This week’s Torah portion covers the 12 spies sent in to the land of Israel, ten of whom come back with negative reports.
* We don’t see the world as it is. We see the world as we are. Didn’t God and Moshe know who they were sending out to spy on the land? If they knew they were sending fearful people, they should expect a fearful report.
* It was weird that Moses sent tribal leaders rather than trained spies. The mission was doomed from the start. In Josh. 2:1, Joshua sends two trained spies to scout out Jericho.
* Yes, I am sure Russia spies on America and tries to interfere in American affairs, just as America spies on other countries and interferes in their affairs. Spying on competitors is just how the world works. I’m not outraged when foreigners spy on America and try to hack into our databases. I know we do the same thing to them. Life is war. If you’ve got something good, other people will try to take it.
* If only there were some clues, some coded hints in appearance, that let you know who was different and therefore likely had different interests. Did these Hebrew spies have any morphological differences from the natives in the land and therefore did the natives know that it was ok to fear people who look different? Or were the Canaanites living under some terrifying form of political correctness that condemned noticing patterns?
* Nature has color-coded people for our advantage. A wise man notices patterns.
* LAT: “A grim pattern in European attacks: Missed chances to pinpoint terrorism suspects beforehand”
* WP: “In Duterte’s home town, martial law is wildly popular — the selfies prove it”
* John J. Mearsheimer recommends that America do everything it can to slow the rise of China (including the removal of all Chinese students studying in America), because the more relatively powerful China gets, the more it will flex its muscles to push us out of its zones of influence.
* The Alt Right case for ISIS.
* Num. 13:32: A land that devours its people. Jacob Milgrom: “Thus this idiom can only mean that the nature of the land is such that it will perpetually keeps its inhabitants at war, perhaps a reflection of the geopolitical position of Canaan as a land bridge whose city-states were either fighting each other or stemming invasion fro Asia or Africa.” Wherever Jews go in the world, there is this perception that they tend to increase social tensions and division and multi-culturalism.
* Nobody can read the Torah and regard the Israelites as impressive. In Num 14:1: “They wept that night.” Num. 14:4: “They said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and let us return to Egypt!” Is there any other people or religion that has a sacred text that makes their own group look so bad? I can’t think of one.
Stoicism is not typically a trait one associates with Middle Eastern peoples. They tend to be more emotional than Northern Europeans and they tend to have less shame about using their emotions to try to manipulate a competitor just as women tend to have less compunction about using emotional manipulation than do men.
* “Let us return to Egypt.” As a chronic under-earner, I’ve often preferred to return to under-earning jobs and abusive relationships because they were familiar. The older I get, the more I like routine. We have a profound affect on how other people treat us. If we’re willing to sell ourselves short, there will be no end of takers. I have friends who have noted to me that when it comes to interacting with others, I’m not flexible. I need to have things my way. That isolates me. It’s a reaction to growing up in foster care. Routine gives me a feeling of safety. The Israelites seem to have PTSD. They seem like losers. There wasn’t PTSD until that diagnosis was made popular, then large numbers of people had PTSD.
* I’ve never dated a woman above an 8. I just felt that 9s and above were out of my league. On the other hand, a GF who was a 6 asked me, “Why do you keep trying to date women who are out of your league?”
* Num. 14:5: “Moses and Aaron fell on their face before the entire congregation…” Can you imagine Winston Churchill or Charles DeGaulle or Adolf Hitler doing this?
* Num. 14: 11-20. Moshe manipulates God with an emotional appeal. How do you prefer to think about God? Through dogmatic theology or through stories? Christianity emphasizes theology, Judaism emphasizes stories.
* Num. 14:34. God sounds like Donald Trump: “Thus you shall know what it means to thwart me.”
* Num. 15:16. One law for everyone. But this will only work if the people are homogeneous. If the people are diverse, they will chafe against the law. Some will find it too strict, others too loose. If America is to have one law, it will be the white man’s law and other peoples will hate it.
* Num. 15:32-36. They find a man gathering wood on the Sabbath and they put him to death. This is an army on the march. They need discipline. The Torah is not libertarian.
Published on Apr 16, 2017: “Documentary which follows events at Israel’s most notorious football club. Beitar Jerusalem FC is the most popular team in Israel and the only club in the Premier League never to sign an Arab player. Midway through a season the club’s owner, Russian-Israeli oligarch Arcadi Gaydamak, brought in two Muslim players from Chechnya in a secretive transfer deal that triggered the most racist campaign in Israeli sport and sent the club spiraling out of control.
Forever Pure follows the famous football club through the tumultuous season, as power, money and politics fuel a crisis and shows how racism is destroying both the team and society from within.”
