He's brilliant, and a little bit batty, and I think he's a little too forthcoming with personal grievances against close relatives, but I understand his major grievance: he doesn't like being used by anybody. Not Kim, not Jared, not Trump, nobody.
At one point Kanye told Tucker that he believed Jared Kushner was arranging the Middle East peace deals solely to make money. That's a little bit dangerous -- I'm sure there are some who will say West was inching close to antisemitism.
But suppose it's true. So what? The fact that people will make money from Middle East peace is another reason to do it. It's not the main reason to do it, or at least it's not the main reason people like me care about it so deeply.
What I would say to Kanye, as a Jewish man to a Black man (capital B), is that when Israel is accepted by her Arab brothers and sisters, then my soul's days of wandering are at rest. That is what peace means to me, no matter who profits.
I think Ye was just coming from a place of irritation that complete strangers owned a piece of his ideas -- a piece of his wife, really -- and that it was only so they could make more money on the next deal. I think I get that, I really do.
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!
