We should understand the wonder of the Creator being unwilling to listen to an unworthy man. Also, what does it mean that He turned the curse into a blessing, if He did not hear Balaam at all?

The thing is that there are those who slander to find a place of iniquity in Israel. This means that when one wants to walk in the ways of the Creator, the body slanders and seeks iniquities in Israel. Iniquity means a place of deficiency, where he finds that by wanting to be in the quality of Israel, there are many questions, meaning he has tough questions and issues regarding the quality of Israel.

With this power, it detains a person from walking in the ways of the Creator, meaning from being in the quality of Israel, as it is written, “My son, My firstborn, Israel.” By the body’s slandering Israel and finding iniquities, meaning faults, it obstructs him and detains him.

The verse comes and says about this that He was completely unwilling to listen, for although it came with an argument that cannot be defeated through reasoning, its words are not heard or accepted whatsoever. In other words, one who wants to walk on the path of the Creator—that “the Lord will be your God,” and not other things—should not listen whatsoever to the complaints and grievances of the body, which come from the intellect.

Thus, the meaning of being “unwilling to listen” is that he did not want to reply to it within reason, but rather went above rhyme and reason.

At that time, “The Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you.” That is, of all the slandering that it slanders through the complaints and grievances, when it overcomes the complaints by going above reason, they cause him to be rewarded with faith above reason. Otherwise, he would walk in the path of the Creator within reason, but the real Kli [vessel] to be rewarded with the light of the Creator is specifically above rhyme and reason, and this Kli is called a Kli of bestowal.

Conversely, within reason, it is called “a Kli of reception,” and on that Kli there was the Tzimtzum [restriction]. It follows that by wanting to be rewarded with “the Lord will be your God,” and not other gods, he “was unwilling to listen” whatsoever. That is, he says to it, “I do not want to hear what you are saying.” By this, the Creator turns the curse into a blessing.