At a Bar Mitsvah:
Baal Bayis: You, know, I never understood that story about Bilaam and the donkey. If I was riding a donkey and it suddenly spoke to me, I would have ran away and ran and ran...
Talmid Chacham: But BIlaam was very close to his donkey. Chazal say (Sanhedrin 105a) that he related it as a husband to wife at night.
Baal Bayis: What does that mean? Such a prophet and doing this?!
Talmid Chacham: What Chazal mean is something deeper?
Baal Bayis: Nu...
Talmid Chacham: It says in Shemos 22:18 that. "Yo shall not allow a wich to live". The next possuk is: "All who lie with an animal shall be put to death".
Baal Bayis, taking the cue: So what's the connection?
Talmid Chacham: Recanati in his commentary on this verse brings several Zohars, including one that speaks about Bilaam and implies that the connection is that a sorcerer brings his "bris" into the world of impurity in order to perform sorcery. Recanati goes on to say: "and understand this very well" and does not fully explain.
Baal Byis: So what's the pshat?
Talmid Chacham: I heard it explained that humans live on an intermediate plane of being; above them is the angelic sphere and below them is the world of animals and spirits. One can "shortcircuit" the intermediate plain by either rising above it and acting within it so that there are effects upon the world of humans below, or one can accomplish the same results by going under the human plane and working within it. Animals do not affect the world of humans because they do not have intelligence. But a human being with intelligence can descend into this lower world and cause effects there that will cause changes within the human world.
Baal Bayis: So you are saying that this is what Chazal mean when they say that Bilaam was intimate with his donkey. They are saying that he used the most spiritual implement that a man has, his sexuality, to descend to and become a part of the animal world, to couple with a donkey and to become a great sorcerer.
Talmid Chacham: Exactly. There is a hint to this in the Torah itself. Bilaam is introduced to us as "Ben Baor", which in Hebrew means,"the son of a "beheima"
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