This week's additional portion from Isaiah (54:11 - 55:5) is the third of the "comfort" readings after the Ninth of Av, as we head into the New Year. The portion itself continues a recapitulation of the story of the Torah, and revisits several of the major commandments.
At the outset, God (via Moses) lays out a basic choice and its consequences: a blessing, and a curse. It's up to us to choose.
I once heard an interesting interpretation of a later passage about which birds are kosher and which are forbidden for consumption. The stork is forbidden, which is odd because it would otherwise qualify. Other forbidden birds are predators; storks are not.
The very name of the stork in Hebrew -- chasidah -- contains within it the word for kindness, "chased." So why is this bird ruled out? The answer: a stork is only kind to fellow storks. It is selfish about its kindness. Kindness must be directed outward, to the world as well.
https://www.chabad.org/parshah/torahreading.asp?aid=2495800&jewish=Reeh-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 ...
