The media are abuzz with anticipation about a new witness in the January 6 hearings: Matt Pottinger, a former deputy national security advisor who resigned on January 6. He is not a direct witness to anything, but is being called because the committee's primary goal is to cast aspersions on Donald Trump.
Not that Trump doesn't deserve them -- I thought the entire January 6 protest was a bad idea, and said so beforehand -- but this is not actually about Trump.
The January 6 committee is a Stalinist show trial. It is being conducted by one party to humiliate and destroy the other. It is unconstitutional and unlawful, and is destroying the civil liberties and reputations of innocent people.
If Pottinger wants to have his say about Trump, the country's op-ed pages are open to him; there are book publishers eager to provide contracts, etc. By going along with this charade, he is hurting everyone else's constitutional rights.
I won't condemn those who testify under threat of subpoena and jail time -- though I feel that the best moral course for them would be to defy the committee and accept the consequences. But volunteering? No excuse.
This week’s portion launches the great story of Abraham, who is told to leave everything of his life behind — except his immediate family — and to leave for “the Land that I shall show you.”
There’s something interesting in the fact that Abraham is told to leave his father’s house, as if breaking away from his father’s life — but his father, in fact, began the journey, moving from Ur to Haran (in last week’s portion). His father set a positive example — why should Abraham leave him?
Some obvious answers suggest themselves — adulthood, needing to make one’s own choices, his father not going far enough, etc.
But I think there is another answer. Abraham (known for the moment as Abram) needs to establish his own household. This is not just about making one’s own choice, but really about choosing one’s own starting point. It’s starting over.
Sometimes we start over in fundamental ways even if much that surrounds us remains the same. Sometimes the journey we have to ...
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!
