It's Presidents' Day -- a substitute for Washington and Lincoln's birthdays, which once gave us even more public holidays in an already-short February. It's a bit generic, but I like to use the day to think about my own favorite president -- James Madison.
What I like about Madison is that he basically wrote the blueprint for the Constitution in his study after reading everything he could about government, then applying his mind and writing down his ideas. He was not a scholar; he was simply a public-minded intellectual.
I guess, at the risk of vanity, I see a bit of myself in that story, or at least the kind of writer I would like to be. And I have tried to write about certain subjects in that way -- notably the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I have even stood in the room where Madison did it.
It's sad to hear that Madison's estate, Montpelier, has been taken over by "woke" revisionists who want to emphasize the fact that he was a slave-holder. (It wasn't his only failure; he arguably erred in going to war against Britain in 1812, and failing to conquer Ontario.)
https://www.heritage.org/progressivism/commentary/the-woke-takeover-james-madisons-montpelier
Still, it's worth remembering that America owes much to a president who cared enough about ideas to devote months at a time to their study and interpretation. Those ideas persist, and survive the flaws of the man who brought them together in so elegant a fashion.
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
