Nombres 22:23

The donkey saw. But he [Bilam] did not see, for the Holy One, Blessed is He, granted an animal greater perception than a man, who, because of his intelligence, would become deranged from the perception of destructive spirits.

With his sword drawn in his hand. He said, ”This evil one abandoned the tools of his trade, for the weapon of the gentile nations is the sword, whereas he accosted them with his mouth, which is their calling. So I will take hold of his [tool], and accost him with his calling. This, too, is the way he came to his end — “and Bil’am the son of B’or, they killed with the sword.”

And the ass discerned the angel of the Lord standing in the way with a drawn sword in his hand, and the ass turned aside out of the road, to go into the field. And Bileam smote the ass to make her return unto the way.

AND THE ASS SAW THE ANGEL OF THE ETERNAL. Angels of G-d — which are Separate Intelligences, pp. 228-231, where Ramban discusses at length the subject of angels in relation to prophecy. — cannot be perceived by the [human] sense of sight, for they are not physical beings which can be apprehended by sight. And when they become visible to prophets or to men possessed of Ruach Hakodesh,, Note 71 and Ramban ibid. such as Daniel, worthy of receiving Ruach Hakodesh. they are apprehended by them through the perception of the rational soul which reaches the degree of prophecy or some lower degree, but that they [the angels] should be perceived by the eyes of an animal — that is impossible! Therefore you could explain [the phrase] and the ass saw [the angel of the Eternal] to mean that she felt the presence of something which frightened her off from passing on, namely the angel that had gone forth for an adversary. This is a similar expression [to that which says]: yea, my heart ‘ra’ah’ [literally: “had seen”] much wisdom and knowledge, [the term “seeing” here] being used [in the sense of] perception, and not [in the sense of] physical sight [since the heart does not “see”]. Now when this miracle occurred to the ass, and the Creator gave her [the power of] speech, she said to Balaam, Was I ever wont to do so unto thee?, but [nonetheless] she did not know why she did so now, because she was forced to do so. Therefore she did not say to him: “Behold the angel of G-d stands over against me with his sword drawn in his hand,” since her perception did not reach this knowledge at all. [Our verse] saying: And the ass saw the angel of the Eternal standing in the way, with his sword drawn in his hand does not mean that she [actually] saw the sword, let alone the angel; but the verse is hinting that since the angel was ready to strike them, she trembled very exceedingly, because she felt as if people were coming to slaughter her. [We must explain that the ass merely felt the angel’s presence, but did not actually see him, because] if we were to say that those angels that appear in human form — as I have mentioned in the section of Vayeira — can be seen even by the eyes of an animal, then how was it that Balaam did not see him, since he was not smitten with blindness! It is, however, possible that He Who gave the ass the power of speech, also bestowed …

ותלך בשדה, this is when he abandoned his two attendants and the dignitaries of Moav. [the ass on its own took a path of her own enabling what followed to become possible. Ed.] Naturally, neither the lads nor the dignitaries of Moav had any idea of what transpired now.

ותלך בשדה, “she (the ass) walked in the field (instead of on the path).” Rashi’s comment on verse 26 based on Tanchuma that the angel showed Bileam a hint of the three founding fathers of the Jewish people, needs a super commentary. It appears to mean the following: the first time the angel positioned himself as an obstacle on the path, he did so that the ass could pass either to the right or to the left of him but could not proceed without making a detour, the choice that Avraham had given Lot (Genesis, 13,9). The sons of Avraham by Keturah and Hagar are viewed as partially his descendants, as they had a different mother than Sarah. In other words, Bileam would not be permitted to curse Yitzchak who was a descendant of both Avraham and Sarah. The second time the angel tried to obstruct the ass in a narrow passage in the vineyard, he did so in a manner that allowed the ass to squeeze by but painfully, this was a hint that even cursing Yitzchok’s descendants would be allowed only if he cursed Esau, not Yaakov and his descendants. The third obstruction, which forced the ass to lie down, as passage was blocked completely, was a hint to Bileam that on no account would he be permitted to curse any of the descendants of Yaakov and his twelve sons. This is what the angel showed Bileam, using the patriarchs as his symbol.