This week's portion continues the description of the service in the Tabernacle. It goes on to describe the cloud that covered the Tabernacle, and how it signaled to the Israelites whether to stay in one particular place or to pack up and travel.
Moses begs his father-in-law to stay, and to join them en route to the Promised Land, but he leaves and returns to his own home. The people cry out for meat, and God sends them an excess of it, such that they regret ever having asked.
At the end, there is a famous episode in which Miriam is punished with the skin affliction called tzara'at -- often mistranslated as "leprosy" -- for gossiping about Moses's wife. She meant no harm, but it is dangerous to speak about others.
What stands out for me in this portion is the question of coming and going -- when to stay, when to go; when to join a group or a conversation, and when to leave it. Moses would later be barred from the Promised Land; perhaps his father-in-law's strength in resisting an invitation to join the Israelites on their journey will give Moses strength, later on, to absorb the pain of not being able to join the Israelites as they cross the Jordan River and complete their journey.
This is my first broadcast from the new office and studio in Washington, DC, where I'll be for a couple of years my neighborhood back in L.A. cleans up -- and as we follow the Trump administration from a little closer up than usual.
Topics:
- The anniversary of the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump
- The escalating tariff battle with various different trading partners
- The future of the Middle East peace talks, and ongoing antisemitism
- The Jeffrey Epstein files and whether they mean anything at all
- The continued crisis of the Texas floods, and stories of heroism and survival
And more!
Special guests:
- James Rosen - Newsmax chief Washington correspondent
- Bob Price - Breitbart News Texas reporter, on the ongoing floods
- Robert Cahill - Trafalgar Polling, on a new alliance of reliable pollsters
- Rabbi Yaakov Menken - Coalition for Jewish Values - on Israel & antisemitism
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This week’s portion tells the grand story of the prophet who tried to curse people of Israel and instead ended up blessing them.
I am reminded that these portions continue to be relevant anew, as this particular reading lent the title for Israel’s recent 12 Day War against Iran, “Operation Rising Lion.”
This week's portion includes the commandment of the red heifer -- one of the classic "irrational" commandments whose fulfillment is an expression of faith. It also includes the regrettable episode in which Moses strikes the rock.
I referred to this story in a wedding speech last night. Why was Moses punished for striking the rock in Numbers, when he struck the rock without incident in Exodus -- both for the purpose of providing water to the people?
The answer is that in the interim, the Jewish people had received the Torah, which is like the marriage contract between the people of Israel and God. In a marriage, you do not resolve things by breaking boundaries, but through love.
The additional reading, from Judges Chapter 11, is the story of Jephthah (Yiftach), a man whom the leaders spurn, but to whom they must turn to save the nation. The parallels to our present political circumstances are striking.
Shabbat Shalom and Happy Fourth of July!
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