Former President Donald Trump has attacked former Attorney General Bill Barr and former Vice President Mike Pence for refusing to do more to stop Democrats from "stealing" the 2020 election. Both were loyal to Trump, but not to him personally; rather, they were loyal to Trump when he was clearly defending the Constitution. When he began casting about for a way to reverse the outcome of the 2020 election, they had to choose, and they chose well.
The 2020 election was neither free nor fair, but it was probably not fraudulent, at least on a scale that mattered. That was partly because Democrats legalized what would once have been fraudulent. If Barr did not investigate voter fraud, that is because there probably wasn't any serious enough to rise to the level of a federal crime. The bigger issues were new voting rules -- some of which were passed by Republicans -- and violence, and media/tech censorship, and so on.
Trump is at his best when he is articulating the case against Biden and the far-left that dominates the Biden presidency. He did that in his speech Saturday night. No one else does it better, which is why he is still the effective leader of the Republican Party. But Trump is at his worst when he lets the media bait him into bashing former aides and associates, as happened on this occasion with Barr. People want to fight the battles of the future, not the election of 2020.
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!
