In this portion, the confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh begins, and the first seven of the ten Plagues strike Egypt. One of the more curious aspects of the back-and-forth between the Hebrew leaders and the Egyptian monarch is that Moses does not actually ask Pharaoh to liberate the Jews from slavery; he asks him, at least initially, for a three-day holiday to worship in the wilderness.
Pharaoh suspects that Moses would take the people out for three days and never return. And perhaps that's the game. But is it really? There is a principle, especially in dealing with people in the government, of asking for incremental steps rather than something large, even if the bigger goal is your true aim. Was Moses being shrewd -- or devious? It's interesting to consider his strategy.
This week's show will be slightly different from the norm: we'll focus on clips and topics, rather than guests -- and that, hopefully, will mean more input from the callers (unless you are all watching football on opening weekend).
Topics:
- The state of the economy
- The fight against crime
- The midterm election fight
- The struggle for peace between Russia and Ukraine
- The airstrike on the Venezuelan drug cartel
- The attempt to sink Kennedy
- The war in Gaza
- The case against Harvard
- The Trump presidency
Tune in: SiriusXM Patriot 125, 7-10 p.m. ET / 4-7 p.m. PT
Call: 866-957-2874
This week's Torah portion includes several laws about conduct in civic and personal life, the common theme of which is boundaries -- setting bounds to what one may do at home, at work, and even in the battlefield.
One noteworthy passage concerns Amalek, the evil nation that attacked the Children of Israel as they made their Exodus from slavery to freedom. Deuteronomy 25:17-19 commands Jews to obliterate Amalek's memory.
The South African government accused Israel of genocide on the basis of a story about Amalek in the Book of Samuel, in which King Saul was commanded to wipe out the entire evil Amalekite nation.
Because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quoted this week's portion -- "Remember what Amalek did to you" (25:17), the South African government claimed he was commanding soldiers to commit genocide.
It was an absurd and malevolent misreading of the Bible and of Jewish tradition. The commandment, as observed by Jews today, is to remember the evil of Amalek and fight ...
