The Boxer's Father Who Beat Bilaam • Parshas Balak • Ep. 440

Why does Hashem first forbid Bilam from going with Balak's messengers, then on the second delegation tell him he may go, and why does the detail that Bilam is now being paid and honored change the answer? Rabbi Asaf Aharon Prisman builds this question on the Gaon of Vilna's precise distinction between 'imam' and 'itam' and on a game-changing concept from Rav Shimon Schwab about the spiritual DNA of the world.This week's Prism of Torah reveals that an act done with whole and pure intent carries enormous power, which is exactly why pure intent to curse was too dangerous to permit, while money and honor diluting Bilam's intent made it safe enough to allow. He turns the idea to its bright side with Rav Moshe Feinstein's story of the former boxer's father, who labored more than a year to finish a single daf of Gemara, made his siyum the night Rav Moshe came to speak, and never woke up.Listeners walk away understanding that the same pure fire that made Bilam dangerous becomes, turned toward kedusha, the power to acquire a whole world with a single daf.