I have been hiking twice already this week, taking advantage of the sunshine to explore the hills and mountains above Los Angeles in the aftermath of three weeks of rain. I have discovered breathtaking waterfalls and rivers flowing with water that are normally bone-dry. It is a spectacular experience.
But all of that water, or most of it, is rushing out to the sea and not being captured for use. And Californians are wondering where the billions of dollars taxpayers approved for water bonds, including reservoirs, are being spent.
To give you a sense of the numbers: Three weeks of rain dumped 32 trillion gallons of water on the state, according to Fox News (https://www.foxweather.com/weather-news/california-atmospheric-rivers-32-trillion-gallons-rain-water). California's water use is about 42 billion acre-feet per year, or 1.4 trillion gallons per year, according to the Desert Sun (citing USGS - https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/environment/2014/08/21/usgs-estimates-vast-amounts-water-used-california/14400333/). So that's a LOT of water.
Typically, 50% of water in California is devoted to "environmental" use -- i.e. the forests, the rivers, the estuaries, the ecosystem as a whole. So if we presume that half of those 32 trillion gallons could be allowed to remain in the environment, while the other half -- theoretically -- could be devoted to human uses (agricultural, industrial, residential), if the storage capacity existed.
That means that enough rain fell on California to supply the water needs of the population for the next DECADE. Only a very small part of that will be captured.
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
