Kedushas Levi on Parshat Balak

(16) ha-Shem became manifest to Balaam and put a word in his mouth, saying, “Return to Balak and speak thus.” (17) He went to him and found him standing beside his offerings, and the Moabite dignitaries with him. Balak asked him, “What did Ado-shem say?” (18) And he took up his theme, and said: Up, Balak, attend, Give ear unto me, son of Zippor!
(19) God is not human to be capricious, Or mortal to have a change of heart. Would [God] speak and not act, Promise and not fulfill?
(20) My message was to bless: When [God] blesses, I cannot reverse it.
(21) No harm is in sight for Jacob, No woe in view for Israel. Their God Ado-shem is with them, And their King’s acclaim in their midst.

MISHNA: Certain innovations in prayer warrant silencing the leader who introduces them due to heresy. One who recites Just as Your mercy is extended to a bird’s nest, so too extend Your mercy to us; and May Your name be mentioned with the good or We give thanks, we give thanks twice, they silence him.

GEMARA: Granted, they silence one who repeats: We give thanks, we give thanks, as it appears like he is acknowledging and praying to two authorities. And granted they also silence May Your name be mentioned with the good, as clearly he is thanking God only for the good and not for the bad, and we learned: One is required to bless God for the bad just as he blesses for the good.

However, Your mercy is extended to a bird’s nest, why do they silence him? Two amora’im in Eretz Yisrael disputed this; Rabbi Yosei bar Avin and Rabbi Yosei bar Zevida; one said because he engenders jealousy among God’s creations. And one said because he transforms the attributes of the Holy One of Blessing into expressions of mercy, when they are nothing but decrees.

"engenders jealousy" -- by saying that ha-Shem is concerned for these [birds] but not for God's other creations.

"[God's] attributes"... ha-Shem's Mitzvot were made not out of mercy but to place upon Israel the laws of God's decrees, to make known that they are ha-Shem's servants and the keepers of God's Mitzvot and decrees, even in where Satan and idolators could reply to them saying, 'what need do you have for this Mitzvah?'

Not an ox nor a sheep, both it and its young, shall be slaughtered on the same day.

"because he transforms the attributes of the Holy One of Blessing into expressions of mercy, when they are nothing but decrees." Rabbeinu Elchanan was troubled by Kalir's piyyut that we say 2nd-day Pesach, "both it and its young, shall not be slaughtered on the same day." It seems to say that the Holy One of Blessing has mercy on these animals; but isn't it merely a decree?

"My message was to bless: When [God] blesses, I cannot reverse it." The Talmud (‎‎B’rachot 33b) taught that if someone, in their prayer to ha-Shem for mercy, compares ha-Shem's ‎mercy on the young and helpless birds in the nest, ‎that ha-Shem should extend mercy to us: such ‎a person is to be silenced. Rashi explains, the davenner equates our traits with ha-Shem's. We have to accept Divine legislation, such as the ‎commandment to send off the mother bird, as decrees, without ‎trying to examine God’s motivation.‎

Tosafot on the same sugya (Megilot 25a) ‎is troubled by Kalir's piyyut (Gevurah of Shacharit), asking that the mitzvah not ‎to slaughter the mother and its young on ‎the same day, should lead ha-Shem to show mercy to us as well (contradicting Rashi).

‎
The resolution is in ‎‎Shabbat (151a): anyone who shows rachmanos to ha-Shem's creatures will themselves ‎experience rachmanos from heaven. The heart of the matter comes from the ‎‎Zohar: "awakening from below, causes action from above." We find that when a person has rachmanos themselves towards other living creatures, they awaken the aspect of rachmanos [above], and mercy comes upon them too.

‎
As is known‎, “the hesed of ha-Shem is inexhaustible" (Lamentations 3:22). The Holy One of Blessing is continuously raining down on us hesed and rachmanos and goodness. If we sometimes have the feeling that we have ‎been shortchanged by the attribute of Mercy, the reason is never ‎that ha-Shem has run out of Mercy, but the reason is that we do not ‎qualify for it at all times. Nonetheless ha-Shem is able to bring about a ‎radical change within our hearts so that we will have a pure heart ‎and strength to serve God in truth, and thus deserve to receive ha-Shem's goodness. This is why we ‎regularly pray (in Tachanun): ‎לא תכלא רחמיך ממנו‎, “do not allow Your mercy to ‎come to an end as far as we are concerned”(Psalms 40:12)‎, meaning that it should not be diminished from us.

