This week's Torah portion begins the story of the Exodus from Egypt. Though Passover is only celebrated in April next year, the cycle of Torah readings always puts the Passover reading several months ahead of the actual holiday.
Moses is the central character, and his origin story is packed with symbolic meaning. One of the most interesting aspects is how he is nurtured by women in every possible role: the midwives who save Jewish boys; the mother who hides her son in a basket; the sister who watches over him; the bathing princess who takes pity on him, and raises him as her own, while giving him to a nurse (who is actually his mother). Here we see almost every aspect of womanhood.
We don't learn who the male influences may be in Moses's life until he meets his father-in-law, who goes on to play an outsized role. It's an interesting aspect of the story. Moses, though married, would often strike a lonely figure; his wife often seemed distant from him. Yet he owed so much to the women in his life
The story of Noah is familiar; the details, less so.
Noah is often seen as an ambivalent figure. He was righteous -- but only for his generation. What was his deficiency?
One answer suggests itself: knowing that the world was about to be flooded, he built an Ark for the animals and for his own family -- but did not try to save anyone else or to convince them to repent and change their ways (the prophet Jonah, later, would share that reluctance).
Abraham, later, would set himself apart by arguing with God -- with the Lord Himself! -- against the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, saying that they should be saved if there were enough righteous people to be found (there were not).
Still, Noah was good enough -- and sometimes, that really is sufficient to save the world. We don't need heroes every time -- just ordinary decency.
Hi all -- as I noted last month, I'm going to be closing down my Locals page, at least for tips and subscriptions -- I may keep the page up and the posts as well, but I'm no longer going to be accepting any kind of payment.
Look for cancelation in the very near future. Thank you for your support!
An interesting weekend -- one of the last of Daylight Savings Time -- in which there is much to celebrate, much to contemplate, and a bit to worry about.
The Gaza peace deal is shaky, but holding, after the living hostages returned; the shutdown is still going on, with no end in sight; the China trade war is heating up; and the confrontation with Venezuela continues to escalate.
The "No Kings" protest was a dud, despite the media's attempt to inflate it. What I find fascinating is that the Democrats have basically stolen the rhetoric and the imagery of the Tea Party protests, circa 2009. They claim they are defending the Constitution -- just like the Tea Party did.
On the one hand, this is good. How wonderful to have a political system in which both sides, bitterly opposed though they are, articulate differences through the Constitution -- and not, as in so many other countries, outside it.
On the other, this is sheer hypocrisy for the Democrats. Not only did they malign the Tea Party as ...
