Vice President Kamala Harris said Thursday, after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that she supported Israel's right to defend itself, but was concerned about the humanitarian cost in Gaza.
Then she added: "The war in Gaza is not a binary issue."
That is a fundamental dividing line -- not just between the two parties and the two candidates; not just on the issue of Israel; but between the two major forces in our society, between Judeo-Christian ethics on one hand and moral relativism on the other.
Perhaps the overall conflict can be described as complex, a clash of "right versus right." That is not a bad way to approach it if you are trying to make peace. But the war in Gaza? A war launched by murderous terrorists and the Iranian regime?
I heard Kamala Harris speak just hours after revisiting the sites of the October 7 terror attack, where unspeakable evil was unleashed by Palestinian terrorists.
She refuses to distinguish between the side that targets civilians and the side that tries to save them; between the side that revels in cruelty and the side that embraces humanity; between the side starts a war and the side that fights to end it.
There is something more important here than an obvious attempt to pander to Muslim and Arab voters in Michigan, or to split the difference between the anti-Israel mobs and their antisemitic slogans and anti-American behavior.
What we see here is a would-be leader without a moral core. Kamala Harris would be a disaster for Israel and the U.S. This really is the most important election of our lifetimes.
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
