Republicans seem to have lost the big lead they had on the generic congressional ballot earlier in the summer, and the situation looks even worse when one examines individual Senate races; the GOP is losing key contests.
What is going on?
1. Democrats are mad: the Dobbs decision reversing Roe v. Wade has energized female voters; the Uvalde decision is motivating gun control enthusiasts; and some Republicans are proposing some weird policies.
2. Biden is doing better: the Al-Zawahiri killing; the falling gas prices; the new spending bill; modest gun reforms; and good jobs reports are all adding up to a fairly good summer for Biden, even with two quarters of economic contraction.
3. Trump is the issue: Democrats have used the January 6 Committee and other investigations to keep Trump in the headlines. That has rallied the GOP (see the Mar-a-Lago raid), but it has also rallied wavering Democrats.
4. Republicans aren't talking about issues: the GOP is stuck on Trump, too, and can't find a credible message on inflation. Meanwhile, as Tucker Carlson notes, they aren't talking about the border crisis or crime or "woke" education.
5. Individual candidates: This is the Mitch McConnell excuse, but it's got some legs. The GOP has some lemons: in Pennsylvania, Dr. Oz is losing to a guy who is basically an extremist (and a racist) and who is not healthy enough to serve.
It's still early yet, but without determined leadership from Republicans, a good opportunity to take the Senate is going to slip away, and gains in the House may also disappear. It's like the Tea Party year of 2010 all over again.
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
