This morning, while looking for a link to my book about South Africa (https://amazon.com/dp/B08SCK2S16) to send to a friend, I noticed an old tweet from a person who describes herself as a writer for the New York Times and the Washington Post. In it, she (correctly) identified a typo on my book cover (oops!), but then launched a bizarre personal attack on me and my wife. (Ironically, her attack also included a typo.)
She wrote: "I remember you from Harvard [I have no idea who she is -- Harvard College? Harvard Law?]. I know you struggled to be taken seriously by your community when you were young [I have no idea what that means]—and when, in your 20s l, you realized you’d never measure up [LOL], you started dating a teenager ten years your junior (is that even legal in SA?) [my wife was 18 and I was 27 when we started dating] & became a right-wing provocateur [I'm the guy who wants to debate, not "provoke"], which you knew would get the attention you craved [sure, that's why I became a conservative, LOL]. (But it’s not like there was competition, since possessing basic literacy skills makes you stand out! [among whom? Conservatives?])"
This is the sort of low-grade personal abuse to which conservatives are subjected all the time. My wife and I are enjoying our 12th year of marriage and we are expecting our 3rd child next month. Yes, we started dating when she was 18. We dated for almost five years before getting married. So what?
This is what they do when they can't argue the issues. Rather mundane, which is why I didn't notice it at the time. But it's not the first time I've run into it -- including at Harvard. The moment you "come out" as a conservative, you're a target.
It's demoralizing at first, but ultimately liberating, because once you lose your fear of being attacked by these people, you can think and say what you like.
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
