Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may have a better shot at the presidency this week than he ever has before. Devon Archer's testimony has put a spike in the Biden 2024 re-election effort. It's still rolling on, but eventually that tire is going to deflate and the whole thing could end.
If it does, Democrats will still need a candidate. Gavin Newsom has been working to boost his national profile (while ignoring his actual job in California), so he is the likeliest alternative -- except for the fact that Kamala Harris, the first black female VP, may want the job.
There are also looming deadlines for qualifying for the ballot in various early primary states. Newsom can make most of these -- or Democrats can change the rules, which they obviously have done before -- but it will be a tough lift to put together a national effort.
So... Democrats may be stuck with Kennedy (or Marianne Williamson, who is not building much momentum). They don't know it yet, but that could help them, because there will still be voters that are looking for an alternative to Donald Trump -- including Republicans.
That's where the genius -- intentional or not -- of Kennedy's campaign comes in. If he does, in fact, squeak in as the Democratic nominee -- if he can get past the constant attacks and the superdelegates and the rest of it -- he will pull in crossover votes.
Kennedy's "conservative" positions, which were once common-sense views within the Democratic Party, are already attracting positive attention from the conservative media. On Thursday, for example, he is presenting a documentary about his recent trip to the border.
He wants to seal that border -- just as Trump and most of the other Republican candidates want to do. That may not attract "progressive" votes in a Democratic primary, but it could make an impact in some early primary states, and it could attract Republicans in the general.
Democrats have backed themselves into this corner by marching in lockstep with the Biden White House and its lies about Hunter and corruption etc. They are so dug into their anti-Trump media bubble that they may not realize it has burst until it's far too late.
What will that mean? Will they rally around Kennedy, on the basis of Supreme Court choices, and so forth? Maybe. Or maybe they'll have to come to terms with the policies he's brought them, even if they are now seen as "conservative" positions. It can only be for the good.
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
