I picked up my son from his elementary school just after I learned about the mass shooting at a similar school in Texas, and I realized how lucky I was to be doing that. I thought of the parents at Uvalde, who were waiting ...
No one can hear that news and not be moved. And pretty much everyone reacts by wondering if we can "do something." Unfortunately, there's not much "something" that we can do that will have any effect at all in the near term.
Gun control doesn't work, and won't be possible in a crime wave. Democrats can't have it both ways: you can't spend a whole year demonizing police and cutting their funds and then make it harder for citizens to protect themselves.
Mental health is a real issue, though it's not a quick fix. I tend to believe we have something wrong in our popular culture, when young men (they are almost all young men) seek fulfillment in these dramatic, murderous shooting episodes.
If I were to do anything -- and I wouldn't actually do this, because it's not constitutional -- I would ban first-person shooter games. I think that while most people don't enact their fantasies, there are always a few who will.
Meanwhile... much of the shrieking from celebrities and politicians is just that: shrieking. It's narcissism at best, and exploitation of tragedy for political purposes, at worst. Democrats need an issue, and they are desperate.
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
