This week's portion tells the story of Isaac and Rebecca -- with. focus on the rivalry between their twin sons, Jacob and Esau. Esau, the first-born, famously sells Jacob his birthright for a mess of porridge, a transaction Jacob seals by tricking Isaac into giving him the blessing of abundance meant for Esau.
I heard a rabbi recently say that this portion features poor child-raising practices, in that the parents each have a favorite child. Rebecca intervenes to help Jacob; Isaac favors Esau because of the game meat he brings him to eat.
But I disagree. If one child really is disruptive to the other -- as Esau may have been to Jacob -- then a responsible parent has to protect the vulnerable one. You have to treat children equally for equal behavior; however, you should not treat different behavior the same. And the Torah makes clear that while Esau's behavior had its real merits, Jacob practiced the more virtuous lifestyle.
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 ...
