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I’ve been thinking about money and what our money says about our priorities.

This week, more than $60 million in outside spending poured into a single U.S. Senate primary in Michigan.

More than $60 million.

That number has stayed with me.

Because imagine bringing that same level of urgency to lowering the cost of groceries. Imagine that kind of investment in healthcare, affordable housing, public schools, or making sure people earn enough to live.

We clearly have resources in this country. We know how to raise enormous amounts of money when we decide something matters.

So maybe the question is: What do we decide matters?

And as I was thinking about that question, I realized that this week’s Torah portion, Re’eh, has something to say about it.

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Congress has every right to investigate what happened during COVID. But what I watched in the Fauci hearing felt like a public shaming.

I grew up in the AIDS era. I remember the silence, the fear, the people we lost. Maybe that impacts how I saw the hearing yesterday

And sadly it reminded me of a scene in 12 Years a Slave — the scene where the plantation owner’s wife, unable to touch the husband who actually holds power over her, turns her rage on the enslaved woman he’s exploiting instead. That’s what I saw in that hearing room: Congress reaching for who they can hit, because the person who actually holds power feels untouchable.

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