This week's portion includes many different commandments -- from a system of counting the people for Temple service, to prohibitions on adultery.
One of the most important passages describes the words of the priestly blessing: "May the Lord bless you and watch over you. May the Lord cause His countenance to shine to you and favor you. May the Lord raise His countenance toward you and grant you peace." (Numbers 6: 24-26)
I say these blessings over my children every Friday night. I was also witness to an amazing coincidence involving these blessings at my wedding in 2009.
In a traditional Jewish wedding, prior to the ceremony, the wife holds court on her own, greeting the guests before her groom appears and covers her face with her veil. It is customary for the parents of the bride and groom to bless her.
My parents stepped forward and blessed my bride, in Hebrew. And then, lo and behold, my wife's grandfather, a Christian pastor, stepped forward and gave her exactly the same blessing -- in English. This was entirely unplanned.
It was an incredible coincidence -- or maybe not such a coincidence -- and remains one of my best memories of the wedding. I am able to re-live that memory every Friday night, when I recite those words at my Sabbath table.
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 ...
