This week's Torah reading tells the incredible story of the reconciliation of Jacob and Esau. Jacob wrestles with an angel, and prevails; at the end, he receives his new name, Israel, which describes a struggle with God -- perhaps the best description of the ongoing Jewish philosophical orientation to the world.
Jacob and his family continue into the Land of Israel, and a disturbing incident takes place, in which his daughter Dinah is kidnapped and raped by Shechem.
Her brothers pretend to deal with the local residents to allow her to marry Shechem, the local prince. But they soon rescue her instead -- slaughtering the entire town along the way. Jacob is horrified by their behavior and worries that it will make him more vulnerable to attack by other inhabitants of the land.
Instead, however, the aggressive tactics of the brothers cause others to fear Jacob and his family, despite their small number -- a tale with resonance today.
Despite his family's overall success, Jacob loses his beloved wife, Rachel, who dies giving birth to Benjamin. It is a loss from which he will never recover -- but her legacy would live on through the early kingship of Israel and the Temple.
This is the portion that all journalists should love: the Torah tells the story of the 12 spies, only two of whom tell the truth when the other ten shade it in a negative away (perhaps to suit a political agenda that is opposed to Moses).
It's not that the ten "lying" spies misconstrue the facts about the Land of Israel; rather, they interject their opinions that the land is impossible to conquer, which strikes unnecessary terror into the hearts of the people.
We have many examples of such fake news today -- from the Iranian propaganda outlets spreading false claims that they are winning the war, to California politicians spreading false horror stories about ICE raids in L.A.
The people realize, too late, that they have been fooled, and once they are condemned to die in the desert, they try to rush into Israel -- only to be defeated by the inhabitants, as the spies predicted that they would be.
But as consolation, God gives the people new commandments -- focused on things they must ...
This week's portion discusses the procedure for lighting the menorah, the holy seven-branched lamp, in the Tabernacle (and later the Temple). It also describes an episode where the people crave meat, and God punishes them by giving it to them in excess. We also read the story of Miriam, Moses's sister, who is punished with the spiritual skin blemish of tzara'at for speaking about her brother, thus violating the prohibition against lashon hara (evil tongue).
I heard a fantastic sermon this week about the lighting of the menorah: that while only the priests were qualified to clean and purify the menorah, anyone could light it. A reminder that each of us can inspire others along the way.
This week we study the vow of the Nazirite; a reminder that sometimes trying to be too holy is excessive, and the best we can do is to be the best that we are.
https://www.chabad.org/parshah/torahreading_cdo/aid/2495720/p/complete/jewish/Naso-Torah-Reading.htm
