Apologies to readers -- I simply forgot to post the usual update for Sunday's Breitbart News Sunday program on SiriusXM Patriot 125. I was preoccupied with my deadline for the final final draft of my biography of Rhoda Kadalie.
I had received a critical review from one of the internal auditors approached by the University of Johannesburg. The first reviewer absolutely loved the book; the second reviewer did not, and wrote a detailed set of critical comments.
I suspect that the first reviewer was someone with liberal political views who knew Rhoda from her public persona, and that the second was someone with left-wing views who knew Rhoda more intimately from her struggle days.
It was important to the first reviewer to see Rhoda's story emerge as a challenge to contemporary South African political narratives; it was important to the second reviewer to preserve the legacy of Rhoda's feminist accomplishments.
I have received these kinds of dueling responses to my writing my entire life. My undergraduate thesis was panned by my graders, but won a Harvard prize. My reviewer disagreed strongly with my graduate thesis, but gave it high marks.
The best reaction to my professional writing I have received was a comment that my mother's friend made to her, which is that she (the friend) disagreed with what I said, but was proud that I had said it. People can be like that.
I could have been discouraged by the criticism, but I decided to use it as a motivation to improve the biography. And -- wow -- it is so much better. And longer: including footnotes, the biography is nearly 210,000 words long.
Anyway, if all goes well, the proofs should be done by the end of November, and the biography will go to print before mid-December, the point at which the entire South African economy seems to take a break for a month or so.
Then -- I hope! -- there will be a book tour in South Africa in February. I am eager to get back there to present the book. I am very proud of it, and writing it was a deeply emotional experience as well as an intellectual, scholarly journey.
This is the portion that all journalists should love: the Torah tells the story of the 12 spies, only two of whom tell the truth when the other ten shade it in a negative away (perhaps to suit a political agenda that is opposed to Moses).
It's not that the ten "lying" spies misconstrue the facts about the Land of Israel; rather, they interject their opinions that the land is impossible to conquer, which strikes unnecessary terror into the hearts of the people.
We have many examples of such fake news today -- from the Iranian propaganda outlets spreading false claims that they are winning the war, to California politicians spreading false horror stories about ICE raids in L.A.
The people realize, too late, that they have been fooled, and once they are condemned to die in the desert, they try to rush into Israel -- only to be defeated by the inhabitants, as the spies predicted that they would be.
But as consolation, God gives the people new commandments -- focused on things they must ...
This week's portion discusses the procedure for lighting the menorah, the holy seven-branched lamp, in the Tabernacle (and later the Temple). It also describes an episode where the people crave meat, and God punishes them by giving it to them in excess. We also read the story of Miriam, Moses's sister, who is punished with the spiritual skin blemish of tzara'at for speaking about her brother, thus violating the prohibition against lashon hara (evil tongue).
I heard a fantastic sermon this week about the lighting of the menorah: that while only the priests were qualified to clean and purify the menorah, anyone could light it. A reminder that each of us can inspire others along the way.
This week we study the vow of the Nazirite; a reminder that sometimes trying to be too holy is excessive, and the best we can do is to be the best that we are.
https://www.chabad.org/parshah/torahreading_cdo/aid/2495720/p/complete/jewish/Naso-Torah-Reading.htm
