At a time when wildfires are raging out West
At a time when wildfires are raging out West, across Europe, Greece and Turkey and Covid is taking more lives in so many countries, we can take some solace in the passage in the Senate of a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan on Tuesday. For weeks, months, we have agonized over and witnessed the efforts of this administration and dedicated democrats and enough republicans to overcome many hurdles in order to significantly move this Infrastructure plan forward.
This achievement coincides with biblical teachings in this week’s Parsha, Shoftim, most notably, “Justice, justice, you shall pursue.”
The Parsha builds on the spiritual, moral, and physical infrastructure that Moshe initiated in last week’s Parsha.
We hope that our leaders in this country can also address how to build the moral and spiritual infrastructure of the divergent residents and citizens of this nation. We need soul repair as well as road and bridge repair etc.
A taste of Shoftim:
16:18 “Appoint judges and officials for each of your tribes in every town the Ineffable your God is giving you, and they shall judge the people fairly. 19 Do not pervert justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the innocent. 20 Justice, justice you shall pursue, so that you may live and possess the land God your God is giving you.”
From the Prophet Isaiah this week:
"Awaken, awaken, put on your strength, O Zion; put on the garments of your beauty, Jerusalem the Holy City, for no longer shall the uncircumcised or the unclean continue to enter you. Shake yourselves from the dust, arise, sit down, O Jerusalem; free yourself of the bands of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion."
May we remember to work for the rebuilding of our people’s, and this nation’s, inner infrastructure. Let’s “shake off that dust..”
For hope and renewal,
Reb David