I've been really angry about the Georgia indictment. Maybe because it includes several people who I happen to know professionally, who are the furthest thing from criminals I can possibly imagine. Maybe because the indictment includes ordinary political speech, meaning that people like me could be next in line for voicing our opinions.
What happened to the America I knew? I grew up in the liberal Chicago suburbs, where we learned to prize freedom of speech as the ultimate virtue. What happened to those Democrats?
The worst are Republicans like Brian Kemp, who are piling on with their "I told you so" lines about the 2020 election. This isn't about the 2020 election. It's about the perversion and politicization of justice in their own state, which they evidently care nothing about.
I'm bummed. And I hear the notes of defeat. I hear the voices telling us Republicans will never win another election because of vote-by-mail, and how Democrat billionaires have bought the media, and how AI will replace us all anyway so we might as well prepare for that.
Then I hear -- or don't hear -- from people in other contexts who otherwise would have every reason to respond to me but who have gone totally radio silent because they have found out I am a conservative and they can't handle it, so they'll just let me hang.
And I could let this get me down. And I get I have let it get me down, for a few hours. But I went for a run in the California sunshine -- which they haven't ruined yet -- and I swam in the wild sea and I realized that this is the kick in the pants I needed before next week.
Next week I will be in the spin room at the Republican debate. And I'm not going to ask about policy. I'm going to ask what these guys are doing to deal with the threat that the left's perversion of justice poses to all of us. Because that's the only thing that matters now.
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
