracted God's light through them over the years?
One way to explicate the plain meaning of the words is to hear Bilaam asking to enjoy the death comparable to that of a Jewish saint. Lekah Tov (11th Century Germany) reads his words ask "a request to share a portion with the Patriarchs and the righteous of the world." The Midrash (Bamidbar Rabbah and Tanhuma) both see this pious expression as an act of consummate hypocrisy. After coming to curse Israel, Bilaam is caught by God and tries to mitigate his crime by saying something nice. The midrash compares him to a story of a thief who attempts to steal and slaughter a cow belonging to the king. When he realizes he is about to be caught, he cleans out the cow's trough and brushes the cow's coat - hoping that these actions will diminish his culpability.
Wisely, later voices in our tradition note that Bilaam asks to die like a pious Jew, but doesn't ask to live like one. The Hafetz Hayim (19th Century Lithuania) trenchantly observed, "It is no great feat to die a proper death. The real feat is to live a proper life." As important as an afterlife remains for Jewish belief, the real emphasis remains on this world - the needs of our fellow creatures, our fellow human beings, and the imperative to pursue justice and embody compassion. The faith of a believing Jew promises a glorious reunion with those who have gone before us, an eternity of joy and bliss. How easy to die such a death! But to live the life of a truly believing Jew - a life consumed by transforming every deed into a mitzvah, every encounter into an opportunity for service - such a life is weighty and difficult. Small wonder that Bilaam wanted to skip the work and simply collect the prize!
A second strand of tradition reads Bilaam's words as a desire to share in the destiny of the Jewish people. Rabbenu Bahya (14th Century Spain) understands Bilaam as saying , "May my ultimate destiny be like that of the Jewish people. . He thereby acknowledged that the people Israel would inherit the physical world of the future also." That same understanding underscores the words of a 20th Century commentator, Rabbi Jacob Milgrom, who states, "It is a blessing to share [the people] Israel's fate."
Indeed, to be a Jew is to share a glorious and complex past - a history of achievement and spiritual depth despite great obstacles and suffering. But our past only presents the context and prelude to our future. The destiny of the Jewish people remains our charge and our purpose - to translate the words of Torah into living human beings, to elevate its teachings into communities of holiness and justice, to renew the world through study of Torah, observance of mitzvot, and the practice of good deeds.
Small wonder, then, that Ramban, the medieval Spanish mystic summarized Bilaam's message as emphasizing the need for Jews to remain distinct in order to fulfill our mandate to all humanity and to God: "The general tenor of Bilaam's prophecy was that God does not want us to be cursed, and that we are a people dwelling alone, God's portion and God's people. We shall not disappear among the nations, and our end will be good, according to the way of the righteous."
May you be blessed to live a life of righteousness so that you may merit the death of the righteous. And may your deeds and integrity so illumine those whose lives you touch that your fate is linked to that of the Jewish people and its age-old mission to repair the world under the sovereignty of God.
Shabbat Shalom!