Parshat Balak

‘And behold, the people which goes up from Egypt and has covered the surface of the earth…’ (Bemidbar 22,11)

This verse is part of the evil prophet Bilam’s argument with G-d as he attempts to justify acceding to the request of the Moabite king and enemy of Israel, Balak, to curse the Jewish people.

Why does the verse describe the Jewish people as going up from Egypt in the present tense?

Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, one of the greatest of 20^th century rabbis, notes further than when Balak summouned Bliam, he referred to the Exodus from Egypt in the past tense (22,5). Why does Bilam change to the present tense? Rabbi Feinstein explains that by using the past tense, Balak thought that the Jewish people had put the Exodus from Egypt out of their minds, consigned to a dusty place in history. Contrastingly, Bilam realised that the Jews would always remember the Exodus from Egypt and its significance for Jewish life every day - for without the Exodus we would not be here and there would be no Jewish people (perhaps this is also why there is a commandment to remember the Exodus every day and night, which can be fulfilled by saying the 3rd paragraph of the Shema).

Bilam knew that the Jews recounted their experience in and leaving from Egypt, lessons of freedom which were antithetical to his outlook. He feared that the ideals of the Torah would dominate his own. While Balak thought that the Jews had forgotten their roots and would be easily assimilated, Bilam knew that the call of the Torah and of Jewish history would prevent the Jews would not be assimilated into the other nations. As they heeded these calls, Bilam mentions the Exodus in the present tense, as it is relevant every day.