"For Your hesed continually creates us," meaning the K.B.H. is creating each person at all times in every moment. As the rabbis teach (Bereshit Rabbah 14:11), the line ‎כל הנשמה ‏תהלל יה יהללו-יה‎ (Ps 150:6, the very last line of all of Tehillim) is understood to mean that “with every breath ‎we draw, we praise ha-Shem with our whole soul,” so that God has ‎no difficulty in changing us into a new creature whenever the ‎soul is restored to us. At that time ha-Shem can supply us with a pure, ‎non-polluted heart.‎

As is known, when ha-Shem issues a decree, a tzaddik can annul it (Moed Katan 16b). This is ‎also the meaning of ‎ויכון בחסד כסאך ותשב עליו באמת‎ “when Your ‎throne will be firmly established through loving kindness You will ‎sit on it truly” (Yom Kippur musaf). ‎When ha-Shem sits on the Throne of Hesed, and God's rachmanos and hesed are aroused for Israel, then ha-Shem is sitting "be-emet" (in truth), and a tzadik cannot ‎overturn that decree. But when the opposite, chas v'shalom, is true, then the tzadik can overturn the decree, and the Holy One of Blessing must arise from the Throne of Judgement and sit upon the Throne of Mercy -- in that case, we find that there is no sitting "be-emet".‎

When the Holy One of Blessing commanded us not to remove the mother bird ‎away from her young in the nest, this isn't from the side of God's rachmanos. If it were, the Torah ‎did not have to command us, for God Alone could ‎have taken care either of the mother bird or its young without ‎leaving their fate to our sense of compassion. ha-Shem has many other ‎ways and means of insuring these birds’ survival. Rather, the ‎intent was to awaken the qualify of mercy in us, that we should have compassion on ‎the mother bird.

When we keep this in mind, Hakalir’s piyyut asking ha-Shem to replicate the mercy for the bird upon us, does not contradict the statement we quoted ‎from the Talmud at all. The interpretation is that You commanded us in order to awaken rachmanos in us, and [then] you will have mercy on us.

Whenever a tzadik blesses us, they ‎surely do so with a full heart, from the side of rachmanos and love that they have upon them. If so, they are in turn blessed from heaven too, as taught in Tractate Shabbat.

But Bilam was ‎well aware that he was not blessing us with a full heart. Rather, that the Holy One of Blessing had placed a bit in his mouth (Rashi). He ‎was aware that the blessings he had bestowed would not accrue to ‎him as a response from heaven.‎
When he said “I have taken blessing,” he meant that he had ‎borrowed these words from God’s vocabulary in order to bless Israel, but ‎ברך לא אשיבנה‎, “I ‎am aware that these brachot will not return unto me (i.e. for ‎myself).”‎

Anyone who has compassion for God’s creatures will receive compassion from Heaven, and anyone who does not have compassion for God’s creatures will not receive compassion from Heaven.

Come and see: the awakening below causes an awakening above. As long as there is no awakening below, there will be no awakening above, to descend upon one. [One of many similar passages throughout the Zohar.]

It [one’s soul] is called by five names: nefesh (Genesis 2:7), ruaḥ (Ezekiel 37:14), neshama (Genesis 2:7), yeḥida (Psalms 22:21), ḥaya (Psalms 143:3).... Rabbi Meir: The neshama fills the entire body, and when a person sleeps, it ascends upward and draws life for him from above. Rabbi Levi said in the name of Rabbi Ḥanina: For each and every breath that a person takes, they must laud the Creator. What is the source? “Let every soul [neshama] praise God” (Psalms 150:6) – [read instead:] Let every breath [neshima] praise God.

The Rock of Israel spoke to me: Although I rule over people, who rules over Me? It is a tzadik. For I issue a decree and the tzadik nullifies it.

We lend power to the holiness of this day. For it is tremendous and awe filled, and on it your sovereignty will be exalted, your throne will be established in chesed, and you will sit on that throne in truth.

וישם דבר בפיו AND HE PUT A WORD IN HIS MOUTH —And what was this “putting”? What would Scripture have lacked if it had stated “[And ha-Shem met Balaam and said,] Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak”? But the explanation is: When he heard that he was not permitted to curse, he said, “Why should I return to Balak to cause him annoyance?” Therefore the Holy One of Blessing put a halter and bit in his mouth as a person who pricks an animal with a hook to make it go wherever he wants. He said to him, “Despite yourself shall you return to Balak’ (cf. Sanhedrin 105b; Midrash Tanchuma, Balak 13).