On Tuesday, I told a colleague that after several visits to UCLA's campus this week and last week, it was possible that a group of pro-Israel people would lose patience with the university and simply storm the "Palestine" encampment.
I joked that L.A. Jews weren't Ashkenazi intellectuals like me, but rather Persian Jews who fled the Iranian revolution. As one sign at the pro-Israel counter-protest Sunday at UCLA said: "My parents didn't leave Iran for this shit."
Insert compulsory condemnation of vigilantism here, but note that it was only the arrival of the vigilantes that triggered local and state law enforcement to do anything, after letting the thugs at the encampment bully people for days.
Local media are picking up the activists' mantra that police took too long to arrive at the scene of the battles overnight. No -- police were told to stand down from the moment the encampment arrived. UCLA coddled the thugs.
Jews lived through a version of 1930s Germany as the thugs, running security and giving orders to university contractors, were able to police the perimeter of their own encampment, denying students access to classes and the whole area.
I personally was assaulted by the thugs when I tried to exercise my right as a journalist (and a member of the public) to film the encampment. The whole situation was intolerable and the university and the governor were OK with it.
After Sunday's counter-protest, and counter-counter-protest, I told friends that I was surprised there hadn't been violence already. There were no police around and UCLA was relying on the Palestinian activists/thugs for security.
So you'll hear complaints this morning about the long time it took police to arrive. The fact is that UCLA, the UC leaders, and the governor kept police out and let the thugs run things for a week. A reaction was almost inevitable.
If you watch video of the confrontations, you'll hear pro-Israel vigilantes cheering the arrival of the police, chanting "USA! USA!". That's what they wanted all along. It's a shame that it took violence and vigilantism to get it.
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
