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 week’s portion launches the great story of Abraham, who is told to leave everything of his life behind — except his immediate family — and to leave for “the Land that I shall show you.”
There’s something interesting in the fact that Abraham is told to leave his father’s house, as if breaking away from his father’s life — but his father, in fact, began the journey, moving from Ur to Haran (in last week’s portion). His father set a positive example — why should Abraham leave him?
Some obvious answers suggest themselves — adulthood, needing to make one’s own choices, his father not going far enough, etc.
But I think there is another answer. Abraham (known for the moment as Abram) needs to establish his own household. This is not just about making one’s own choice, but really about choosing one’s own starting point. It’s starting over.
Sometimes we start over in fundamental ways even if much that surrounds us remains the same. Sometimes the journey we have to ...
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.
Hi all -- as I noted last month, I'm going to be closing down my Locals page, at least for tips and subscriptions -- I may keep the page up and the posts as well, but I'm no longer going to be accepting any kind of payment.
Look for cancelation in the very near future. Thank you for your support!
