This week's reading kicks off the fifth and final book of the Torah. It is a speech -- one of the greatest in history -- by Moses, right before his death, recalling the travels of the Children of Israel through the desert and restating the moral commitment to God's Covenant.
Why recall the whole story? Because Moses has been though all the ups and downs of the journey, which each had their own moral lessons. The journey itself is a moral statement, one that shows the limitations of the people -- but also their incredible moral potential.
This Sabbath is also before the observance of Tisha B'Av -- the saddest day on the Jewish calendar, marking the destruction of both the First and Second Temples. It is the outcome Moses warned the people about in this very speech, before his death.
But Moses also holds out hope, telling the people that God will not forget them, and that they can avoid destruction if they follow His ways. In the same way, the days after Tisha B'Av are among the happiest in the Jewish calendar, leading to the High Holidays of fall.
So this Sabbath is called Shabbat Chazon -- the Sabbath of Vision. Even as we mourn the destruction of the Temples and the near-destruction of the Jewish people, we see a more positive future, and we imagine what it can be. If you will it, as Herzl said, it is no dream.
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/703951/jewish/Shabbat-Chazon.htm
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 ...
