After Bilaam is unsuccessful in his plan to weaken Israel by cursing them on behalf of Balak, an attempt is made to seduce the men of Israel into spiritual decadence by way of the women of Moav. Rashi mentions, following the teaching in Gemara Sanhedrin (106a), that this was also due to the advice of Bilaam, who had decided that if Israel was too holy to curse, the best strategy was to cause them to become less holy.
Rav Kook, in an essay collected in the eighth collection of his essays (8:132), connects the idolatry of the Moabites to that of Israel when we built and worshipped the Golden Calf. These events are of course, as we learned last week, linked together through the parah adumah, the red heifer. Rav Kook explains that the cow as an object of worship is the closest to Torah-driven spirituality because it is the counterpart of the ox on the Divine Chariot, so to the uninitiated it almost appears to be sacred, partaking of aspects of divinity, and the fundamental corruption inherent in the graven image is obscured. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage, as we will see shortly.
The worship of Baal Pe’or, on the other hand, is manifestly depraved and disgusting, and the alien and corrupt nature of the divinity is evident to all. Baal Pe’or, according to Rav Kook, is the essence of all idolatry and in fact becomes the end result of all idolatrous pursuits.
Rav Kook explains that following the events related in our parsha, the urge to worship Baal Pe’or was overcome for the generation of the wilderness by the wisdom of Moshe and the heroism of Pinchas. He says that this is what gave the Court of Ezra HaSofer the power to overcome the urge to practice idolatry (as related in the Gemara Yoma 69b). The undermining of the power of essential idolatry provided the tools for this later victory. However, the idolatry is insidious and it sneaks into the hearts of the unwary by way of small compromises and prohibited acts that appear insignificant at first, such as the worship of one manifested aspect of the Divine Chariot. In this way, any movement towards idolatry becomes an assault on righteousness and spiritual purity, and a slippery slope toward moral abdication and utter depravity.
In a very real sense, the idolatry of Baal Pe’or is easier to overcome because it looks and feels evil and corrupt, so someone who hasn’t already become desensitized to spiritual debasement will not be susceptible to its charms, such as they are. On the other hand, the sort of idolatry that looks on the surface to be holy or at least not so far removed from pure and authentic spirituality will draw in even those who are careful in their observance and lead them down a dark path.
Rav Kook contrasts the victory of Eliyahu over the priests of the Baal to the Final Redemption when all the idols will be utterly destroyed. When Eliyahu stands in front of the nation to declare the victory of Hashem over the idols, he demands to know “Until when will you flip back and forth between the two sides?” – i.e., Hashem and the Baal (Melachim I 18:21). In doing so he exposes the inherent corruption of the worship of Baal and how it will inevitably lead to Baal Pe’or – that all Baal is in essence ultimately Baal Pe’or, the paragon of Baal. He forces Israel to confront the hypocrisy of their attempting to both conform to the prevailing ideals of contemporary Canaanite society and the dicta of the Torah. This is a victory of purity over impurity by exposing what has been hidden and what the forces of evil have attempted to conceal.
However, in the time of the final redemption, may it come speedily in our days, the roots and evil of all idolatry will be eradicated through the power of Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe Rabbeinu, upon his death, was entombed in a secret cave across the valley from the spiritual source of Baal Pe’or. Moshe’s very life essence stands in opposition to the corrupting power of this entity and these despicable practices, but he does so in hiddenness. Thus, at the time when evil and idolatry are finally eliminated, not only hypocrisy and deception are exposed but the corruption is rooted out even in the hidden places where heretofore it had been growing in power and malevolence.
