This week's portion begins with the physical requirements for the priesthood, as well as the sacrificial animals: both must be free from blemishes. It moves on to basic laws of the Sabbath and holidays.
The portion ens with the laws on dealing with blasphemy, and then the basic civil code of restitution for personal injury damages -- the value of an eye for an eye, the value of a tooth for a tooth, and so on.
It might seem odd that the Torah is so exacting about physical perfection. After all, isn't the role of the priest, and the animal, a spiritual one? Why must both be free of physical deformities?
Furthermore, isn't that unfair? We cannot help it is we are born with imperfections, or suffer accidents. The Torah seems to be excluding people who may have suffered through no fault of their own.
A friend once told me that the essence of the left-wing vision for the world is radical equality -- which leads to tyranny; and that the essence of the right-wing vision is excellence -- which can be cruel.
The Torah rejects the idea of radical equality. It says that some people simply will be born into certain roles, and that some people will be excluded, and that there is nothing we can do about it.
But it also includes the idea that in a different context, we really are all equal. The laws of blasphemy apply to all. The laws of restitution apply to all. We are equal before the law, always.
This week happens to coincide with Pesach Sheni -- the second Passover, when people who were ritually impure the month before can offer up their Passover sacrifices. It is a "make-up" day.
The "cruelty" of exacting standards for the Passover service excluded them. But they still have the same obligations as everyone else -- and they will have an opportunity to worship, too, in their own way.
https://www.chabad.org/parshah/torahreading.asp?aid=2492749&jewish=Emor-Torah-Reading.htm&p=complete
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 ...
