I have never particularly liked the third `aliyya of Balaq-- the one with the talking ass. I have always felt that it interrupts and interferes with the rest of the parasha, which is about Bil`am, the wise seer and faithful servant of Elohim, who could never do anything against the will of God. Note how each `aliyya, from the first through the sixth, ends: either God is telling Bil`am do only what I tell you (אך את הדבר אשר שדבר אליך אותו תדבר), or Bil`am is telling someone else I can do nothing, minor or major, against the will of God (לא אוכל לעבור את פי ה' אלקי לעשות קטנה או גדולה מלבי). Yet here, Bil`am is this evil man, who wants to kill his own ass with a sword. This seems to represent a very different attitude towards Bil`am; the text is making a very strange sort of joke. As you would say, the structure breaks down.

To quote you,

Here is our one break from order and structure, it seems - because since when do donkeys talk? ...the exceptions to the rules were built right into the system and are therefore not exceptions at all. That is, they still fit this idea of order and structure.

Therefore, I feel justified in having gone outside the usual order and structure of leyniŋ (you can define this in your "Glossary of Hebrew Terms used on the Details, Details Blog") by making slightly asinine sounds for the voice of the donkey. (Although Rabbi YP, your sister-in-law's brother-in-law's cat's former owner's ex-fiancé, or whatever he is to you, really didn't like my leyniŋ of those verses, OA had waited three years to hear me read this parasha. Sadly, he came to shul late, and missed it.)

Interestingly, Bil`am's oracles are all written in poetry, and poetry is a very structured form. Ancient Biblical poetry is characterized by parallelism, in which every other line is paralleled by the next line. Thus, every thought is expressed twice. For example:

מה טבו אהליך יעקב / משכנותיך ישראל
כנחלים נטיו / כגנות עלי נהר
כאהלים נטע ה' / כארזים עלי מים

(How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob / Thy dwelling-places, O Israel;
Like streams that stretch out / Like gardens alongside a river;
Like aloes planted by the Lord / Like cedars alongside water.)

Thus, A-A', B-B', C-C'. I tried to get this across in my leyniŋ of the passage. Did I succeed?