Judaism takes the text literally when it says, “There will never be another prophet like Moses.” We understand that Moses alone took dictation, that the Torah (the Five Books) are the precise words of G-d, without dilution or reframing that comes from flowing first through a person. According to the Torah itself, no other prophet can override Moses’ words, or even render them unimportant or irrelevant. The Torah reaches across the eons, as relevant to us now as when it was first written.
There are other prophets, of course, even in the Torah itself. The forefathers spoke to G-d. So did Noah. And foremost among all of these (if only for the sheer number of words that he prophesied) is the Moabite prophet Bilaam. It is clear to us that Bilaam was a very “connected” prophet. Indeed, we can learn from the fact of Bilaam’s prophetic gifts that the Jewish people do not have a “lock” on divine revelation, or even the opportunity for divine connection.
But we can also learn that Bilaam’s prophecy was actually quite different than Moses’. Unlike the words of Moses, Bilaam’s words are much more contextualized in Bilaam’s own worldview, and thus reflect the will of the divine much less directly and much less clearly.
How do I know this? Because Bilaam tells us himself, and in a mere two verses! (I have to warn readers in advance: this gets complicated, because the text makes it so.) Here goes:
וַיִּשָּׂ֥א מְשָׁל֖וֹ וַיֹּאמַ֑ר נְאֻ֤ם בִּלְעָם֙ בְּנ֣וֹ בְעֹ֔ר וּנְאֻ֥ם הַגֶּ֖בֶר שְׁתֻ֥ם הָעָֽיִן׃
And he took up his discourse, and said, The speech of Bil῾am the son Be῾or, and the speech of the man whose eyes are open:
נְאֻ֕ם שֹׁמֵ֖עַ אִמְרֵי־אֵ֑ל אֲשֶׁ֨ר מַחֲזֵ֤ה שַׁדַּי֙ יֶֽחֱזֶ֔ה נֹפֵ֖ל וּגְל֥וּי עֵינָֽיִם׃
the saying of him who hears the words of God, who sees the vision of the Almighty, falling down, and having his eyes open:
OK. So Bilaam starts by telling us that his words are from his name, and the name of his father. Moses never says this when he relates the words of G-d. Indeed, Moses never even names his father! It is a small point, admittedly.
But then Bilaam uses the word sh’soom, which is commonly translated as “open.” But that is not how the word is found elsewhere in the text. It is only found one other place:
וְהַכְּשָׂבִים֮ הִפְרִ֣יד יַעֲקֹב֒ וַ֠יִּתֵּן פְּנֵ֨י הַצֹּ֧אן אֶל־עָקֹ֛ד וְכָל־ח֖וּם בְּצֹ֣אן לָבָ֑ן וַיָּֽשֶׁת־ל֤וֹ עֲדָרִים֙ לְבַדּ֔וֹ וְלֹ֥א שָׁתָ֖ם עַל־צֹ֥אן לָבָֽן׃
And Ya῾aqov separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the streaked and all the brown in the flock of Lavan; and he put his own flocks by themselves, and did not make them available to Lavan’s cattle.
Sh’soom refers to sexual availability. The openness to intercourse, the desire to be filled by something else. So Bilaam’s “eyes” are sh’soom, which means he seeks to be seduced, or acquired. Bilaam is not only his own man: he does not want to be his own man (which is why he was willing to have his services purchased for enough gold).
And this imagery is reinforced with the next verse: the word glui. This word is also found in the Torah to mean sexually exposed (as well as being revealed).
And [Noach] drank of the wine, and was drunk; and he was uncovered (glui) within his tent.
Much later:
Neither shalt thou go up by steps to my altar, that thy nakedness [root word for glui] be not exposed on it.
So we see this element of Bilaam: focused on the physical, on exposure and a form of being used by others. Again in this second verse, we see the use of the word for “eyes”. Bilaam wants to be led astray by his visions.
Bilaam also refers to G-d as Shaddai. As I wrote here, Shaddai is one aspect of G-d – one promising procreation and fetility. Shaddai is the G-d of multitudes, the G-d who promised children ad infinitum to the forefathers. This name for G-d was also retired after Genesis, after the people grew in number. Because after all, this aspect of G-d is immature and very limited: we recognize now that the form of divine power that matters is not really His power over nature, but instead his ability to connect with each of us in non-physical ways! But Bilaam, despite being a prophet who spoke words, was still locked into his own, deeply physical (and ultimately pagan) worldview. And it limits and taints his prophecy.
There is a connecting explanation for this. Bilaam was a prophet for Moab. The people of Moab came from Lot and his daughters, people who were obsessed with fecundity (Lot chooses Sodom because of it, and the daughters conceived in a single act with their father). Bilaam and Moab are all about raw animalistic reproduction. That is, after all, how Moab was created!
The last word I’ll refer to is nofel, for “falling.” If we look at the use of this word in the text, we similarly see an instinctive reduction in agency.
And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept: and He took one of his sides, and closed up the flesh in its place.
But to Cain and to his offering He had not respect. And Cain was very angry, and his face fell.
There were Nefilim in the earth in those days;
And the vale of Siddim was full of slime pits; and the kings of Sedom and ῾Amora fled, and fell there; and they that remained fled to the mountain.
And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Avram; and, lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him.
And Yehuda and his brethren came to Yosef’s house; for he was still there: and they fell before him to the ground.
See the connection? In every case, “fall” refers to losing power or agency, becoming the nail and not the hammer. Cain becomes controlled by his anger. Even the Nefillim are ruled by their base desires to make names for themselves. While there are a great many uses of this word in the Torah, they are all connected to this theme.
Which tells us what Bilaam meant by
The saying of him who hears the words of God, who sees the vision of the Almighty, falling down, and having his eyes exposed.
Bilaam does not desire self control – quite the contrary! Bilaam craves a euphoric state, a trance (while Moses, in contrast, had to remove his shoes so that he remained “grounded” even while talking with G-d). The Torah gives us Bilaam’s own words to show us how he was shaped and limited by his own background and limitations.
Bilaam wants to be used, and in a way that is quite different from the way in which Moses is a partner to G-d. And in this understanding, we reinforce the thesis and the text of the Torah itself: there never was (and never will be) any prophet comparable to Moses.