This week's additional portion from Isaiah (54:11 - 55:5) is the third of the "comfort" readings after the Ninth of Av, as we head into the New Year. The portion itself continues a recapitulation of the story of the Torah, and revisits several of the major commandments.
At the outset, God (via Moses) lays out a basic choice and its consequences: a blessing, and a curse. It's up to us to choose.
I once heard an interesting interpretation of a later passage about which birds are kosher and which are forbidden for consumption. The stork is forbidden, which is odd because it would otherwise qualify. Other forbidden birds are predators; storks are not.
The very name of the stork in Hebrew -- chasidah -- contains within it the word for kindness, "chased." So why is this bird ruled out? The answer: a stork is only kind to fellow storks. It is selfish about its kindness. Kindness must be directed outward, to the world as well.
https://www.chabad.org/parshah/torahreading.asp?aid=2495800&jewish=Reeh-Torah-Reading.htm&p=complete
The story of Noah is familiar; the details, less so.
Noah is often seen as an ambivalent figure. He was righteous -- but only for his generation. What was his deficiency?
One answer suggests itself: knowing that the world was about to be flooded, he built an Ark for the animals and for his own family -- but did not try to save anyone else or to convince them to repent and change their ways (the prophet Jonah, later, would share that reluctance).
Abraham, later, would set himself apart by arguing with God -- with the Lord Himself! -- against the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, saying that they should be saved if there were enough righteous people to be found (there were not).
Still, Noah was good enough -- and sometimes, that really is sufficient to save the world. We don't need heroes every time -- just ordinary decency.
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Look for cancelation in the very near future. Thank you for your support!
An interesting weekend -- one of the last of Daylight Savings Time -- in which there is much to celebrate, much to contemplate, and a bit to worry about.
The Gaza peace deal is shaky, but holding, after the living hostages returned; the shutdown is still going on, with no end in sight; the China trade war is heating up; and the confrontation with Venezuela continues to escalate.
The "No Kings" protest was a dud, despite the media's attempt to inflate it. What I find fascinating is that the Democrats have basically stolen the rhetoric and the imagery of the Tea Party protests, circa 2009. They claim they are defending the Constitution -- just like the Tea Party did.
On the one hand, this is good. How wonderful to have a political system in which both sides, bitterly opposed though they are, articulate differences through the Constitution -- and not, as in so many other countries, outside it.
On the other, this is sheer hypocrisy for the Democrats. Not only did they malign the Tea Party as ...
