This week's portion concludes the Book of Genesis with Jacob's final blessings to his children and grandchildren. Each tribe is given a special blessing that reflects both the character of its founder and its future destiny in the nation of Israel.
In the same way, each of us -- no matter our flaws (and Jacob acknowledges these, in many of his sons) -- has a unique mission. Levi, for example, is rebuked for his zealous nature, yet this would later prove crucial in the episode of the Golden Calf. Indeed, Moses and Aaron would emerge from the tribe of Levi.
Levi is one of the surviving tribes today, along with Judah and Benjamin, the two tribes that supplied Israel's kings, that later formed the kingdom of Judah, and that had the Holy Temple within their joint jurisdiction. In that way, the children of Leah and Rachel -- Jacob's two wives -- have both endured.
Thus concludes the great story of Joseph -- and the story of Moses begins.
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 ...
