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 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
