Remember Khizr Khan? He was the scourge of Donald Trump in 2016, the bereaved Muslim father of a fallen U.S. soldier who died in Iraq. He excoriated Trump at the Democratic National Convention over the issue of Trump's views on Islam, and he became a national hero.
Remember Trump's supposed comments about dead troops being "suckers" and "losers"? That story in the Atlantic that no one seemed to be able to confirm, and which anyone in a position to know -- even disloyal officials -- denied, yet became a cable news staple?
That's how Democrats and the media use veterans, and fallen heroes -- to attack Republican candidates. And it usually works, because shellshocked Republicans like veterans so much that they fear pushing back, even when the attacks are based on total distortions.
Then there are the Gold Star families of the Afghanistan 13 -- those men and women who were killed by a terrorist bombing in the chaotic U.S. evacuation from Kabul. (Many were wounded as well.) They have been treated like dirt by President Biden for two years.
As Logan Dobson pointed out on Twitter, the cable news networks -- other than Fox -- ignored the Gold Star families' memorial ceremony yesterday. Yet they couldn't get enough of the "suckers" story. Maybe next time, we should recognize their' abuse of veterans for what it is.
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
