This week is the last Sabbath before Passover, known as Shabbat HaGadol -- the Big Sabbath. That hints at the importance of the Passover holiday: the freedom and the exodus from slavery are the foundation of all that follows.
The reading is about the rituals of purification of one's body following a spiritual contamination (as evidenced by tzara'at, loosely translated as a kind of leprosy). Through cleansing, we experience rebirth and exert governance of ourselves.
This year, at Passover, we are not all free -- there are dozens of Jews trapped as slaves by Hamas in Gaza. Jews have celebrated freedom in such circumstances before, as in the Holocaust; our freedom transcends our physical situation.
Nevertheless, the fact that Jews are again slaves -- so close to Egypt, too -- reminds us of the importance of bringing the hostages home, and reminds us of the importance of what Israel is fighting for, against an ancient form of evil.
https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1692/jewish/Shabbat-Hagadol.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 ...
