Luke Ford

MP3.

* This week’s Torah portion is the shortest in Numbers.

* What some goyim call cheating, some Yidden call chevrusa learning. No Jew ever need be alone when he’s taking a class or getting certified. Instead, he should be able to rely on his community to help him out.

* If you had to leave town with your family, who would you miss? The great thing about living in holy community is that you tend to form intense bonds with people.

* In this week’s parasha, the Jews are undocumented immigrants seeking comprehensive immigration reform in Canaan. Do you think they had valid passports? No way. They were no longer citizens of Egypt. They were seeking sanctuary and a better life and freedom to practice their religion.

* KC: “Are you saying humor is kinda decadent? Or like a sign of decadence?! Omg.”

* The red cow must have no blemish. We expect excellence in sports and art and in many arenas of life, but when it comes to religion, we often expect that there should be no standards. I once asked a girlfriend to come to shul with me on Shabbos and she asked if she could wear jeans. A few days before, we’d gone to the opera and neither of us wore jeans.

When it comes to priests serving in the holy temple, they too must be without blemish. A shul doesn’t need a stutterer as the rabbi. Not everything in life needs to be handicap-accessible.

* The red cow when sacrificed acts as disinfectant. It takes away impurity. That’s the goal of my blogging — to take away impurity. To act as a disinfectant. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

* “The ashes of the red cow must be guarded scrupulously lest they become invalidated through contamination.” Everything precious has to be guarded in a multiculti society, and the more multicultural your society, the more you need to guard nice things.

* Jews are great at bitter remonstrance. Take Numbers 20:3-5: And the people contended with Moses and spoke, saying: “If only we had died when our brethren died before the Lord! 4 Why have you brought up the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our animals should die here? 5 And why have you made us come up out of Egypt, to bring us to this evil place? It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates; nor is there any water to drink.”

* Moshe and Aaron walk away and fall on their faces. That doesn’t seem like great leadership. They’re worn down by the kvetching.

Most of us tend to be nice to other people when we’re feeling good, but as we get under increasing pressure, our kindliness diminishes. That also goes for groups. When groups are prospering, it is easier to be generous to out-groups. When your group is in decline and losing sovereignty of the countries you created, such as whites in the West, you can be expected to be less kind to out-groups. Genocides don’t come out of nowhere. They come out of extreme competition for scarce resources such as land and water.

* Moshe speaks in Numbers 20:15: “how our fathers went down to Egypt, and we dwelt in Egypt a long time, and the Egyptians afflicted us and our fathers.” No mention of how the God of the Jews afflicted the Egyptians. Not a lot of empathy there for the Egyptians who lost all of their first born and suffered through Ten Plagues.

* Numbers 20:18: “Then Edom said to him, “You shall not pass through my land, lest I come out against you with the sword.”

And Moshe replied, “Bro, it’s the current year!”

And another Israelite added: “My wife’s son really wants to come through. Can’t we all get along?”

* It’s a shame that Edom didn’t let the Jews pass through. Think of how the Jew could have enriched Edom with teachings about multiculturalism, sodomy and how to run a central bank. You know why you don’t hear about Edomites today? Because they didn’t allow themselves to be enriched by Jews. Instead they clung to their spears and religion and their narrow parochial ways, and they died out because they weren’t willing to adapt to modernity.

In Numbers 20, Moshe says: “I think there’s a resurgence of anti-Semitism because at this point in time Edom has not yet learned how to be multicultural, and I think we’re gonna be part of the throes of that transformation, which must take place. Edom and the Ancient Near East are not going to be the monolithic societies that they once were in the last century. Jews are going to be at the center of that. It’s a huge transformation for Edom to make. They are now going into a multicultural mode, and Jews will be resented because of our leading role. But without that leading role, and without that transformation, Edom will not survive.”

Aaron added: “I believe what affects the movements in Edom and the Ancient Near East, what affects our attitudes are as much the culture and the arts as anything else. It wasn’t anything we legislatively did. It was the social media. Literally. That’s what changed peoples’ attitudes. Think behind of all that, I bet you 85 percent of those changes, whether it’s in Hollywood or social media are a consequence of Jewish leaders in the industry. The influence is immense, the influence is immense. And, I might add, it is all to the good.”

* The Edomites refusal to let Israel through shows why need the United Nations to mediate such disputes, and why we must move past petty nationalism to embrace globalism and one-world government run by the smartest people, who will of course be Jewish.

* Numbers 21:1-3: “The king of Arad, the Canaanite, who dwelt in the South, heard that Israel was coming on the road to Atharim. Then he fought against Israel and took some of them prisoners. 2 So Israel made a vow to the Lord, and said, “If You will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.” 3 And the Lord listened to the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites, and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. So the name of that place was called Hormah.” That seems fair. If the goyim take us captive, we nuke their towns.

That’s a lot of chutzpah for the Canaanites to go to war with Israel and take some of us captive. I’ve still got a burn against Canaanites for this. I know not all Canaanites are kidnappers, but I’m ticked and I don’t care. Death to the Canaanites!

* Perhaps the Torah should have made clear that not all Canaanites are kidnappers and not all Edomites are bigots, haters and nationalists.

* Numbers 21:5: “And the people spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.” More kvetching! Oy vey!

* As an Alexander Technique teacher (Alexander90210.com), I sense that when I see somebody’s use of themselves, I’m looking at how they talk to themselves. It seems to me that much compression results from a punitive attitude to the self. Does that ring true to you? I rarely find someone with terrible use who’s at ease with himself and I rarely find someone with good use who hates himself.

Take someone who complains of tight shoulders for instance. What’s going on in all likelihood is that they are subconsciously tightening their shoulders. But what’s underneath that unnecessary tightening? I bet a punitive attitude to the self, a feeling that I am not good enough, that I need to make myself smaller so others won’t hurt me.

* If somebody is confusing you, and you are sane and sober, the chances are the person is either lying or manipulating.

* Southern Baptists have condemned nationalism and the Alt Right. One hundred and sixty years ago, Southern Baptists supported slavery as God’s will. Fifty years ago, they supported segregation. Now they’re saying that all other Christians before them were wrong.

* New documentary on Netflix: Nobody speak: Trials of the Free Press.