I am going through newly recovered boxes of Rhoda Kadalie's papers, as I continue to tinker with the manuscript of her biography. Among the files, I found a collection of papers belonging to the late Professor Anthony Holiday, a philosopher who was a close friend of Rhoda's and -- in her description, and probably his -- a guttersnipe of the most esteemed sort. He served a prison term during apartheid for his role in the Communist Party, but later renounced communism, saying that he had "left the community of closed ideas."
He also had "friends in low places" -- the drug dens and brothels and the rest of it -- and therefore had lots of political dirt, which he exploited to the full to gain inside accounts of what was going on in the new South African government.
Anyway -- few others reckoned quite so deeply with the paradoxes of South African life, and the clash between left-wing idealism and reality. He wasn't always on target -- he had really hackneyed ideas about Israel, and suggested (perhaps tongue-in-cheek?) that local Zionist groups be banned. I wrote a very strident response to the local newspaper about that, when he made the case in an op-ed. How could a banned former communist want anyone banned? Nobody's perfect.
Anyway, in a paper on "The Idea of an African University," given in Cape Town in November 2001, he concluded:
"To achieve this recovery of what colonialism and slavery have interred, a generation of artists, historians, scientists and philosopher[s] that is growing up among us must brave the twin dangers of scientism disguised as science, on the one hand, and superstition parading as African religion on the other. It will have to endure the cynical mockery of Eurocentric skeptics as well as the accusations of disloyalty which Africanist ideologues are bound to heap on it. Above all, this generation of seekers will have to withstand the dark night of intellectual loneliness which travelers towards goals of this sort must inevitably traverse. It will find no companions among the politically orthodox. But there may be those from other cultures, spaces and times, who will join the pilgrimage and, whatever its perils, not betray it."
"[T]he dark night of intellectual loneliness" -- I can relate to that, lately. So could Rhoda.
This is my first broadcast from the new office and studio in Washington, DC, where I'll be for a couple of years my neighborhood back in L.A. cleans up -- and as we follow the Trump administration from a little closer up than usual.
Topics:
- The anniversary of the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump
- The escalating tariff battle with various different trading partners
- The future of the Middle East peace talks, and ongoing antisemitism
- The Jeffrey Epstein files and whether they mean anything at all
- The continued crisis of the Texas floods, and stories of heroism and survival
And more!
Special guests:
- James Rosen - Newsmax chief Washington correspondent
- Bob Price - Breitbart News Texas reporter, on the ongoing floods
- Robert Cahill - Trafalgar Polling, on a new alliance of reliable pollsters
- Rabbi Yaakov Menken - Coalition for Jewish Values - on Israel & antisemitism
Tune in: 7-10 p.m. ET, 4-7 p.m. PT
Call: 866-957-2874
This week’s portion tells the grand story of the prophet who tried to curse people of Israel and instead ended up blessing them.
I am reminded that these portions continue to be relevant anew, as this particular reading lent the title for Israel’s recent 12 Day War against Iran, “Operation Rising Lion.”
This week's portion includes the commandment of the red heifer -- one of the classic "irrational" commandments whose fulfillment is an expression of faith. It also includes the regrettable episode in which Moses strikes the rock.
I referred to this story in a wedding speech last night. Why was Moses punished for striking the rock in Numbers, when he struck the rock without incident in Exodus -- both for the purpose of providing water to the people?
The answer is that in the interim, the Jewish people had received the Torah, which is like the marriage contract between the people of Israel and God. In a marriage, you do not resolve things by breaking boundaries, but through love.
The additional reading, from Judges Chapter 11, is the story of Jephthah (Yiftach), a man whom the leaders spurn, but to whom they must turn to save the nation. The parallels to our present political circumstances are striking.
Shabbat Shalom and Happy Fourth of July!
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