The first night of the January 6 Committee hearing was a dud, in that it produced no new evidence, while showing just how far Democrats will go to abuse their power. The credibility of the whole investigation was diminished.
That does not mean it was a failure, if one assumes that the only real goal was to hurt Donald Trump. Any reminder of January 6 is a reminder of his worst moment, regardless of whether he actually did anything illegal or wrong.
Part of the goal may be to make Trump more toxic to his own voters, perhaps by showing testimony from his own aides. (Did those who cooperated with the committee know that they were going to be spliced into propaganda videos?)
But as I argued on this morning's Breitbart News Daily on SiriusXM 125, the only person really hurting Trump's support right now is Trump himself, because he is talking about the 2020 election, rather than issues on voters' minds.
So the committee can't hurt him more than he has hurt himself. Meanwhile, they are not only destroying the spirit of the Constitution, but their own ratings. It turns out that show trials, while slick, are also deadly boring.
This is the portion that all journalists should love: the Torah tells the story of the 12 spies, only two of whom tell the truth when the other ten shade it in a negative away (perhaps to suit a political agenda that is opposed to Moses).
It's not that the ten "lying" spies misconstrue the facts about the Land of Israel; rather, they interject their opinions that the land is impossible to conquer, which strikes unnecessary terror into the hearts of the people.
We have many examples of such fake news today -- from the Iranian propaganda outlets spreading false claims that they are winning the war, to California politicians spreading false horror stories about ICE raids in L.A.
The people realize, too late, that they have been fooled, and once they are condemned to die in the desert, they try to rush into Israel -- only to be defeated by the inhabitants, as the spies predicted that they would be.
But as consolation, God gives the people new commandments -- focused on things they must ...
This week's portion discusses the procedure for lighting the menorah, the holy seven-branched lamp, in the Tabernacle (and later the Temple). It also describes an episode where the people crave meat, and God punishes them by giving it to them in excess. We also read the story of Miriam, Moses's sister, who is punished with the spiritual skin blemish of tzara'at for speaking about her brother, thus violating the prohibition against lashon hara (evil tongue).
I heard a fantastic sermon this week about the lighting of the menorah: that while only the priests were qualified to clean and purify the menorah, anyone could light it. A reminder that each of us can inspire others along the way.
This week we study the vow of the Nazirite; a reminder that sometimes trying to be too holy is excessive, and the best we can do is to be the best that we are.
https://www.chabad.org/parshah/torahreading_cdo/aid/2495720/p/complete/jewish/Naso-Torah-Reading.htm
