On Monday, the White House issued a lovely statement about a phone call between Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whom invited to Washington. The statement was careful to omit the fact that Biden will be meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin first, in a "summit" next week.
This is just the latest act of appeasement from Biden toward Russia. Since taking office, he has:
- Renewed the one-sided New START treaty
- Failed to stop Russian hackers to attack American infrastructure
- Given the green light to Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline
- Rewarded Putin with a "summit"
Biden has never stood up to Russia, and played along with the appeasement posture of the Obama Administration. The idea that Trump was too soft on Russia, or Putin's puppet, was a Hillary Clinton invention, as was the toxic "Russia collusion" conspiracy theory. Democrats never intended to get tough on Russia; they just liked the idea as a political ploy.
Meanwhile, it is dawning on Zelenskyy, and other critics of Russia, that they have been fooled -- or fooled themselves. Russian opposition figure and former international chess champion Garry Kasparov wrote last week (https://www.wsj.com/articles/has-biden-lost-his-nerve-with-putin-11622566741) that Biden seemed to have "lost his nerve" with Putin.
Biden never had a nerve to lose. Kasparov was taken in by Biden's bluff.
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
