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Balaam鈥檚 Metaphorical Ass

  • By Gershon Hepner
  • Published July 2, 2026
[additional-authors]
Picture of Gershon Hepner

Gershon Hepner

July 2, 2026
People visit the ’06:29′ Memorial and Commemoration Exhibition, which recreates the layout of the Nova festival site, on December 12, 2023 in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Photo by Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
/wp-content/uploads/speaker/post-389680.mp3?cb=1783020732.mp3

Abravanel said Balaam鈥檚 ass died once it spoke,
for having spoken there was nothing more
it possibly could ever do but tell a joke,
which asses cannot do since they鈥檙e a bore.

Most people die before they speak a line,
that makes much sense, because the only way they find
that they can speak aloud聽is asinine,
for which they are maligned by people of their kind.

The smartest line that Balaam ever said
is maybe like his ass鈥檚 message misunderstood,
which makes me glad, since when correctly read,
its sexual innuendos aren鈥檛 for most Jews good.

鈥淗ow lovely are thy tents, o Israel!鈥 should not metaphorically
be misinterpreted, most dangerously immorally,
as聽in a festival on October 7, badly timed,
not celebrating God鈥檚 Torah with whose name it rhymed.

Eric Lawee, in 鈥淚saac Abarbanel鈥檚 Stance Towards Tradition: Defense, Dissent and Dialogue,鈥 State University of New York, 2001, 111, quotes Don Isaac Abravanel鈥檚 聽opinion regarding the she-ass that spoke to Balaam in Numbers 11.

鈥淭he sages said that the donkey [of Balaam] which spoke died.聽 It is fitting that this should be so, for when it spoke, of necessity its constitution was transformed and its nature as a donkey passed away鈥 (Abarbanel, Numbers, 11, cited in

To Abravanel鈥檚聽opinion I would like to add this opinion regarding Moses cited by Rabbi Jay Kelman in Torah in Motion (鈥淏alak: Missed Opportunities鈥):

The Tiferet Yisroel (Kiddushin 4:14) quotes an amazing story, the (very basic) outline of which runs as follows: Experts, analyzing the facial features of Moshe Rabbeinu, came to the conclusion that he was an evil person, full of arrogance, prone to excessive love of money, 鈥渁nd all other faults鈥.聽 The King, who knew of Moshe, could not understand this and traveled to the desert to meet Moshe himself. Moshe told him that the experts were right, as by nature he, Moshe, was 鈥渘o good鈥, even worse than had been described. Yet through hard work, he explained, he was able to conquer his evil traits, channeling his energies to developing positive ones.

聽In an article in聽, 鈥淗ow Lovely Are Your Tents, O Jacob,鈥澛, Dr. Erica Lee Martin points out that when Numbers quotes Balaam鈥檚 imagery of tents, gardens, and flowing water鈥攖hemes associated with love and sexuality in the Bible and the ancient Near East鈥攈e is blessing Israelite women with fertility. 罢丑颈蝉听blessing implies that he was the instigator of the Baal Peor incident, which leads to the death of thousands of Israelites.


Gershon Hepner is a poet who has written over 25,000 poems on subjects ranging from music to literature, politics to Torah. He grew up in England and moved to Los Angeles in 1976. Using his varied interests and experiences, he has authored dozens of papers in medical and academic journals, and authored 鈥淟egal Friction: Law, Narrative, and Identity Politics in Biblical Israel.鈥 He can be reached at gershonhepner@gmail.com.

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