Yesterday my wife and I took a rare trip to the movie theater -- not just rare because of the COVID lockdowns, but rare because of our schedules -- to see All Quiet on the Western Front, based on the famous Remarque novel.
The filmmaking is intense, and it's an incredible portrayal of life in the trenches in World War I, when millions of lives were lost to move the front a few hundred meters this way or that. Germany, robust at first, must eventually capitulate.
I wanted to see the movie for several reasons. One -- I loved the book when I first read it, even if it was part of an intellectual movement that encouraged pacifism and may have delayed a more robust response to Hitler in the 1930s.
Two -- I wanted to see a war movie in which the Germans were the good guys. There are many World War II films where they are the bad guys and rightfully so, but life is more complex than that, and so are my own artistic interests.
The film is largely true to the book, though a little less whimsical than the book, at times, manages to be. There is no scene of returns home on leave; instead, we se Germany through the eyes of politicians, diplomats, and generals.
That is a bit of artistic license, but it is meant to explain, in part, the various currents of thought within Germany about the nation's defeat -- and the threads that would later be rewoven by the Nazis into a terrible juggernaut.
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!
...
