Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) trotted out a now-familiar defense of President Joe Biden on Sunday morning against the impeachment inquiry against him: he was just doing what any dad would do when he helped his son, Hunter Biden, make money from access to power.
Alternatively, this defense holds that Republicans are mean because Biden was just trying to help a son struggling with addiction.
I don't know what the truth is in the Biden family, nor does anyone else. I do know there was a glaring conflict of interest, which even the Obama administration flagged, and there is good evidence of corruption implicating Biden as well as Hunter and the family.
What I mean is that I don't know about the father-son relationship. I tried writing about it last week, and stopped, because I don't know.
I do suspect that there is a possibility Joe Biden used his son to go on foreign errands for cash -- and that he might even have enabled, or ignored, Hunter Biden's addictions, in doing so. Maybe he even thought the addictions were helpful: it meant Hunter Biden could be told to do things other people ordinarily wouldn't, because he was desperate for cash and knew how to manipulate people to get it.
I think that could be true; I also think Biden could just have been worried about his son when he staged a reported intervention in 2019. Maybe he was just worried about his 2020 run. Who knows.
What I do know is that this was not just as simple as a father's love for his son. This was also about Joe Biden's own greed. One part of the story does not negate the other, but both stories must be told.
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
