This week's portion focuses on the priestly vestments, adornments, and sacrifices, which Aaron and his sons must wear and perform, respectively. It is also the last Sabbath before the holiday of Purim, known as Shabbat Zachor.
That is because we are exhorted to remember how the evil nation of Amalek attacked the Israelites as they left Egypt. (We also read an additional reading from I Samuel about King Saul's war against the Amalekites and their king.)
The connection to Purim is that the bad guy, Haman, was a descendant of Amalek. We are supposed to remember Amalek as a general symbol of injustice, and as a specific antisemitic threat that arises in each generation.
These passages were recently used -- or, really, misread and abused -- against Israel by the South Africans in their case at the International Court of Justice. It was, ironically, proof that Amalek still exists and takes new forms today.
The commandment is not to wipe out Amalek but to remember what Amalek did. That is why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to the story to motivate Israeli soldiers: to remind them of the justice of their mission.
The story of Noah is familiar; the details, less so.
Noah is often seen as an ambivalent figure. He was righteous -- but only for his generation. What was his deficiency?
One answer suggests itself: knowing that the world was about to be flooded, he built an Ark for the animals and for his own family -- but did not try to save anyone else or to convince them to repent and change their ways (the prophet Jonah, later, would share that reluctance).
Abraham, later, would set himself apart by arguing with God -- with the Lord Himself! -- against the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, saying that they should be saved if there were enough righteous people to be found (there were not).
Still, Noah was good enough -- and sometimes, that really is sufficient to save the world. We don't need heroes every time -- just ordinary decency.
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An interesting weekend -- one of the last of Daylight Savings Time -- in which there is much to celebrate, much to contemplate, and a bit to worry about.
The Gaza peace deal is shaky, but holding, after the living hostages returned; the shutdown is still going on, with no end in sight; the China trade war is heating up; and the confrontation with Venezuela continues to escalate.
The "No Kings" protest was a dud, despite the media's attempt to inflate it. What I find fascinating is that the Democrats have basically stolen the rhetoric and the imagery of the Tea Party protests, circa 2009. They claim they are defending the Constitution -- just like the Tea Party did.
On the one hand, this is good. How wonderful to have a political system in which both sides, bitterly opposed though they are, articulate differences through the Constitution -- and not, as in so many other countries, outside it.
On the other, this is sheer hypocrisy for the Democrats. Not only did they malign the Tea Party as ...
