Truth

Sh’lach

Num. 13:1-15:41

 

Précis: Moses is ordered to “send out” (sh’lach) spies to examine the land. Representatives of each tribe go out, report on its bounty, but also report about its fearsome inhabitants. The People are frightened, and their “murmuring” turns into something close to panic. God tells Moses that He will destroy the People, but Moses intercedes; the People are sentenced to spend 40 years in the wilderness. Near its end, the parasha discusses the wearing of tzitzit, a paragraph which is part of the traditional recitation of the Sh’ma.

 

Num. 13:27-28 “And they told him, ‘We came to the land you sent us to, and surely it flows with milk and honey; but the people that live in the land are fierce. And the cities are fortified, and very great, moreover, we saw Amalekites there.’”

What is “truth?”  There was a time when we could say. “you can argue about your opinions, but you can’t argue about the truth.” Sadly, that is no longer part of American political discourse. In the verses above, the spies report on “facts” but interpret them in a way which causes consternation among the Israelites. These days, we have a President of the United States who, when confronted with demands for proof of his absurd “facts,” walks away from the interview and calls the interviewer names. The war with Iran has been called “over” too many times to mention, yet the war continues.​

As Ron Charles has noted (RonCharles@substack.com, 6/12/26), the Covid-19 pandemic and the rush of research it generated inspired a backlash of misinformation and skepticism about evidence. Given Trump’s systematic attacks on science — and his appointment of a kook as secretary of Health and Human Services — the way forward is not clear. Right now, the world needs more people who value evidence, because those who don’t are gaining strength.

            This is also true in social media, where so-called “antizionists” ignore context, background, and history, and claim that the modern State of Israel is a colonial extension by and on behalf of Europeans.

            The Israelites were doomed to wander in the wilderness for forty years until a new generation could emerge who owed fealty to truth. I hope that we may be the generation which reveres truth, but fear that it may take decades for us to reach our Promised Land.

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Torah and Secular Learning

B’haalot’cha

Num. 8:1 - 12:16

 

Précis: The parasha begins with a description of the making of the seven-branched menorah. The parasha returns to narrative with a recounting of a second Passover celebration (required because some of the Israelites had been ritually impure when the first anniversary of Passover was celebrated).  The march of the People through the wilderness of Sinai begins, led by the Ark. The people murmur, this time about a lack of meat. God provides, but the People are struck with a plague. Even Miriam and Aaron seem to have complaints about Moses regarding the “Cushite woman.”

 

Num. 8:1-3 “And Adonai spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to Aaron, and say to him: When you light the lamps, the seven lamps shall give light in front of the candlestick.’ Aaron did so….”

The seven branched menorah has become the symbol of the Jewish People. Its story reaches back to ancient times, when it served as the light for the Temple, kindled every day. It later signified the defeat of the Jewish People by the Romans, evidenced by its appearance on the triumphal Arch of Titus. And it became the symbol of the reconstituted State of Israel, appearing on its seal.

            Isaac Luria taught that six branches of the Menorah represented the six “academic disciplines” recognized at his time (theology, canon law, medicine, arts, humanities, and science) and that the seventh branch was Torah, which in turn illuminates all secular knowledge.

            He informs us that Torah and secular learning are not rivals. As is stated in Etz Hayyim, each can illuminate the other. Today, there are some (particularly among the most Orthodox parts of Judaism) who reject this confluence. To my mind, they have something to learn from Pope Leo’s recent encyclical regarding artificial intelligence. Scientific (secular) achievements cannot ignore moral dictates, and those steeped in religious learning cannot ignore the secular world. Those who are most concerned with religious/moral understanding have the great responsibility of informing the secular world about the need to implement moral guardrails in secular achievements.