Balaam Counts the Dust of Jacob and Craves the Death of the Upright

"Who has counted the dust of Jacob." These are the commandments that they perform with dust, and these are they: "You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together" (Deuteronomy 22:10) — behold, a commandment of dust; and further, "You shall not sow your vineyard with diverse kinds" (ibid., ibid. 9). That is to say: since these commandments shield them, for they heeded the words of the Creator, the curses shall not take hold upon them. Another interpretation: "Who has counted the dust of Jacob." Who is able to curse them and to entice them so that they might be able to count them? And the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Jacob their father, "And your seed shall be as the dust of the earth" (Genesis 28:14). "And the number of the fourth part of Israel." The leapers of Israel, who are a fourth part — that is to say, that no man is able to curse them so that they should be diminished, so that they should fall to the earth in number. Another interpretation: "the fourth part (rova) of Israel" — the seed of Israel, as they say "the first rainfall (revi'ah)," and Scripture says, "You shall not mate your animal with diverse kinds" (Leviticus 19:19). "Let my soul die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his." That wicked one set a sign for himself: that if he should die the death of the upright — that he should die upon his bed in the way of the world — and that his end should be like their end, that is to say, that he should have a portion in the world to come.