It's pathetic that the public had to wait more than 5 weeks for an interview with the Democratic Party presidential nominee. It's also frustrating that she went to CNN, which has such a strong bias in her favor and against Donald Trump.
Having said that, I though Dana Bash's questions were (mostly) good, though inadequate, and that the interview gave viewers a fairly good look at both the strengths and the weaknesses of the Harris-Walz ticket, especially the latter.
Harris has no sense of direction. Asked what she would do first as president, she could not give a straight answer. Asked why her policy positions had apparently shifted since she ran for president in 2019, she could not give an explanation.
That said, she has a good sense of the cultural direction of the country -- at least as Democrats want to define it. When Bash invited her to go off on Trump on the topic of race, Harris made a show of holding back, which was clever.
Tim Walz is basically useless. He brings a large body and a coach personality to the ticket. He doesn't add anything. Physically, he is so much larger than Harris (or appeared so) that he makes her look less presidential, at least on TV.
I think the interview was good for Harris, in that she can now say she's done one. I think it was bad for her, in that she looked indecisive. As I explained in my Breitbart column this week, Harris offers "consensus" without leadership. Weak.
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
