Bamidbar 22:28-31, 24:5
The Donkey and the Blessing
A hired seer is out-seen by his own donkey, and ends up saying the line many Jews say on walking into a synagogue.
For children, teens and adults
Bilam is not an Israelite. He is a foreign professional, paid by a king to curse a nation, and the Torah gives him more direct conversation with Hashem than most of the people you met in Bereshit. That is already strange. What happens next is stranger: the man whose entire trade is seeing what others cannot is riding an animal who can see an angel he cannot, and he beats her for saving his life. Then, two chapters later, he opens his mouth to curse Israel and out comes a line so good that in most siddurim it is now the first thing said on entering a synagogue. The passage puts a question in front of you before it teaches you anything else, what do you do with something true said by someone who meant you harm?
וַיִּפְתַּח ה׳ אֶת־פִּי הָאָתוֹן וַתֹּאמֶר לְבִלְעָם מֶה־עָשִׂיתִי לְךָ כִּי הִכִּיתַנִי זֶה שָׁלֹשׁ רְגָלִים׃
Bamidbar 22:28
Vayiftach Hashem et pi ha'aton, vatomer l'Vilam meh asiti l'cha ki hikitani zeh shalosh regalim.
Hashem opened the donkey’s mouth, and she said to Bilam: What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?