Sanhedrin Daf 106 סַנהֶדרִין דַף 106

The passuk says בלעם saw the "קיני", which teaches that he said to Yisro: קיני לא היית עמנו באותה עצה – Kenite! Were you not with us in that counsel (to פרעה, to throw Jewish male babies into the Nile)? מי הושיבך אצל איתני עולם – Who placed you with the “mighty of the world”? [i.e., to have descendants in the Sanhedrin]. Rebbe Simai said: שלשה היו באותה עצה – Three people were involved in that counsel: Bilam, Iyov, and Yisro. Bilam, who advised drowning the babies, was later killed. Iyov, who remained silent, was later punished with suffering. Yisro, who fled, merited having descendants in the Sanhedrin. The Gemara describes בלעם’s advice in the incident of בנות מואב. He told them that the Jews’ G-d is שונא זמה – hates immorality, and the Jews desire linen clothing. They set up tents selling linen garments, with an older harlot outside and a younger one inside, and the younger one offered a lower price. Eventually they were ensnared to sin with idolatry and immorality with them. בלעם was eventually killed during a war with מדין, where he had gone to collect payment for his “services.” He was killed with all four מיתות בית דין.

The Gemara discusses דואג, the second הדיוט with no share in עולם הבא. The passuk says: מה תתהלל ברעה הגבור חסד קל כל היום – Why do you pride yourself with evil, mighty warrior? Hashem’s kindness is all day long? Rebbe Yitzchak explains that Hashem said: לא גבור בתורה אתה – “Are you not a mighty warrior in Torah? מה תתהלל ברעה – Why do you pride yourself in evil through slandering Dovid? לא חסד קל נטוי עליך כל היום – Is Hashem’s kindness (i.e., Torah) not spread over you all day long?” The passuk says: ולרשע אמר אלקים מה לך לספר חקי – And to the wicked one, Hashem says, “Why do you relate my decrees?” Hashem said to the wicked דואג: מה לך לספר חקי – “Why do you relate my decrees and study Torah? כשאתה מגיע לפרשת מרצחים ופרשת מספרי לשון הרע – When you reach the sections of murderers and of those who speak lashon hara, מה אתה דורש בהם – what will you expound about them, since you are guilty of both?” That passuk continues: ותשא בריתי עלי פיך – and bear My covenant on your mouth, teaching that דואג’s Torah study was only משפה ולחוץ – from the lips outward, but he did not internalize its teachings.

Rebbe Ami said that דואג and אחיתופל asked four hundred questions about מגדל הפורח באויר – a tower which floats in the air, and not one was resolved. Rava said: רבותא למבעי בעיי – is it greatness to merely ask profound questions of Torah without personal righteousness? In the years of Rav Yehudah, all of their learning was limited to Seder Nezikin, whereas we learn all six Sedarim, including עוקצין, the last Mesechta. When Rav Yehudah would reach a challenging Mishnah in עוקצין, he would comment: הויות דרב ושמואל קא חזינא הכא – “I see the need for the questions of my teachers, Rav and Shmuel, to understand these difficult laws!” whereas we teach עוקצין in thirteen Yeshivos and know it well. Yet, as soon as Rav Yehudah would merely remove a single shoe as a sign of affliction during a drought, rain would come immediately, ואנן צוחינן וליכא דמשגח בן – but we, despite our superior achievements in Torah, cry out in prayer and no one pays attention to us! אלא הקדוש ברוך הוא ליבא בעי – Rather, Hashem wants a person’s heart (i.e., piety) more than his scholarship, as the passuk says: וה' יראה ללבב – Hashem sees into the heart.