The Times of Israel reports that President Joe Biden is going to push Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for concessions to the Palestinians as a condition for an Israeli-Saudi peace deal.
This is absurd, for three reasons:
1. It flips the logic of the Abraham Accords on its head, which is that the Palestinians do not get a veto over peace between Israel and other Arab states.
2. It is a demand with which Netanyahu cannot possibly comply, given the fact that his governing coalition is made up of right-wing parties who would bolt if Netanyahu offered deep concessions to the Palestinians. Biden might welcome that result, since he would prefer a different Israeli government, but it would not bring a peace deal closer.
3. The Palestinian fate does not depend on Israeli concessions. It depends on a complete change in Palestinian leadership. The Abraham Accords are showing, every day, that there is nothing to preclude Jews and Arabs, or Jews and Muslims, from getting along in the Middle East, other than the outdated Cold War/Holy War mindset to which the Palestinian leadership, and Iran, are still clinging. If the Palestinian leaders stopped supporting terror against Israel, there would be peace and concessions galore.
In a related story, a bunch of left-wing American Jewish "leaders" has written a letter to Biden stating that a Saudi-Israeli peace deal "must" include steps toward a Palestinian state. That implies they would reject a peace deal -- even if the Saudis accepted it -- that did not include Palestinian statehood. It is a radical, absurd demand -- one that can only encourage extremism.
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
