Harvard University has produced a report claiming that the nation's oldest institution of higher education was shaped by slavery, and pledging to spend $100 million to redress its historical guilt (and impose it on future generations).
This is worse than nonsense; it's propaganda, and designed to prevent debate. My problem with Harvard's approach to this issue since 2016 has been that it ignores or downplays the fact that the institution was a mainstay of the abolitionist movement in the 19th century, and that hundreds of Harvard men volunteered to fight for the Union. Many died in that cause, and the most prominent building on campus is devoted to honoring their sacrifice.
One would think the sacrifice of hundreds of men would atone for whatever culpability the institution has in slavery. There are more Harvard dead (117) than slaves (70) -- and those slaves were owned over nearly 150 years. None were owned directly by the university. And whatever money was donated by slave owners was donated under the laws of the time. To say Harvard was shaped by slavery is merely to say that it was founded in 17th century America.
This is what happens when an institution goes "woke": it denies the morality of its own existence, the better to serve contemporary political imperatives. But let's take Harvard at its word, just as the Trump administration took Princeton at its word when it declared itself guilty of racism: cut off the funding. Why give to an institution that is a legacy of slavery? Better to support a place like Hillsdale College, which opposed slavery from its founding in 1844.
https://thefederalist.com/2020/06/18/hillsdale-college-refuses-to-bow-to-the-totalitarian-mob/
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
