I'm on a flight to Israel, on El Al. It's full. And mostly Israeli -- families returning home from trips abroad, soldiers going to fight.
Two weeks ago today, it was the sixth day of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, a day known as Hashanah Rabbah. I noted that it had been one of the best Sukkot holidays I could remember. We had hosted several dinner parties in our new backyard sukkah -- a kind of hut -- and I spent the day balancing work and fun, even going surfing.
The Middle East was calm, and people were talking about peace. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had just returned in triumph, two weeks before, from a successful visit to the U.S., where he talked up his country with Elon Musk and told the UN about the growing momentum toward peace with Saudi Arabia, among others.
That was Friday, October 6. I even remember looking out over the Pacific and thinking about the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, which Jews had observed the week before, according to the Hebrew calendar. I thought about the diminishing power of dates.
I was wrong. We were all wrong. And just like in 2000 -- when the Palestinians launched a bloody second "intifada," ripping up the dreams of Shimon Peres and others for a "new Middle East" -- we were all plunged back into darkness. For how long this time?
Netanyahu, who guided his nation through so much, and who came out of a tumultuous fight over judicial reform with polls that show Israelis would throw him out today, if there were an election -- is this to be his legacy? This atrocity, on his watch, after so long?
Yossi Klein Halevi remarked that on Oct. 7, Israel became the most dangerous country in the world for Jews, a reversal of its mission. That is a depressing thought, and -- at the risk of gratifying the haters who like it when Jews have doubts about Israel -- we have to ask whether there is a point to it all. True, there was no alternative...
What happens to Israel if the dream of "Free Palestine" comes about? What will happen to the cities, the fields, the streets? Gaza is their fate. (At best, "free" South Africa, which is becoming Gaza.) What happens to the people? We know that, now: Kibbutz Be'eri.
No, there is no alternative. But more than that: I love Israel. There is so much to love. The fusion of the spiritual and the sensual... the woman next to me, for example, appears completely secular, wearing a tank top and yoga pants for the flight, and yet she broke out a book of Psalms and began reciting them, likely praying for a safe return.
I'm very happy to be on this flight. I'm going to tell the stories, to see for myself... and to show solidarity with the people of Israel. I'm going to do what I can to help this country, and through it, America...
But I would rather none of this had ever happened. A nightmare.
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
