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Why did Balaam go to Midian to collect payment instead of Moab? The shiur develops a legal principle that when a leader acts for personal gain rather than national interest, he cannot bind the state to his obligations. Midian paid because they genuinely hated the Jews, while Moab's 'fear' was artificially created by Balak for his own political advancement.
The shiur begins with the Torah (תורה)'s account of Balaam being killed while collecting payment for his advice to have Midianite and Moabite women seduce Jewish men, resulting in 24,000 Jewish deaths from the ensuing plague. Rabbi Zweig addresses a question raised by the Morali: why did Balaam go to collect payment from Midian rather than Moab, given that he had been dealing primarily with Moab throughout the story? The shiur challenges the Morali's answer that Moab acted out of fear and therefore wasn't obligated to pay. Instead, Rabbi Zweig argues that a careful reading of the pesukim in Parshas Balak reveals that neither Moab nor Midian was actually afraid of the Jews. The Jews had consistently avoided fighting their relatives, choosing instead to battle major powers like Sichon and Og rather than engage with Esav. Both nations understood that the Jews would not attack their kinsmen.
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Parshas Matos - Balaam's death and collection of payment
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