Balak

When Balak and his nation see what the Jews did to the Emori, they are frightened of what lies ahead for them. Recognizing that the Jews are not winning their wars in a natural way, they look for a solution that's not natural too. They go to hire Bilaam to go and curse the Jews utilizing the same power of the mouth that the Jews have.

Rashi tells us that one of the reasons that Hashem let His divine presence rest on a non-Jewish evil person was so the nations of the world wouldn't be able to complain, saying had you given us prophets, we, too, would have changed for the better. He gave them a prophet who not only didn't help them change for the better, rather made them worse by advising them to be promiscuous.

The problem, though, remains. The nations could say that You gave the Jews great leaders like Moshe while You gave us a leader who was a degenerate. Of course we wouldn't improve!

Explains the sefer לב אהרן , Chazal tell us that Hashem went around to all the nations of the world asking them if they wanted the Torah. Each one responded negatively until He reached the Jewish people, who accepted it. The nations of the world refused to accept the Torah yet wanted prophets, so Hashem gave them a prophet without the Torah. Originally, that prophet was the same caliber as Moshe; as Chazal tell us ולא קם נביא עוד בישראל כמשה , and there was no Navi like Moshe, by the Jewish people. Chazal expound that to mean by the Jewish people there was no one like Moshe; however, by the nations of the world there was - Bilaam.

Both started on an even footing; however, Moshe had the Torah and so rose to the greatest levels while Billam, who didn't have Torah, sunk to the lowest low. Without the guidance of the Torah, even a prophet is worthless.

In נובהרדוק , they told the following story to try to demonstrate this concept. Once, the Shamash came into the Shul to clean. He saw that the town thief came into the shul & walked up to the ארון קודש . Since the thief didn't see him, he hid under a bench to see if the thief would try to steal the Sifrei Torah. If so, he would catch him red handed. Much to his surprise, the thief opens the curtains & starts crying to Hashem. The shmash thinks to himself, “maybe the thief has someone sick in his household or something” so he makes an effort to hear what the thief is saying. He hears him saying over & over, "please Hashem give me Ruach Hakodesh".  

The shamash is appalled! How could this common thief be asking for Ruach Hakodesh? So he walks up to the thief, & asking him, “why are you davening for Ruach Hakodesh?” The thief answers him, “you really don't understand? Every day, I risk my life breaking into homes. Sometimes, I go into big fancy homes & find nothing to steal while, other times, I go into a plain home & there I hit the jackpot. I want Ruach Hakodesh so that I don't waste my time & risk my life for nothing!

We all start out the same. We all have the same opportunities as Moshe or Bilaam. We all ask Hashem for the same things: some use it for good & some for bad. Learn from the lesson of Bilaam & the thief; ask Hashem for everything but use it with the Torah's guidance. Then, what we do will be for the good & we will be able to strive to reach the level of Moshe Rabbainu!