Yesterday, I accompanied my cousin to the gravesite of her dad, my uncle, whom she barely knew, in Port Elizabeth (Gqberha). She had never been there before; it was incredibly meaningful to help her make that connection.
I had been to the grave before. It sits alongside a coastal road, which in turn runs through PE's industrial core, and its port on the Algoa Bay. It is generally a gritty city, built by coal and rail, and often buffeted by blustering winds.
Yet it was quite wonderful on Sunday morning -- warm and humid, with a thin layer of clouds providing a bit of shade. On the beach, swimmers of every color competed in local races; boxers sparred; children ran and played games.
The low tide made the beachfront especially beautiful. Families lounged in tidepools, safe behind the rocks from the Indian Ocean waves. Dogs waded through the shallow water. Fishermen cast their rods; surfers braved the break.
I finally felt a sense of peace that had eluded me -- both in my first hectic two days in Cape Town (where I am back, now, writing this), and in Johannesburg, which is a study in chaos. Then it was back to the airport, and Cape Town...
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 ...
