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 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
