34 In The News

The number 34 has been coming up a lot lately, both personally and in the news. Personally, I'm waiting for day 34 of the Omer, as the Sephardic custom is to not take haircuts until the 34th day of the Omer. However, the number has also come up a lot in the news, having to do with war:

• The Winograd Commision's Interim Report on the Second Lebanon War, which lasted 34 days.
• Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. is saying that he's seeing levels of preparedness from Syria that he hasn't seen since the Yom Kippur War - almost 34 years ago.

I'm reminded of a number of verses:

אשרי משכיל אל דל ביום רעה ימלטהו ה'

פלטו דל ואביון מיד רשעים הצילו

מקימי מעפר דל מאשפת ירים אביון

ושפט בצדק דלים והוכיח במישור לענוי ארץ והכה ארץ בשבט פיו וברוח שפתיו ימית רשע

If war does break out soon, may these verses apply to us.