This week's portion includes one of the strangest episodes in the Bible: two sons of Aaron, Nadav and Avihu, are killed during a public sacrifice when, in their zeal, they bring their own fire to the Altar and are consumed by God's fire.
In the midst of what must have been extreme shock and anguish, Moses tells Aaron, essentially, that the show must go on. He also reframes the loss as an expression of love: God took Aaron's sons because they wanted to be near Him.
When we studied this example in religious school, we were also told that the severe punishment Aaron's suns suffered was part of the price of leadership: those in positions of power must be judged more harshly to set an example.
The portion also includes some more laws of kashrut, or the ritual purity of eating. The Torah presents a list of non-kosher birds. Tradition holds that each has some character trait that makes it unfit for human consumption.
The crane, or "chasidah," for example, is a kind bird; its very name in Hebrew derives from the word "chesed," or kindness. There is one problem: the crane is kind to other cranes, but it is not kind to anything else. Hence it is flawed.
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
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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 ...
