I'm watching President Biden's speech at the United Nations. Right now he's supposedly "defending democracy," which is his way of reciting Democratic Party talking points against his domestic opposition. But I'm more interested in his remarks about Russia, which are strident but don't seem open to diplomacy.
This is the United Nations -- the very forum in which nations were meant to work out their differences so that conflict could be avoided. Biden is saying a lot of good things about the need to deter aggression, to protect smaller nations, and so on, but he's not using the forum to call for talks to stop war in Ukraine.
Not only is this the right place, but it would also be the right time. Ukraine has regained leverage with a successful counteroffensive in the Donbas, and Russia is about to escalate the conflict with a mobilization of its civilian population in the war effort. Now is the time to talk: it is an urgent yet advantageous point.
Yet I hear nothing about talks from Biden: "It's Russia's war, and only Russia can end it." So the U.S. policy is not, as Biden declared when he took office that "diplomacy is back," but rather to isolate, punish, and threaten Russia in the hope it will give up, or that there will be internal political change. Is that wise?
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
