I'm as frustrated with the presidential debate on Tuesday night as anyone -- though not, perhaps for the same reasons that other conservatives are.
I never expected Trump do destroy her. Here's what I said on Sunday:
"Based on past debates, I think she will do fine. She has considerable presence onstage, and will come across as officious and dignified. She has no doubt been practicing her talking points and will deliver them. So I don't foresee collapse."
What I had been telling Trump to do (indirectly, and publicly) is to ignore her and speak directly to his voters. Don't try to "win"; understand that there is no winning these things anymore. Just use the platform to reach your base.
He didn't do that. He tried to win, and he got pummeled by the moderators and outrun by Harris, who evaded every important question -- are you better off than you were four years ago? when is it too late to have an abortion? etc.
There won't be another debate because Harris did the best she could by looking strong. She probably didn't sway any voters in the middle -- and she isn't trying to do so. She's just trying to fire up her own base, and ABC helped her do it.
(Once again, as I've been saying: you can get mad over media bias, and it's important to document it, but just remember that the media are doing their job -- which is not to tell the truth but to turn out the Democratic voter base.)
So -- what next? I think Trump scored some important points on the economy and so on, but he's never going to have another opportunity to address America as a whole. He has to fire up his own supporters, and many are demoralized.
What's next, therefore, is this: if you want Trump to win -- and many of us need Trump to win, because we have our lives literally on the line -- then you, and we, are going to have to push him across the finish line ourselves, regardless.
He's amazing -- he stood up with his fist raised when he was shot in the head. That's an example for us to follow -- but it's not something one individual can sustain, on his own, forever. It's time to act, to inspire, to encourage, to vote.
President James Madison comes to mind. Madison is my favorite Founding Father because of the way he sat at a desk for months, studying, before creating the architecture of our Constitution. As a writer, I just love that.
But he was a poor president (though Dolly Madison remains the best First Lady, in my opinion). Madison led the U.S. into the War of 1812 against Britain, which may have been inevitable but was also foolishly begun, and nearly lost.
He won -- and the country survived -- largely because Americans like Andrew Jackson, and his volunteers, stepped up to fight, and did so in ways that the British never anticipated. Madison's presidency was saved by his countrymen.
And so -- if you want Trump to win, or need Trump to win (and I think we need it more than Democrats need Kamala to win), then you can't just wait for him to do it for you. You have to make it happen -- whatever you think that means.
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