Yesterday my wife and I took a rare trip to the movie theater -- not just rare because of the COVID lockdowns, but rare because of our schedules -- to see All Quiet on the Western Front, based on the famous Remarque novel.
The filmmaking is intense, and it's an incredible portrayal of life in the trenches in World War I, when millions of lives were lost to move the front a few hundred meters this way or that. Germany, robust at first, must eventually capitulate.
I wanted to see the movie for several reasons. One -- I loved the book when I first read it, even if it was part of an intellectual movement that encouraged pacifism and may have delayed a more robust response to Hitler in the 1930s.
Two -- I wanted to see a war movie in which the Germans were the good guys. There are many World War II films where they are the bad guys and rightfully so, but life is more complex than that, and so are my own artistic interests.
The film is largely true to the book, though a little less whimsical than the book, at times, manages to be. There is no scene of returns home on leave; instead, we se Germany through the eyes of politicians, diplomats, and generals.
That is a bit of artistic license, but it is meant to explain, in part, the various currents of thought within Germany about the nation's defeat -- and the threads that would later be rewoven by the Nazis into a terrible juggernaut.
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
