It has been very hard to watch the chaos in Israel. Netanyahu has been carrying out long-overdue judicial reforms, and the opposition has gone outside the rules of the game to shut down the country.
It seems to me that if you give in to such tactics, you lose the country. Military desertion, for example, which the left has used to pressure the government, is a complete disaster if it is legitimized.
It does seem, though, that the Israeli left is prepared to destroy the country rather than to live under a more democratic system in which Netanyahu and his political allies have a say in judicial selection.
The Israeli right is not prepared to give up the country, and so it is preparing to pause the judicial reforms, in the hope of returning the country to normal. The left plans to continue protests, regardless.
Some very smart people are arguing that it is all right to pause the reforms, because Netanyahu has exposed the rot for all to see, and that judicial reform is now inevitable, even a consensus position.
Maybe so. But I have to say, as someone who has always thought of Israel as a refuge, that the sight of that country transformed into yet another political battlefield by the radical left is really disheartening.
I have yet to hear one argument -- even one -- in favor of the system as it currently is. I have yet to hear one lefty consider the risk that if left-wing reservists desert, right-wing reservists may one day do so.
I am coming to the conclusion that the only real refuge for the free is in our own hearts and minds, and the only place for faith to reside is between the individual and God. There may be no real sanctuary.
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
