This weekend, in synagogues around the world, Jews read Parashat Balak, one of the most extraordinary portions in the Torah. Most people remember it for two things: a talking donkey and the blessings that replaced a curse. But I think its deepest lesson is something else entirely. It is a story about moral blindness. By this point in the Torah, the Israelites have left Egypt, wandered through the desert, and are camped near the edge of the Promised Land. The neighboring kingd