"Lo uchal la'avor es pi Hashem Elokai la'asos ketanah o'gedolah." Numbers 22:18
"I cannot transgress the word of Hashem, my G-d, Hashem, to do anything small or great."
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Avodah Zara 12 teaches that one should not drink water which was left
overnight because of the danger of shavriri, however if already drunk, you
should say shavriri, veriri, riri, ri and yee. Rashi explains that the demon
who inflicts the plague of blindness is named shavriri. When he hears his
name being diminished letter by letter, he flees. And just like diminishing
the name of a demon destroys it, the reverse holds true, increasing its name
letter by letter increases its strength. Balak said to Bilaam, "go out and curse ("kavah") Israel for me." The word "kavah" is a language of diminution. Our Sages and the Aruch stated that Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah was "kav" and clean which in this context means small. Thus when Balak asked Bilaam to curse ("kav") Israel for him, he wanted him to, similar to the recitation of shavriri, say Israel's name as Yisroel, sroel, re'al, el, lamed. Balak believed that by saying Yisroel's name in this manner, Israel would be weakened because a person's force resides in his name. Bilaam wanted Balak to diminish the name of Yisroel and likewise increase the name and thereby the strength of Moav, its letters should be increased from Mem, Mo, Moa, Moav. Therefore Bilaam said to Balak that he could not do anything small or great without Hashem's permission; small here refers to diminishing the name of Israel and great refers to increasing the name of Moav to increase its strength.
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