"To be a teacher in the right sense is to be a learner.  I am not a teacher, only a fellow student."  (Soren Kierkegaard)

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A FEW PRE-SHABBAT WORDS FROM RABBI AARON

On this Shabbat we open the Book of Numbers (title furnished by the Greek translators of Jewish Scripture), known in Hebrew as Sefer Bamidbar (which means "in the wilderness"). What do we learn from a quick read-through of the parasha? Nothing terribly dramatic. In chapter 1 there's a census - which explains why the Greek translators gave of Numbers. Chapter 2 describes the tribal layout of the Israelite encampment - whose tent is pitched where? Chapters 3 and 4 present two census-takings of the Levites. On the surface...pretty dry material. So I will have to dig a bit deeper...

"1967 borders, with mutually agreed upon land swaps..."

Context
Two recent speeches by President Obama...the second speech, delivered to a large gathering of AIPAC, clarified - if you will - the above text.

Does this connect somehow with our parasha/why am I bringing it up?
I reference this recent set of exchanges between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Obama because this exchange is an important bit of inyana d'yoma - matters of the day. Rabbis and other congregational speakers through the centuries have lent their 2 cents to important events, and this conversation - not just the Netanyahu-Obama remarks, but a grownup Jewish and American conversation - is timely and very much in order.

In the wake of the Netanyahu and Obama speeches there was a great deal of noise made suggesting that Obama "threw Israel under the bus" (Romney) and that Obama was advocating a return to the pre-June 1967 Israel borders (Bachman). Lies. Both Obama speeches were fairly clear about land swaps; such language is not new. These ideas go back at least to the Clinton era. Land swaps has been a bit of shorthand for acknowledging the political reality of Israel's major well-established settlement blocs. The outrage - Jewish or otherwise - over Obama's speech was contrived and transparent. 

Lat time I checked Abe Foxman is not a poster-child for Left wing politics. When you hear Foxman describe Obama's speech as an appropriate and reasonable articulation of policy, it should offer some reassurance that Obama is not displaying hostility or indifference toward Israel.

Bamidbar - in the Wilderness
I believe we are there; as in - lost and wandering. I can't agree with the Palestinian spokesmen who characterize Netanyahu's remarks as a declaration of war. And I certainly agree with Netanyahu and Obama in their characterization of a unilateral UN declaration of Palestine as wrong-headed and unproductive. But while I would certainly give Netanyahu high marks in terms of political savvy - he knows how to work Congress far more effectively than any other Israeli politician - I do not believe his speech broke any hopeful or meaningful ground for the Israel-Palestine journey ahead. Bibi opted for a politician's speech, not a negotiator's speech. What's wrong with that? The problem, I think, is that his words do no more than buy time. They are not about a long-term vision. 

September in New York in the halls of the UN will soon be upon us and it will be painful. Many Israelis will ponder: in all the time that they've been in office [since 2009] what has the Netanyahu government done to seriously address the Israel-Palestine dialogue? The answer: Nothing. Bamidbar. That is what it means to wander in the wilderness, in a place without hopeful horizons, in a trackless waste with no map, with no vision.

Rabbi Aaron

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