The latest news from California is that the state is allowing hospital staff WITH COVID to keep working, as long as they don't have symptoms. That's right: they can still spread the virus, but as long as they don't have symptoms, they can come to work and... care for vulnerable patients? What is going on here?
Well, there's a huge staff shortage. Some of it is due to the fact that there is so much demand for hospital services; and some of it is part of the overall labor shortage problems; but at least some of it is due to the fact that Governor Gavin Newsom proudly imposed a vaccine mandate on health care workers.
The result is that instead of having a healthy but unvaccinated health care worker treating you, now you could have a COVID-positive health care worker treating you, vaccinated or not. The idea is that they'll only treat COVID-positive patients -- but how do you know? Are they in a quarantined wing?
This is just the latest example of a left-wing policy whose results were predictable. The idea is to encourage vaccination and reduce risk to patients. But do you really do that when you can't afford to lose staff for any reason, and most of them worked for a year without being vaccinated? Yes -- in California.
This week'd portion begins the book of Numbers. Interestingly, the Hebrew name for the book is "In the Desert," not "Numbers." The portion, which happens to be my bar mitzvah portion, focuses almost as much on the names of the princes of each tribe as the number of soldiers it fielded. It also focuses on the configuration of the tribal camps around the central Tabernacle and the Levites.
So why "Numbers" instead of "Names" or "Places"? The numbers are, to be sure, a unique feature of the opening of this Biblical book -- but they are not the focus of the rest of the narrative. The Hebrew focuses on the place where the events in the book take place, because essentially this is the narrative of the Israelites' wanderings from Egypt to Israel, across 40 years. We move from the giving of the Torah and the construction of the Tabernacle in Exodus and Leviticus, to the final valediction of Moses in Deuteronomy -- Bamidbar is the story of wandering that happened in between.
The question of ...
This week's portion begins with the laws of the Sabbath and the Sabbatical year, and the Jubilee year that restores all land to its original (tribal) owners. It also explores laws of property and labor that will apply in the Land of Israel, and the laws of vows and inheritance.
The Israelites are presented -- not for the last time -- with the essential moral choice that they must face, and the rewards for choosing well, along with the consequences for choosing poorly.
We learn that doing good things will earn God's protection from enemies. That does not mean that victims of terror, God forbid, were sinful. But it does mean that we can respond to evil by committing ourselves to a higher path.
This week's portion describes the major sacrifices that are to be offered by the Jewish people, including those that are offered only by the priestly Kohen class, and physical requirements of the people (men) who serve in that role.
Inter alia, there are interesting commandments -- such as an injection to treat animals with respect and care, first, by letting a mother animal nurse her offspring for a week before being offered in any sacrifice; and second, by refraining from slaughtering an animal and its offspring on the same day.
The commandments regarding animals remind us of the purpose of those regarding human beings: to uphold a divine connection, through ritual.
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/111878/jewish/Rabbi-Isaac-Luria-The-Ari-Hakodosh.htm
