The Torah refers to a prophet with two terms, chozeh, a seer, which means that he sees into the future, and novi, which has as its root the word “speech,” as in “boreh niv sefosayim.” The abilities of the biblical prophet lie in his Divine gifts of extraordinary vision and speech.

Bilam was one of the most powerful neviim, and this week’s parsha is one of sight and sound, re’iah and amirah. Parshas Bolok is a parsha of vision, a story of images, descriptions and metaphors. Bilam, the novi retained by Bolok to cause damage to Klal Yisroel, is described by the posuk as possessing a “shesum ayin,” a punctured eye (Bamidbar 24:3). Rashi explains that only one of his eyes was open, for he was blind in the other.

On Monday, the Knesset fought until after midnight to approve the first reading of the state budget for 2013/2014. Its 83 articles provide a knockout blow for Israel’s poor and chareidi public.

The vote was preceded by a violent debate during which Lapid demonized the chareidi public and chareidi politicians responded in kind. During Lapid’s speech, the Knesset plenum was half empty; UTJ politicians made a point of being absent and only two Yisroel Beiteinu MKs remained in the plenum to listen to him.

A story is told about a small village where the sap of an exotic tree fell into the water supply. It soon became clear that anyone who drank from the water lost their sanity. The villagers tried filtering the water, cooking it out, and diluting it, to no avail.

Anyone who drank the water became crazy.

Having no choice, the villagers stayed away from the water. For a day or two, all was fine. Everyone remained normal.

With everybody watching
With all the world as eyes
It’s no wonder some of us
Are wearing a disguise!

I’ve heard
There was some blogger
Whose name he thought was gold
And had someone
Who verified
Everything he sold