ספר במדבר

Numbers 23,22. “the G’d Who has brought them out of ‎Egypt.” Rashi draws our attention to the fact that ‎Bileam had to retract a statement he had made when speaking to ‎G’d in answer to His question who the men were that had come to ‎visit him. (Numbers 22,9) At that time he had attributed Israel’s ‎exodus from Egypt as being due to their own efforts, i.e. ‎העם ‏היוצא ממצרים‎. He has now been forced to admit publicly that it ‎was G’d Who had brought the Jewish people out of Egypt.We have a rule that “awakening, initiative,” can start either ‎in the celestial regions or in the terrestrial regions. Every person ‎can be the cause of G’d relating to him with the attribute of ‎Mercy by simply improving the number of credits he accumulates ‎through his good deeds. Based on this he may appeal to G’d to use ‎His attribute of mercy in dealing with him. Invoking the merits of ‎the patriarchs, however, in other words, mobilizing forces of ‎mercy whose sources are in the “higher world,” is something only ‎members of the Jewish people are able to do.‎[Very doubtful, as King Chiskiyah, invoking his merits ‎when asking G’d to let him live longer, was told by G’d that he ‎was granted this extension only due to the merits of his ancestor ‎David. Compare Kings II 20,1-5. Ed.]‎This is what the wicked Bileam referred to when he said to G’d ‎הנה העם יצא ממצרים‎, “here we have this nation that departed from ‎Egypt, etc.” When crediting the Exodus to the Jewish people ‎themselves, Bileam meant that this people by dint of their own ‎merits aroused sufficient forces of the attribute of Mercy to bring ‎about their redemption.‎In order to show how wrong Bileam was, our sages in ‎‎Avot chapter 5, list 10 “trials that the Jewish people had ‎subjected G’d to, i.e. 10 collective sins, instead of ten collective ‎merits which had resulted in their redemption. G’d indicated to ‎Bileam that the attribute of Mercy which after being “awakened” ‎by our patriarchs reminded G’d of His promise to them, that the ‎Exodus was put in motion. It was the accumulated merits of the ‎patriarchs which were the major factor in the redemption of the ‎Jewish people from their cruel fate in Egypt. This is a factor that ‎may come to the aid of the Jewish people, but never to the aid of ‎the gentiles.‎ ‎